French fashion house Louis Vuitton showed its 2023 cruise collection of shimmering armour-like silhouettes at the brutalist Salk Institute designed by US architect Louis Kahn.

The Louis Vuitton show took place at sunset on 12 May at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, San Diego County, California.

Nicolas Ghesquière, creative director of Louis Vuitton, explained that he selected the brutalist building as the location for the show because of its "extraordinary setting" overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

"The Salk Institute has been a place of wonder for me over the years and Louis Kahn's stunning brutalist architecture against this extraordinary setting of the Pacific Ocean and the California sunset provides me with endless inspiration," said Ghesquière.

Models emerged from the western edge of the Salk Institute's courtyard against the golden horizon and walked between six rows of seating that lined the length of the space for its 650 guests.

"The sun is the guest of honour in the Cruise 2023 collection," said Louis Vuitton's show notes. "It plays an active part in the evolution of this wardrobe where changes in temperature set a stylistic tempo."

The collection was informed by the Californian landscape and featured desert and water sports-like cuts, which were paired with natural materials such as linen, silk, and tweed.

Juxtaposing materials were blended to create futuristic yet archaic silhouettes.

Graphic bomber jackets, metallic fabrics, and embellished garments shimmered against the concrete setting as models walked through the golden concrete and sunset.

The show ended with a trio of oversized sculptural metallic bolero's which were lined in shimmering fringe.

The 2023 show setting follows the now tradition of Louis Vuitton cruise and resort shows taking place at some of the world's most iconic architectural locations.

In 2017 Vuitton showed its 2018 cruise collection at IM Pei's Miho Museum in Japan, while Oscar Niemeyer's MAC in Niteroi, Brazil was used as the setting for its 2017 collection.

Named after Jonas Salk, the American medical researcher who developed the first polio vaccine, the Salk Institute was completed in 1965

It contains housing, medical laboratories, offices and research facilities in a pair of six-storey symmetrical concrete buildings, which flank a travertine courtyard that contains a central stream of water. The building was restored in 2017.

Kahn is one of the 20th century's most celebrated architects who is known for his brutalist and monolithic buildings. In 2021, plans to demolish part of Kahn's Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad were withdrawn after international criticism.

Elsewhere in the US, a large pride flag was covered across the steps of the Kahn-designed Four Freedom State Park in New York.

Photos are courtesy of Louis Vuitton unless stated otherwise.

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