The Ghost of Legrain: Louis Vuitton Brings the Jazz Age to Milan

 Louis Vuitton has returned to Palazzo Serbelloni for Milan Design Week 2026 with a thesis rather than a showcase. The exhibition — sprawling across the courtyard and the full piano nobile — argues that the lacquered spirit of nineteen-twenties Parisian Art Deco, and particularly the singular genius of bookbinder Pierre Legrain, remains a living source of creative energy rather than a relic behind glass.

Legrain threads through everything: the Objets Nomades, the archival pieces, the new collaborations. The maison has also abandoned its signature freestanding structures in favor of something more collective, enlisting both established designers and younger voices still working out what they believe.

The courtyard is where things get genuinely interesting. Seven Brera Academy students — all studying theatre and film set design — have spent the week painting a large-scale installation drawn from Legrain's illustration for his Album de 96 dessins et maquettes, in the house's first formal collaboration with the Academy. Rather than delivering a finished object, Louis Vuitton has left the work conspicuously incomplete, animated by live painting sessions throughout the week. The students will also develop proposals for future editions — suggesting the maison is not merely borrowing their energy, but curious about where it leads.