Louis Vuitton’s New Manhattan Pop-Up Is a Dazzling Mic Drop
It’s hard to miss Louis Vuitton’s iconic Fifth Avenue flagship. Its 19-story facade at the corner of 57th Street in Manhattan is currently wrapped like a giant leather trunk. But entering the boutique is another story: For the unseeable future (at least a few years), the landmark store will be undergoing a massive renovation. Still, fans of the maison won’t have to go far to get their Vuitton fix. On Friday, November 15, the French luxury house moved across the road to 6 East 57th Street, with a five-floor “temporary” emporium that is filled with delights—from the wearable to the edible.
The fun starts outside, where the holiday facade sports a gargantuan stork and giraffe against a backdrop of carnival lights and a cascade of Vuitton Monogram flowers—a reference to the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition where Georges Vuitton presented trunks and travel items under a carousel draped in blue velvet.
Inside, the lobby sets the tone. Here, 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.
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.
There are salons devoted to women’s and men’s fashions, haute couture, high jewelry, and even dog accessories. What’s more, for the first time the maison is showing Americans its gourmet side. Designed like a library, the fourth-floor Le Café Louis Vuitton has a main room framed with bookshelves, a reading alcove, and a bar. Editor and curator Ian Luna selected the 650-odd books, which range from architecture to fashion and art titles. The menu—described by the house as a “luxury snacking” concept (think lobster ravioli embossed with Monogram flower motifs, or LV burgers)—was developed by French chefs Arnaud Donckele and Maxime Frédéric, who launched Louis Vuitton’s first restaurant in Saint-Tropez, and is helmed in New York by Christophe Bellanca and Marie George.
Fans of designer chocolate (raise your hands) will flock to the first Vuitton chocolate store in the U.S. The patissier behind it is Maxime Frédéric, and confections include ingredients like Madagascar cocoa and eggs from chickens raised on his own Normandy farm. The offerings in New York include everything from candy bars to hazelnut bonbons and a Vivienne on Malle music box, with every element—from the pirouetting doll to the trunk to the wind-up key—fashioned in chocolate.
Throughout the store, displays are arranged in roomlike tableaux and feature a mix of vintage and contemporary furniture by Carlo Mollino, Charlotte Perriand, Christophe Delcourt, and Pierre Augustin Rose. There are also pieces from Vuitton’s own Objets Nomades collection—from the bell lanterns on tables in the café to tableware and a hand-embroidered Campana Brothers Cocoon chair in the haute couture salon on the by-appointment-only fifth floor. The store also incorporates contemporary artworks on every floor by such artists as Caio Fonseca, Chris Martin, and Todd Eberle.
For avid collectors of Louis Vuitton, the store offers a range of exclusive Gotham-themed designs. These include a Neverfull Inside Out bag in taxicab yellow and a royal blue baseball cap with an LV logo to rival the Yankees. Get them only in New York, kids—and only for a few years, until the permanent flagship rises on Fifth Avenue.
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