Louis Vuitton to stage next cruise show in TWA Flight Center

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Apr 1, 2019

Come fly with me, suggests Louis Vuitton, the French luxury house, which will stage its next cruise 2020 runway show inside the TWA Flight Center.

 
The house’s women’s creative director Nicolas Ghesquière broke the news in his Instagram account on Monday.
 
“My next @louisvuitton Cruise show will take place at the iconic TWA Flight Center at New York’s JFK Airport on May 8,” the designer wrote on his account.

Designed by the great Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, the TWA building is a masterpiece of neo-futurist architecture. Opened in 1962, the year after the architect’s death, the 200,000-square-foot building’s wing-shaped shell roof and giant glass windows quickly won it a legendary reputation as an expression of American optimism, technological genius and the joy of travel.
 
The location completely dovetails with Ghesquière’s strategy of staging Vuitton cruise collections inside iconic structures. Previous shows have included the flying saucer MAC Niteroi building near Rio de Janeiro; Bob & Dolores Hope’s space-age home in Palm Springs and most recently the Fondation Maeght on the French Riviera.
 
“The TWA Flight Center, a sheer evocation of travel itself, is inherently linked to Louis Vuitton’s commitment to exclusive architectural discoveries, to its Art of Travel and represents an ideal close to Nicolas Ghesquière’s inspirations,” Vuitton said in a release.

After a period as the New York terminal of Jet Blue, the TWA Flight Center has been closed since the beginning of this century. Declared a landmark in 1994, movie fans will recognize the building from its use as backdrop for Steven Spielberg’s 'Catch Me If You Can,' starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
 
Since December 2016, the airport terminal has been undergoing reconstruction as a TWA Hotel. Vuitton’s cruise show will be the first public event inside the new 512-room hotel, due to officially open on May 15. The new hotel will include high-end retail stores; eight bars and six restaurants, including the Paris Café.