On a warm Provençal evening, the vast courtyard of the Palais des Papes was bathed in theatre lights. Here, the Cour d’Honneur usually acts as the heart of Avignon’s annual Festival d’Avignon, but was aglow for the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2026 collection show. In a city famous for centuries-old pageantry, Nicolas Ghesquière wrote his own act, inviting guests to sit on crimson velvet banquettes at the centre of the arena while models circled them like actors playing to the balcony seats. The inversion was more than staging—it was a declaration that clothes, like theatre, demand an audience.