The Californian dancer turned actor wowed the critics in cult hit Zola earlier this year. Here, she takes the new Louis Vuitton collections for a spin.
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
Photography by MARK GRIFFIN CHAMPION
Fashion Direction by REBECCA RUSSELL
The travel revolution sparked by Louis Vuitton’s breakthrough luggage innovation was swift and extraordinary. His custom craftsmanship of flat-topped, waterproof, hard-sided trunks — the design that initially launched the maison as a creative force — begat today’s lighter modern carryall. Earlier this fall, the French fashion house revisited its roots with a traveling savoir-faire installation in Los Angeles highlighting its heritage — an homage to the bicentennial of its founder’s birthday — while also foregrounding its future. Held at Hollywood’s Goya Studios, the exclusive event showcased Objets Nomades furniture and decor, exotic-skin Louis Vuitton bags, luxury accessories and a coastal-inspired room highlighting a surfboard collaboration with Alex Israel. The L.A.-based artist, known for his depictions of vibrant waves and skies, cast his iridescent hues on the surfboard, which stood amid a bespoke picnic trunk, a dune-filled seascape and a virtual ocean backdrop streaming Malibu waves in real time. In another room, a whiskey set emerged from a square case and a monogram-printed foosball table with hand-painted hotel porters as players stood ready for action. Nearby were stacks of Louis Vuitton trunks ready to transport anything from a collection of sunglasses or watches to a haul of sneakers.
Louis Vuitton godet top, $4,450, shorts, $1,390, Flags boots, $1,850, B Blossom studs, $4,900, B Blossom earrings, $13,600, B Blossom medallion, $18,000, and Coussin BB bag, $3,900; Objets Nomades Totem Floral by Damien Langlois-Meurinne.
Road testing the brand’s Cruise 2022 collection amid the trunks and wanderlust-imbued Objets Nomades line was one of L.A.’s hottest talents du jour, actor and friend of the Louis Vuitton house Taylour Paige. She’s the star of this year’s cult hit Zola, and her performance opposite Riley Keough in the travel tale gone badly awry, based on a viral Twitter thread, is generating awards buzz. “I’m naturally attracted to being comfortable and able to move, but I newly kind of embrace feeling sexy and feminine in subtle ways that include texture and shapes,” says the 31-year-old L.A. native. She plays the film’s title character, a stripper who gets invited on a trip to Tampa to dance and finds herself increasingly in peril.
“I newly embrace feeling sexy and feminine in subtle ways that include texture and shapes.”
taylour paige
Louis Vuitton asymmetric jacket, price upon request, shorts, $1,800, B Blossom earrings, $13,600, and LV Volt ring, $5,300; Objets Nomades woven-leather hammock by Atelier Oï.
Paige — who trained with dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen before embarking on a film career that includes a breakout performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the forthcoming Mack & Rita with Diane Keaton, Lena Dunham’s Sharp Stick and The Toxic Avenger — credits her personal style to a sprawling range of influences and eras, plus costumers Avery Plewes and two-time Oscar winner Ann Roth. But she also looks to women at the Slauson swap meet, skaters, rappers, industrial Carhartt style, singer Lola Falana, Tremaine Emory of the nightlife hybrid No Vacancy Inn, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (even as kids) and Keaton herself. “I don’t know if my style is definitive. It’s always changing. It evolves as I do,” she says.
“I don’t know if my style is definitive. It’s always changing. It evolves as I do.”
taylour paige
In space tourism-ready cruise looks by Nicolas Ghesquière, artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s women’s collections, Paige got a first look at such Objets as the Campana brothers’ enveloping Bulbo chair, as well as a standing, hanging plant structure designed by Damien Langlois-Meurinne and Atelier Biagetti’s wave-like Anemona table. In near perpetual motion since Zola, Paige calls her current phase a “gear shift.” She missed the Zola premiere while shooting The Toxic Avenger in Bulgaria, saying, “I used to dream of having options and possibility.” Now, she says, conversations are wildly different. “Life has changed in the way that I feel available to the next phase,” she confesses. Ghesquière’s uplifting and forward-leaning collection arrived at just the right moment for Paige. “I only recently allowed myself to lean into the idea of life being the very occasion to dress up, and not waiting for some event,” she says. “The event is now!”
Makeup by DANA DELANEY using Armani Beauty.
Feature image: Louis Vuitton map-print sweater dress, $2,490, and B Blossom earrings, $13,600; Objets Nomades Bomboca sofa by Fernando and Humberto Campana.
This story originally appeared in the Winter 2021-2022 issue of C Magazine.
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