The luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton has opened a five-story retail location complete with a café, chocolate shop and VIP suites as a temporary replacement to its Fifth Avenue flagship, which is currently undergoing a planned three-year renovations.
Louis Vuitton covered its flagship at East 57th Street and 5th Avenue in a facade modelled after the brand’s distinctive trunks, while simultaneously opening a temporary location around the corner, with sculptures developed with OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu that rise through an atrium.
Louis Vuitton often taps luminaries from the design and architecture industries for its projects.
Frank Gehrey recently designed a watch and handbag for the brand, while the North American head of its parent company LVMH recently spoke about an overarching commitment to sustainability.
Designed by Louis Vuitton’s in-house team, the luggage facade wraps completely around the construction underway at the New York City flagship. It resembles six, grey trunks of various sizes stacked in descending size.
The building’s exterior architecture and interior floorplan remain unchanged, although it is now outfitted in a material palette of light woods, creams and shades of brown amongst an exposed concrete structure.
The design pays homage to the brand’s Trianon Grey canvas, a light grey textile which dates back to the 19th century.
Shohei Shigematsu of OMA has created a dizzying installation of Vuitton’s iconic Courrier Lozine 90 trunks, which are stacked in four gravity-defying Seussian towers that rise to the top of the five-story atrium. There are 108 trunks in all, in classic Vuitton patterns including historic stripes, classic Monogram canvas, white Damier, and a metallic Monogram.
Oversized, sculptures of a giraffe and ostrich and a screen with Louis Vuitton motifs cover the building’s facade, which was also lined with bright exterior pendants.
The architect also curated the five installations that greet visitors at each elevator entry, where mirrored bags are stacked like bricks and flanked by murals of patterns designed by Vuitton collaborators, including Richard Prince, Yayoi Kusama, Supreme, Takashi Murakami, and Stephen Sprouse.
Four, towering 16-meter-tall sculptures developed by Shigematsu sit in the lobby atrium, similarly modelled after “iconic” trunks.
Upon arrival in the atrium, shoppers are greeted by an installation of Louis Vuitton trunk towers designed by architect Shohei Shigematsu, while bookshelves, art and standalone displays of iconic handbags solidify a heavy focus on design throughout the space. In addition to spacious product displays, the store has three VIP shopping suites and New York-centric collectible items.
Elsewhere in the store, furniture pieces from the nearby flagship “reappear” in keeping with the brand’s “commitment to circular creativity” and were mixed with new pieces by designers such as Carlo Mollino, Charlotte Perriand, Christophe Delcourt and Pierre Augustin Rose.
In addition to luxury goods, the store will also feature Le Café Louis Vuitton and Chocolat Maxime Frédéric, a café and chocolate shop making its debut in the U.S.
The flagship construction could “potentially” double the size of the store, according to New York Yimby, while the temporary location will shut down after the renovation is complete.
Photo: Louis Vuitton
