Louis Vuitton sent out an email blast following its Cruise 2027 show that explained the rationale behind the 56 outfits that just paraded through The Frick Collection in New York. One line stood out to me: “Pop art, pop culture, and pop luxury: the notion of the popular as a powerful medium.”

The pop-art reference was inevitable. After all, this season included a collaboration with the Keith Haring Foundation, inspired by an LV trunk Haring doodled over in 1984 (and which sold for $35,075 in 2020), resulting in the pop art pioneer’s faceless figures decorating summer dresses and tailored jackets. Pop culture, meanwhile, is the everyday stuff that informs pop art.

But pop luxury? What is that?

In some ways, it’s an oxymoron. Surely something popular, low-brow, enjoyed by the masses, can’t also be luxury — i.e. expensive and inaccessible. Yet I can’t think of a better term to describe a world-conquering luxury house like LV, or fashion today for that matter. 

High fashion has long since become popular culture, where seasonal shows are major productions and luxury brands are household names. But Louis Vuitton (with some unintended help from Swarovski’s CEO) has found the perfect phrase to encapsulate this widespread mainstream fame.

Creative director Nicolas Ghesquière’s Cruise 2027 collection is a pop luxury manifesto.  

The French fashion designer took over The Frick Collection, an age-old gallery dedicated to art’s old masters and rare artifacts dating back to the 14th century, to display the pop art of Keith Haring, someone so commercially viable that his estate’s previous fashion collaborations have included Swatch and H&M. He also brought back one of Louis Vuitton’s most kitschy accessories — boxing gloves created by Karl Lagerfeld — and grounded the majority of looks with wavy sneakers that looked like a luxury re-interpretation of a Nike Foamposite.

Cruise 2027 was, like most pop art, a high-volume clashing of bright colors. While there were some extravagances, like a huge frilled collar in look 50 and a sharply tailored leather jacket covered in straps, Louis Vuitton also highlighted the pop-culture stuff, what it calls “reflections of real wardrobes”: blue jeans, sporty athleisure, and leather moto jackets. 

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.