TROPHY CASE: What do soccer, rugby and sailing have in common? Their championship trophies travel in custom Louis Vuitton trunks, and are to be united in Paris on Feb. 6 and 7.
In tandem with its “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez — Louis Vuitton” exhibition at the Grand Palais, the French luxury brand is to display the 2018 FIFA World Cup Trophy, the Webb Ellis Cup and the America’s Cup trophy.
“Victory travels in Louis Vuitton,” asserted Vuitton chairman and chief executive officer Michael Burke. “Only the winners have the right to embrace these iconic trophies, at the end of a fierce competition.”
The famous cups are to be housed in a private room near Vuitton’s trunk-focused exhibition, which runs through Feb. 21.
FORMER Louis Vuitton model Sam Sarpong has died after falling to his death from a bridge in Los Angeles, a spokesperson for the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner has confirmed. He was 40 years old.
Sarpong - who was Vuitton's first black male model - also worked for Gucci, Versace and Tommy Hilfiger, in addition to carving out a successful acting career in the US appearing in more than 60 films and 55 TV shows, reports the Evening Standard. He also released six rap albums with his group The League, which sold more than a million copies.
"It is with great sadness that the family of Samuel Sarpong Jr. must share the news that Sam has passed away," a representative for his family said in a statement. "The circumstances surrounding his death are currently under investigation and no additional details are known at this time. The family appreciates the thoughts and prayers and other expressions of sympathy, and request that privacy be respected at this extremely difficult time."
Sam Sarpong with his TV presenter sister June
Picture credit: Getty
The brother of TV presenter June, Sarpong moved to America from Britain when he was 11 and found success, fame and fortune in his late teens. "I went from barely being able to pay my bills to now being an international model," he told Black Hollywood Live in July 2013, reportsUS Weekly. "I made a lot of money early. Luckily I had my father to guide me."
"It is sad and troubling when an individual has become so despondent that he or she feels their only option is to end their life," police chief Phillip Sanchez said in a statement. "These incidents can often have a significant impact on the victim's loved ones, first responders, and the community as a whole. My prayers go out to the family."
Louis Vuitton finds itself the subject of another Parisian exhibition after the one at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs three years ago, which marked the 15th anniversary of the house’s collaboration with its first ready-to-wear designer, Marc Jacobs. A new show, opening at the Grand Palais next month, reveals the ascension of the house from modest beginnings to future triumph.
Borrowed from a vintage advertising poster for Vuitton luggage dating back to 1965, the exhibition title Volez! Voguez! Voyagez! (Fly! Sail! Travel!) sets the tone for an ambitious endeavor that covers the road traveled by the leather goods maker from its origins in 1854 to the present day, taking visitors through 160 years of creation punctuated by both historic pieces and some of the iconic designs that grace today’s fashion runways.
“Along its unique trajectory, the Maison Vuitton turned travel into a recurring motif not just in fashion but in everyday life,” wroteOlivier Saillard, curator of the show, in an introduction to the show’s catalogue. “The timelessness of Vuitton’s singular oeuvre is shown by the contemporary creations that dialogue with the noble, historic shapes that originally inspired them.”
The show will explore the history of the “malletier” or luggage maker in chronological fashion, focusing on the theme of the “voyage” with a vast array of rare pieces, some on loan from the Musée Galliéra.
Along the way, it will also examine the personality of the Maison’s founding members and of those who have made the house the global luxury giant that it is today. “The success of the luggage maker rests on its sense of that grand French chic that finds beauty in function,” Saillard wrote. “Vuitton achieved a form of harmony between the container and its content, with a beautiful and noble packaging that was both discrete and distinctive.”
Spread across nine halls on the upper floors of the Grand Palais known as the Salons d’Honneur, the exhibition will open with an antique trunk, circa 1906, the design of which was innovative for its time and foreshadowed the emblematic codes of the Maison. From there, the range and variety of Vuitton’s techniques will be showcased with a vast selection of the house’s refined canvases, signature locks, writing instruments and eccentric celebrity luggage known as the “superstar trunks.”
The show will culminate with a section dedicated to craftsmanship. “Visitors will surely be inclined to fly, sail, and travel after seeing the show, or they may just allow themselves to dream,” Saillard said
The defendant was charged with attempting to steal a silver BMW before fleeing. Photo: Mark Bean
A man charged with punching a woman before stealing her $3000 handbag outside a Civic hotel has been refused bail.
Christopher Hill, 25, from Calwell, also allegedly attempted to steal the woman's BMW after the assault outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel shortly before midnight on November 8, but was unable to start the car.
The defendant was charged with the theft of the Louis Vuitton bag, $800 in cash, Chanel perfume and lipstick, as well as the attempted theft and assault. The prosecutor indicated the related robbery charges would likely be consolidated.
Duty defence lawyer Hugh Jorgensen said his client, in applying for bail, acknowledged he had a methylamphetamine addiction and had an interview and assessment for a rehabilitation program on Monday.
"He believes his prospects of getting admitted to that facility are very good," Mr Jorgensen said.
Magistrate Dr Bernadette Boss said this opportunity did not equate to special and exceptional circumstances, as was required to be established before bail could be given for the relevant charges.
The matter returns to the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday, November 23.
The company shuts one store in Guangzhou, Harbin, and Urumqi, and plans to close 20% more outlets
Louis Vuitton, which operates under the parent company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (ADR) (OTCMKTS:LVMUY), is facing problems in China. It has shut one store in each city of Guangzhou, Harbin, and Urumqi, and further plans to shut 20% of the retail stores in Chinese market by mid of 2017. According to Financial Times, the luxury brand is closing its stores at a rate of about one store every month.
The company disclosed its 3Q earnings in October, and it showed that the Asian markets have been a challenge for the Louis Vuitton. The company sales declined 6% in the latest quarter for the Asian markets, apart from the Japan. Louis Vuitton showed total revenue of 8.3 billion euro.
On the other hand, major competitor of Louis Vuitton, Burberry, has performed well for more than a decade. Recently, a slowdown in the Chinese economy has declined the Burberry's sales by 9% in the Q3 result. The company saw a decline of single digit sales in the first half of the year; the decrease was due to the decline in demand from retail stores, especially in Hong Kong, Korea and Macau markets.
The major problem affecting the Louis Vuitton in Chinese market is a perception that the brand is not quite good enough to meet the customers’ demand and needs. As per the market research report, people say that Louis Vuitton has become ordinary product for them and is possessed by every other person. The brand is very common and can be found easily in Beijing's every restaurant. On the other hand, the demand for local brands, such as Bottega, and Vaneeta, is continuously increasing.
Despite Louis Vuitton's closure in the Chinese economy, other brands like Hermes, Versace, and Giorgio Armani have also been shutting down their business since 2013 in China. This is all because of slowdown in the world's second largest economy, as people are becoming more tight-fisted with money to save for long term than spend it on luxury items.
Preview of the exhibition (Louis Vuitton) Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton doesn't do things by halves. This is the house, after all, that once built a replica steam-train for a 10-minute fashion show, at a purported cost of £5m. Other sets have included carousel horses and a shopping mall-worth of escalators by the contemporary artist Daniel Buren, he of the humbug-striped pillars in Paris's Palais Royal. How to justify the cost? Publicity, chérie: that train show was in 2012, and we're still talking about it.
Louis Vuitton's latest extravagance, however, will last longer than 10 minutes. On Monday an exhibition opens in London (until 18 October). A series of rooms erected behind a modernist façade just outside Somerset House, it's in close proximity to the Royal Courts of Justice (Louis Vuitton loves a trademark, and protects them passionately) and the luxury hotels of the Strand (where its customers stay when passing through London).
Vuitton has titled the exhibition "Series 3"; but rather more evocative is the suffix: "Past, Present, Future". An immersive, multi-sensory experience, using video and photography (of the show and of the season's advertising campaign by photographers Bruce Weber and Juergen Teller), the idea behind the exhibition is simultaneously simple and complex: unpacking the process of creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere's autumn/winter 2015 collection, his third Paris show for the house.
It's interesting, but not unique. Single-brand exhibitions, curated by in-house teams, are something in which fashion companies are increasingly eager to invest time and money. Hermès and Chanel have both staged similar shows in London, while in July Vuitton opened a permanent exhibition space called "La Galerie" in the Paris suburb of Asnières, the location of the Vuitton family home, and an atelier where the label makes made-to-order pieces for private clients.
La Galerie showcases pieces from the Vuitton archives from the past two decades on mannequins. "Series 3", though, is different. For a start, it's about the here and now – OK, it's actually about a show staged back in March (the spring 2016 Vuitton show, which will presumably be the subject of a Series 4 exhibition, will overlap the exhibition, as it is scheduled for 7 October), but the clothes will still be in store.
As the name suggests, it's the third such show – earlier ones debuted in Los Angeles and Tokyo before touring to other cities. Michael Burke, Louis Vuitton's chief executive, said at that first Tokyo exhibit that the shows were about a new way of re-presenting – and, indeed, representing – a collection rather than the traditional rehashing of catwalk shows in varied locations (Vuitton, for instance, restaged that train show in China in the summer of 2012). It's about "transcending" the temporary aspects of the fashion show, and creating something longer lasting.
That's true for Hermès, and for Chanel – both of which, like Vuitton, have rich heritages that are eagerly mined, frequently emphasised, and not that easy for fashion brands to build up. They're an asset – and an asset to be cherished. "We have to have a point of view that's different from everyone else's," Burke says. "You have to have your own message. What's your specific message? What's your point of view?"
It also, of course, has a much wider reach. This show will be seen, up close, by far more than the few hundred who experience Vuitton shows first-hand. The exhibition is open for a month, during which time Vuitton hope tens of thousands will come to witness Ghesquiere's vision, then tell their friends and document it online (of course, the exhibition has a hashtag: #lvseries3).
But at a less commercial level, why stage this show in the first place? What's the motivation behind this expensive and complex endeavour? Louis Vuitton is already the most valuable luxury goods house in the world, according to Forbes. The titles of some of the rooms within Series 3 offer clues: "Artists' hands"; "A tale of craftsmanship"; "Anatomy of le savoir-faire"; there's a focus on craft, on the process behind the clothing rather than the final result, which is glorified – and publicised – by the polished final vision on the catwalk. A Vuitton artisan will be installed mid-exhibition to create the micro-trunk handbags that have become such a hit under Ghesquière, There are also more abstract references, such as a "rain of light" to represent needles; and more direct: 3D-printed "avatars" of models clutching accessories. You can buy, too – a handbag, and T-shirts emblazoned with a graphic designed for the exhibition.
Way back at the start of his Vuitton tenure, I spoke to Ghesquière about his aims for the house. "I'm happy to see innovation and authenticity work together," he told me. "This is Vuitton, for me. To create that harmony between innovation and the craftsmanship." Burke has said much the same: "Louis Vuitton is a 160-year-old lady, and you have to enter into a tango with this institution. You cannot discard it, you have to embrace it. And dance."
Ghesquière is only the second creative director of womenswear, which began in 1997. Part of the role of these exhibitions, thus far launched biannually, is to cement that in the public mind. The previous creative director Marc Jacobs had a pop sensibility – his art-collaboration bags, scribbled with graphics by Stephen Sprouse or Takeshi Murakami, were instantly recognisable. Ghesquière, by contrast, is more cerebral, perhaps more complex.
But, hey, you don't need me to tell you that. Visit this exhibition. Wander through Ghesquiere's mind. And make up your own.
Photo: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Couture Council
In the lead up to Fashion Week, the party scene has become, how shall we say, civilized. Earlier yesterday ladies (and gents) who lunch took their places for a haute but not haughty celebration of all things elegant. On the West side, Manolo Blahnik flew in from London to receive FIT’s Couture Council Artistry of Fashion Award. The iconic designer was humbled by the honor, saying, “It hasn’t really settled in my mind—you need time to get accustomed to it.” Inside David H. Koch Theater, a cadre of his well-heeled clients and fans including CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists Brett Heyman and Eva Zuckerman were in attendance—many ready to rattle off their favorite style. “Definitely the BB in suede or bust,” exclaimed Heyman, with Zuckerman adding in a sly, joking tone, “The three-inch pump because I’m so tall already that I don’t need the height.” Also taking in the festivities were Alec Baldwin, Arthur Elgort, Camila Alves, and Uma Thurman, who presented Mr. Blahnik with his award, calling him “a true artist and craftsman who continually invents and reinvents.”
Meanwhile across town on the East Side, Louis Vuitton and Vogue came together to cohost a midday meal with Lauren Remington Platt. The Vensette founder was joined by chic young things including Lily Kwong, Nell Diamond, and Shirin Von Wulffen, to celebrate Vuitton’s recently renovated third floor. Floral design from Ron Wendt lifted the late summer day into a chic fall paradise while cute canapés and nibbles allowed everyone to linger until the next presentation. With the festivities only beginning, here’s hoping for an equally stunning and demure party season.
As a student in Glasgow, she discovered her talent for dressing windows while working at high street store Next.
Now, more than 20 years on, Faye McLeod is visual image director at one of the world’s most sought-after luxury brands –Louis Vuitton.
And her work is viewed as such art within the fashion industry that images of many of the most stunning window sets she has created are set to be published in a book.
Faye, 43, who joined Louis Vuitton in 2009, has been described as the Willy Wonkaof set design for the magical creations she has designed at the company’s 467 stores.
Louis Vuitton visual creative director Faye McLeod
The firm have Maison stores in many of the world’s most distinguished shopping streets including New Bond Street in London, Fifth Avenue in New York, and the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
But Faye says it doesn’t matter where in the world her work is going to be on display because the passion and attention to detail that goes into each window is always the same.
She said: “I hate walking past windows where what you see doesn’t make sense.
“For me, there has to be a meaning to a window. It can’t just be a decoration and a product – everything has got to have a story.
One of Faye's windows at the 57th street Louis Vuitton in New York.
“My job is to be a visual storyteller. Everyone appreciates a window. You want people to have an emotional reaction. You just maybe walk past but something stays in your head. You are creating pieces of art inside a window.
“If you were in the Tate, when you put art in there, you would have it looking perfect. You would have it well lit, clean, signaged. For me, that is how windows should be.
“They have got to be exactly like a piece of art in a museum. They are the billboard to your brand.”
Scot Faye, who also helps to create the company’s fashion show runway sets, is based at the their Paris headquarters and works with a team of more than 20 staff on her designs.
Faye loves her job working on the Louis Vuitton windows, especially at Christmas.
Stories that have inspired her eye-catching windows include bees that are kept on the roof of some Louis Vuitton stores and cases the company made for a circus in Paris.
She said: “We did a ‘Sweet as honey’ window. The idea of that came from a jar of honey and we designed this sputnik of flower icons and bees.
“This girl turned up in my office after a week of working at Vuitton with a jar of honey.
“I was like, ‘Where does it come from?’ It turns out Vuitton have hives on their roofs.
“I thought we could really work with this – it’s honey, bees, our icons are flowers and it all made sense to us.
“Our circus windows all came from a reference from the 100 Malles book, which was about Vuitton and the circus. Vuitton made these trunks for the circus in Paris so it could go travelling. Everything we do has a reference.”
Other famous windows created by Faye include large displays of gold dinosaur skeletons, including a T-rex with a handbag, and a collaboration with artist Yayoi Kusama which featured a backdrop of red and white polka dots.
Faye first discovered her creative flair for dressing windows when working at Next in Glasgow. She went on to work for Selfridges and Topshop.
A woman takes a photograph of Faye's window display in the Louis Vuitton shop on New Bond Street in Mayfair.
She said: “It’s an amazing job. I can’t believe I get paid to do it.”
Mary McGowne, founder of the Scottish Style Awards, said: “Faye McLeod is the undisputed No1 set designer working in fashion. No one comes close to creating the magic and voyeuristic fantasy of her shows.
“Such is the impact of Faye’s work that each season there is a palpable sense of anticipation of what to expect.”
Dr Sue Thomas, associate professor in fashion at Heriot-Watt University, said: “Her work, thinking and creativity are amazing – world-class. She is a genuine originator in the profession. Her team give windows stories and magic.”
Models walk the runway during the Louis Vuitton Menswear Fall/Winter 2014-2015 in Paris.
The book Louis Vuitton Windows, featuring 35 storefront displays created by Faye and colleague Ansel Thompson, will be published this autumn.
Quebec's rising filmmaker Xavier Dolan has been chosen as the face of Louis Vuitton's fall men's campaign, reports Women's Wear Daily.
The ads, featuring a sophisticated Dolan in a suit and tie and collared jackets, will be released in October magazines and will also show off Ombré leather satchels.
Dolan says he has aspired to becoming the face of a brand since he was a child, according to Vuitton. He has become a regular spectator at fashion shows like Chanel and Lanvin.
The filmmaker has directed "I Killed My Mother" and "Laurence Anyways," and his 2014 film "Mommy" won the Jury Prize at the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
Final collection wasn’t subtle but it had a sophisticated power
Louis Vuitton's creative director Marc Jacobs is out. That was the news delivered backstage, following the American designer'spresentation of his spring/summer 2013 collection for the French fashion behemoth, one of the biggest shows on the fashion calendar.
Frankly, no-one was shocked. Intrigues have swirled for months concerning Jacobs' seat of power at Vuitton, namely that after sixteen years he was stepping down to focus on his eponymous brand, a brand that launched a beauty range earlier this year and is set for imminent IPO.
Although no official release was forthcoming, at the show Louis Vuitton Chief Executive Michael Burke confirmed that this was Jacob's final for Vuitton. The 10-year contracts of both Jacobs, 50, and his his long-time business partner Robert Duffy, 58, expiring at the end of this year, will not be renewed. They are leaving Louis Vuitton to focus on the expansion of the Marc Jacobs label.
Jacobs was the first fashion designer to create clothing under the Louis Vuitton brand. Installed as designer in 1997, following high-profile appointments of Alexander McQueen at Givenchy and John Galliano at Dior, Jacobs outlasted both. His 16 year tenure as creative director of Louis Vuitton is bettered only by Karl Lagerfeld's forty-eight years at Fendi, and thirty years at Chanel.
Born to a non-orthodox Jewish family in New York in 1963, Marc Jacobs had a passion for fashion and a lust to succeed from an early age. He launched his label in 1984 while still a student at Parsons School of Design when a range of sweaters he created were snapped up by New York boutique Charivari. Robert Duffy - who worked alongside him at Vuitton - was with him from the start, the two forming Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc. He showed his first collection in 1986.
Marc Jacobs' career has never been short of controversy. The furore over Kate Moss smoking a cigarette on the winter 2011 Vuitton catwalk pales in comparison to his 1992 “Grunge” collection for Perry Ellis. Inspired by the music of Nirvana, the collection launched a thousand imitations. It also got Jacobs fired.
Jacobs' tenure at Louis Vuitton has been smoother. It's also been paved with gold: for the past six consecutive years (2006-2012) Louis Vuitton has been named the world's most valuable luxury brand. It rakes in £5.8 billion per year.
It's also transformed Jacobs himself into a fashion megastar. A 2008 New Yorker profile relayed that market research at a Midwestern mall showed American shoppers recognised the Marc Jacobs name, although their perceptions of him were somewhat confused. Most thought he was an actor or a rock star.
The focus on Jacobs' own label, which continues to be part of Bernard Arnault's LVMH stable (the conglomerate who own Louis Vuitton), is canny. Despite its success, Vuitton maintains a position at the very highest echelon of luxury, with no lower-priced lines or cosmetics. Marc Jacobs, by contrast, has beauty and highly-successful fragrances, as well as his diffusion line Marc by Marc Jacobs. Earlier this year, the British designer Luella Bartley was tapped to direct those collections.
All indications are that Marc Jacobs is an empire complex. His stepping down from Louis Vuitton is an acknowledgement, perhaps, that his own name is a strong enough brand, both creatively and commercially, to demand his full attentions. LVMH must also agree.
Fashion fans, however, will doubtless miss his high-profile Louis Vuitton shows, the traditional finale to Paris Fashion Week.
Marc Jacobs' successor at Louis Vuitton is expected to be announced shortly. If intrigues are once again proven correct, it will be Nicolas Ghesquiere, the much-feted Frenchman who headed Balenciaga until October 2012.
Louis Vuitton's spring/summer 2013 collection which was inspired by the design
Picture credit: GoRunway
LOUIS VUITTON has lost the right to trademark its Damier checkerboard pattern. The European Union's General Court upheld a previous ruling by the First Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), denying the fashion house's right to call the design its own, saying that it is too commonplace for it to be owned by one brand.
Picture credit: GoRunway
"The checkerboard pattern, as represented in the contested trade mark, was a basic and banal feature composed of very simple elements and that it was well-known that that feature had been commonly used with a decorative purpose in relation to various goods," said the OHIM in 2011, reports WWD, adding that, "the contested trade mark, in the absence of features capable of distinguishing it from other representations of checkerboards, was not capable of fulfilling the essential 'identification' or 'origin' function of a trade mark."
The legal battle, however, stretches back much further to 2008 when Louis Vuitton originally registered the trademark. German retailer filed an application to have it declared invalid the following year, which was granted in 2011.
Trademark infringement is a hot topic in the fashion industry at the moment, with Adidas pursuing Isabel Marant for allegedly copying its Stan Smith trainer designs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs regarding its autumn/winter 2014 collection, and Yves Saint Laurent has filed a lawsuit against What About Yves founder over its parody T-shirt "Ain't Laurent Without Yves".
Louis Vuitton has not yet announced if it plans to appeal the European Union's General Court's decision.
Coach is showing runway collections now, just like a European luxury house. (Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett)
Coach, the venerable but rather staid American brand best known for its omnipresent leather bags and accessories, wants to become a genuine luxury house—or at least be perceived that way.
The company is in the midst of serious regrouping at the moment. Sales growth has been slowing for more than a decade, and then plummeted last year. Today (August 4), the company reported that its earnings for fiscal 2015 fell 12.8% to about $4.2 billion.
Like its closest American counterpart, Michael Kors, Coach has become pricey yet basic at the same time—the kind of brand people tend to only buy on sale or at outlet stores, rather than at full retail.
Coach’s CEO, Victor Luis, has been working to turn things around. The strategy is basically to present Coach as something more like a European luxury house—the American Louis Vuitton, albeit with far more modest prices.
“Our intention is to create a true Coach house,” Luis said on the company’s earnings call with analysts.
But Coach is still some ways from the stratosphere of high-end goods typically associated with a luxury house. The brand’s main product, its handbags, still run a few hundred dollars—not the few thousand you’d pay for anything by Louis Vuitton. They’re aimed more at the high end of the middle market, or perhaps the low end of luxury—which isn’t actually all that luxurious.
Instead, Coach is basically rebranding. It has been rolling out products by Stuart Vevers, the creative director it hired two years ago, who previously designed for luxury labels including Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta, and Givenchy.
It also wants to emphasize its craftsmanship and heritage as “the original American house of leather,” according to Luis, and it will soon roll out campaigns and events to celebrate that heritage, as it turns 75 next year.
“Our intention is to create a true Coach house,” Luis said on the company’s earnings call with analysts.
But Coach is still some ways from the stratosphere of high-end goods typically associated with a luxury house. The brand’s main product, its handbags, still run a few hundred dollars—not the few thousand you’d pay for anything by Louis Vuitton. They’re aimed more at the high end of the middle market, or perhaps the low end of luxury—which isn’t actually all that luxurious.
Instead, Coach is basically rebranding. It has been rolling out products by Stuart Vevers, the creative director it hired two years ago, who previously designed for luxury labels including Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta, and Givenchy.
It also wants to emphasize its craftsmanship and heritage as “the original American house of leather,” according to Luis, and it will soon roll out campaigns and events to celebrate that heritage, as it turns 75 next year.
The new D.C. store sits at the prominent corner of Palmer Alley and the central plaza of… more
Of all the luxury names headed to CityCenterDC, Louis Vuitton might have been the most hotly anticipated — especially given the long lead time before it opened.
Word of Louis Vuitton signing onto the project began leaking out more than a year ago, though many of the retail openings have been slow to arrive to CityCenterDC. Tumi and Allen Edmonds led the way, followed by Kate Spade and then a steady stream of other openings during the past year.
This will be LV's first standalone store in downtown D.C. — it also currently has stores in the Collection at Chevy Chase shopping center and the Tysons Galleria mall. In addition to many of the brand's flagship logo bags, the CityCenterDC store will carry more edgier designs, including some from artistic director Nicolas Ghesquiére's most recent runway collection. That includes the Petite Malle, a small handbag based off Louis Vuitton's signature luggage trunks, including this $5,750 version. The store also includes an unusually large selection of men's shoes — more are on display than women's shoes. That's because the company sees Washington, D.C., as a bit of an "untapped market" for men's luxury goods, according to a spokeswoman. The luggage section also includes the ability for customers to order their own personalized monogram through the "mon monogram" program, in which a signature stripe and lettering is hand-painted onto the luggage. Most accessories are also available for complimentary hot stamping in store. For two days only, the store in CityCenterDC will also have the totem collection on display, a special collection based on tribal masks owned by Gaston Vuitton — which won't be available to the general public until October. Located at 924 Palmer Alley, Louis Vuitton faces CityCenterDC's main plaza in an area that's becoming an unofficial "French Quarter" of the development. It's across from Hermes and a forthcoming Christian Dior boutique, and across the plaza from two restaurants from French chefs: Daniel Boulud's DBGB Kitchen and Bar and Fig & Olive.
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