On Thursday night, amid the smattering of Christmas displays lighting up Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton unveiled something that far surpassed the magic of any old holiday window—a whole store. While its landmark Fifth Avenue flagship undergoes a multi-year renovation (and is currently encased in stories-high Louis Vuitton trunks instead of scaffolding), the Maison has opened up a temporary spot just around the corner on 57th Street. But this is not some ephemeral pop-up shop built to dispense Neverfull bags and Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest ready-to-wear offerings until the flagship is back up and running. This is a temple, created in the eye of the almighty shopping gods.
With its official opening on Friday, November 15, the location becomes the largest Louis Vuitton space in the United States. The five-story structure features an immense amount of retail space, enough to show-off not only the quintessential LV trunks, but also an exclusive capsule collection, a café, and a chocolate shop. One can spend a whole day in there, trying on clothes, picking out new luggage, and furnishing a home.
To start, there’s the facade, an art deco building with an incredible, arched window that stretches across the entirety of the storefront and is covered in the house’s famous monogram flower. A giant building-sized giraffe and ostrich signal the carnival theme the brand is embracing this holiday season. It’s inspired by Georges Vuitton’s appearance at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition, where he presented the Maison’s trunks and travel items under a velvet-draped carousel.
But that is just the beginning, and walking into the space, one is immediately faced with its immensity, and the artistry that went into every little detail. In the sky-high atrium of the first floor sits four sculptures by Shohei Shigematsu, a partner of the New York-based architectural firm OMA. Courrier Lozine 90 trunks ascend 16 meters toward the ceiling, zigzagging and twisting their way up in a gravity-defying display.
Louis Vuitton has always been in touch with its history, and in this new space, the brand has room to truly celebrate its most exciting moments. The elevator banks—often a forgotten spot—are a perfect example of that. Each of the five acts as an homage to one of the brand’s famous collaborations, represented by a bag in a glass case, surrounded by murals of the iconography that defines them. A plaque informs the reader of that specific collaboration, telling the story of how Marc Jacobs came to work with Stephen Sprouse for the leather goods of the spring/summer 2001 collection or how Kim Jones introduced Supreme into the fold for fall/winter 2017.
The store continues upward and both the men’s and womenswear take up a respective floor, surrounded by walls peppered with modern art from the Louis Vuitton Collection. Furniture, meanwhile, is just as beautiful as the merchandise, with pieces borrowed from the original location, augmented with new designs by Christophe Delcourt, Pierre Augustin Rose, and others. Up on the fifth floor, one can find the house’s own creations from its Objets Nomades collection, placed alongside the tableware that makes up its Art de la Table collection. Also on that floor are private retail spaces where clients can get made-to-order dresses and a secret, loft-style room for LV high watches and jewelry.
Of course, that leaves the fourth floor, where the house’s culinary vision comes to life with Le Café Louis Vuitton, a chic, library-like space that will be open during store hours. There, guests can enjoy the restaurant, the bar, or the reading alcove where they can help themselves to over 600 titles, chosen by curator and editor Ian Luca.
For those who have worked up an appetite shopping, though, there are the offerings from French chefs Arnaud Donckele and Maxime Frédéric and local talents Christophe Bellanca and Marie George who all worked together on a “luxury snacking” concept for the café. The food is as delicious as it is branded, with lobster and truffle raviolis embossed with the flower monogram and tartlets sporting a Damier pattern. Chocolates, too, get the Louis Vuitton treatment at a stand for Le Chocolat Maxime Frédéric just outside the café. There, one can find treats straight from Normandy, including classic chocolate bars, gift sets, bonbons, and even impressive chocolate sculptures of the house’s flower-headed mascot Vivienne.
It’s no surprise that, on Thursday night, the fourth floor was a popular one as guests sampled chocolates and headed into the café for a taste of its signature club sandwich. Among the attendees was Cynthia Erivo, who stopped by before the New York premiere of Wicked. Bradley Cooper and Ana de Armas, meanwhile, made themselves comfortable in the space, chatting together on the fifth floor alongside a mannequin sporting the maroon, sequined dress Emma Stone wore to the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Also in attendance were Jennifer Connelly, Nina Dobrev, and Martha Stewart, who took a break from promoting her Netflix documentary to check out Louis Vuitton’s new, temporary home. The guests perused the collections, took photos in the branded phone booth, and sipped champagne among the display of luxury, perhaps while contemplating their next LV purchase.
Bradley Cooper and Ana de Armas
Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com
