Louis Vuitton have opened an all new “Winter Resort” Store in Promenade, Gstaad. The popular winter destination seems an appropriate choice given the fact that 2012 marked the historic site’s 700th anniversary of providing ample and valuable real estate for those looking for a little bit of adventure. The store is a subtle mixture of the architectural traditions and principals of Louis Vuitton and the personality of the region – thus evoking refinement, luxury, and a poetic journey that takes visitors to the heart of the Alpine valley.
Louis Vuitton
Luxury fashion house Louise Vuitton has announced that it is to support Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition next year in London. Kusama who is celebrating over 60 years as an artist is holding a retrospective at the Tate Modern London, from February 9-June 5.
Kusama’s art is often as experiential and features huge landscapes created using clouds, balls, polka dots, lights and mirrors. The exhibition will feature artworks in various media include sculpture, painting, installation and film, and will include Kusama’s iconic film Kusama’s Self-Obliteration from 1968.
To coincide with the artist’s retrospective the Louis Vuitton Bond Street Maison will also hold unseen Kusama work in its exhibition space. The luxury fashion brand has collaborated with other artists in the past, including John Stezaker, Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry.
Additionally, the French brand will be also support a programme of activity for young people at Tate surrounding the Kusama exhibition and connecting the Louis Vuitton Young Arts Project and the ReCreative website.
Can the irony be more poignant. A a designer gas mask to save us from environmental catastrophe! You have to laugh.
A series of designer gas masks by conceptual artist Diddo Velema explores the psychological comfort we derive from high-end goods in the face of imminent disaster. Decked in the iconic logos of Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton, the masks offer a critique of our “collectively insatiable culture of consumption,” according to Velema. “Because it is only by first acknowledging and then challenging fear that we will all be able to breathe a little easier,” he adds.
Fly high above the very first Island Maison from Louis Vuitton located at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
Copyright : Louis Vuitton / Des Quatre. Producer : Mathias Vayer. Director : Romain Chassaing. Music : Etienne Ross
The Paris City Guide 2012 will be available in Louis Vuitton stores from October 15th.
This exploration of Louis Vuitton’s international stores, as well as industrial sites and unrealized projects, includes interviews with some of today’s most talented architects and designers who discuss the beautiful and complex structures they have produced in collaboration with Louis Vuitton.
With rumors about Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy leaving Louis Vuitton for Dior, Duffy gave a nod and a wink:
“Marc definitely learned his craft and become an amazing technician. He could do a couture line.”
On a side note, Jacobs credits Duffy with saving him from drug addiction.
“On a personal level, Robert probably cares about me more than anyone in my entire life — about my well-being as well as my ability to perform as a designer. He literally saved my life. As soon as he realized [my heroin addiction in 1999] he said, “I’m not going to sit back and watch you kill yourself.”
Duffy is no stranger to controversy and earlier this year he was sued by one of Marc Jacob’s ex-employees. Patrice Lataillade, a former Marc Jacobs executive, filed a lawsuit against company president Robert Duffy, alleging violations of state and city laws based on charges of sexual discrimination.
The world of high fashion is about as capricious as it gets.
According to sources close to WWD, Dior is in talks with Marc Jacobs about becoming the new couturier of the French house. Dior has been without a creative leader since the loss of John Galliano in the wake of allegations of racism. Such a move would unseat Jacobs from Louis Vuitton, the cash-cow brand at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — and possibly set in motion a reshuffling at the French luxury giant. Who knows, perhaps Galliano will go the other way…
Typically, Marc Jacobs gives his collections for Louis Vuitton a different spin in advertising versus the runway. For the forthcoming fall campaign, slated to break in a wide range of August titles, Christy Turlington, Karen Elson and Natalia Vodianova are shown preening in front of old-fashioned makeup mirrors backstage, as if they were ready to take a stroll around the fountain of the Louvre’s Cour Carré, the setting for Vuitton’s show during Paris Fashion Week in March. Ditto for the multigenerational casting — one model in her 20s, one her 30s, one her 40s — adding up to one of the most sophisticated Vuitton fashion campaigns to date, according to Antoine Arnault, Vuitton’s director of communications.
“The atmosphere was very Fifties, very elegant,” he related. This is the fourth Vuitton campaign shot by Steven Meisel, who constructed the period set in a New York studio.
Arnault described the media spend as “flat” and said it would remain print driven, running in tandem with the company’s “Core Values” campaign. The latest one, depicting Pelé, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane playing foosball in a Madrid cafe, will continue to run through the World Cup tournament and into the fall. In light of the disgraced French team, Arnault expressed relief that Vuitton did not opt to cast today’s soccer stars. “We made the right choice to work with legends and not spoiled brats,” he said. via WWD
GQ Australia’s February/March 2010 issue visits Singapore for an engaging spread dedicated to Louis Vuitton’s spring 2010 collection. Presented by Jolyon Mason, Louis Vuitton’s boys are treated to exotic scenes as photographed by Gan.
History: Louis Vuitton launched his firm after gaining experience making luggage and trunks for Napoléon III. A century and a half later, his namesake brand is the anchor of the world’s largest luxury-goods company. (Side note: LV’s signature monogram, which dates to 1896, was actually introduced to discourage counterfeiting.) In the 2000s, LV menswear came into its own under the creative direction of Marc Jacobs and his studio director Paul Helbers, a Margiela alum with a knack for combining classical craftsmanship with futuristic colors, cuts, and fabrics.
GOING GREEN: Renaud Dutreil does his part to make New York a greener city. Every morning, the chairman of the U.S. arm of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton cycles to work, and carefully locks his bike at the red, stiletto-shaped rack by Bergdorf Goodman. On Monday, Dutreil and LVMH took their commitment to a better environment a step further. At a press conference, Dutreil unveiled the second installment of the luxury conglomerate’s partnership with the American Composers Orchestra, featuring a contest to find an orchestral work inspired by the theme “A Greener New York City.” Submissions for the “Greener New York City” piece are due Jan. 15, and the winner will be revealed in March. Erin Gee, the first competition’s winner, gave a performance at the event, which took place at the LVMH Tower. Gee’s LVMH-commissioned piece will premiere at Carnegie Hall on Nov. 30. WWD
Winter is around the corner, but Louis Vuitton still managed to throw a garden party Tuesday night at Saks Fifth Avenue.
The French luxury firm transformed the store’s third floor into an indoor menagerie, dubbed Les Jardin Louis Vuitton and flooded with magnolia leaves and box hedges. Insouciant models dressed in Vuitton’s new resort collection picnicked (or at least pretended to) at the nexus of the fete.
While craftsmen monogrammed Vuitton goods, debonair male model types hung guests’ paper notes on a wishing tree. Some were hoping for Vuitton handbags, others for world peace.
“I’m wishing to win the French Open, do you think that’s a good one?” asked Serena Wiliams, mingling among guests such as Arlenis Sosa, Lisa Airan and Annie Churchhill.
Co-host Maggie Gylenhaal wasn’t exactly in her element in the garden, she said, but her husband Peter Sarsgaard would have been in heaven. “We have a backyard since we’re in Brooklyn and he’s developed quite the green thumb,” she said. “But honestly, I couldn’t tell.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the moon, the Louis Vuitton Core Values campaign brings to gether Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell and Sally Ride under the expert lens of Annie Leibovitz.
One of Hong Kong’s first-ever public art installations has been unveiled – courtesy of Louis Vuitton. Richard Prince, the American artist best known for his “appropriation” style and his collaborations with Marc Jacobs, has wrapped the Hong Kong Museum of Art with enlarged replicas of pulp fiction novel covers.
The installation, which takes its theme from Prince’s “After Dark” series, heralds a significant exhibition of paintings, photographs and video installations collectively called “Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation” that will be displayed inside the Museum of Art from May 22 to August 9 as part of Hong Kong’s annual French May Arts Festival.
The exhibition draws from the permanent collection of the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création and features works by Jeff Koons, Bertrand Lavier and Stephen Sprouse.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton chairman Bernard Arnault, will attend the opening festivities next week along with Marc Jacobs, Prince, Takashi Murakami and Frank Gehry. The latter designed the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s permanent museum outside Paris, which is slated for completion in 2012.
Wednesday is Earth Day, and to mark the occasion, Louis Vuitton decided to donate 15 percent of all sales from its U.S. Web site that day to The Climate Project, the non-profit organization founded by Al Gore.
The one-day initiative continues the leather goods house’s commitment to the environment and the organization — it first partnered with The Climate Project in 2007, when it started making donations on behalf of some of the personalities in Vuitton’s Core Values advertising campaign.
The campaign has featured the likes of Catherine Deneuve, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, Sean Connery, Keith Richards and Francis Ford and Sofia Coppola.
“Over the past few years Louis Vuitton has voluntarily made efforts to reduce the impact of its activities on the environment,” Daniel Lalonde, president and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton North America said. “In addition we are proud to be able to support The Climate Project.”
The next step for the mighty Vuitton is to reduce its use of leather. In a groundbreaking 2006 report, the United Nations (U.N.) said that raising animals for food and leather generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Henning Steinfeld reported that the meat industry is “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems.”
Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide together cause the vast majority of global warming. Raising animals for food is one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide and the single largest source of both methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
Louis Vuitton – Environmental Charter.
So Louis Vuitton has composed the “Environmental Charter” below:
“Louis Vuitton wishes to bring creativity and sustainable development close together.
The environmental protection is the business of all. Beyond a strong conviction, Louis Vuitton has embarked up a voluntary environmental programme for severa; years. The high environmental performance is registered in the heart of Louis Vuitton trades.”
The following constitutes the “Actions” Louis Vuitton are enacting to fulfill their “Environmental Charter”:
“The vast majority of the materials used come from natural sources (leather), it has a real interest for Louis Vuitton in ensuring that these materials are available in the future.
This awkening led Louis Vuitton to pass to the act to reduce the impact of its activities on the environment.”
Perhaps someone should tell one of the worlds largest users of leather that in a groundbreaking 2006 report, the United Nations (U.N.) said that raising animals for leather generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Henning Steinfeld reported that the leather and meat industries are “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems.”
Are Louis Vuitton ignorant to these facts or are they trying to create a smoke screen (a CO2 smoke screen)?
Louis Vuitton’s menswear guru, Paul Helbers is renowned for sophistication and the Louis Vuitton menswear Autumn 2009 collection cements his credentials as a fashion leader.
The Louis Vuitton Paris should was further illuminated by a pair of scarlet trainers designed by Kanye West when he was apparently interning.
A federal judge in Manhattan awarded Louis Vuitton Malletier SA more than $3.5 million in damages and court fees this month in a trademark-counterfeiting suit Vuitton filed against several New York City businesses and their principals.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered defendants LY USA Inc., Coco USA Inc. and Marco Leather Goods Ltd. and their principals, Joyce Chan and Chong Lam, to pay $3 million in statutory damages relating to their sale of handbags that counterfeited and infringed upon Louis Vuitton’s trademarks.
Hellerstein said in his judgment dated Oct. 3 that his goal of deterring similar conduct by the defendants and others.
Is the fashion world’s current obsession with camoflage a reflection of a injured world. Here’s Louis Vuitton’s attempt to jump on the bandwagon:
With Monogramouflage, Marc Jacobs and Takashi Murakami have made their mark on a new creative landscape: camoflage. In this highly original canvas, designed by the Japanese artist, the Monogram motif appears on a forest background. The collection features luggage, city bags and small leather goods.
Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2009 has something of a Safari meets Soho Joe look to it. Cool and Creepy in equal measure!
A Manhattan federal judge has ruled in favor of Dooney & Bourke in a four-year trademark battle with Louis Vuitton.
U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin said Dooney & Bourke’s “It Bag” monogram design did not infringe on Vuitton’s Monograme Multicolore handbag collection.
Following Louis Vuitton’s valiant efforts to combat counterfeiting of their prestigeous brand, Louis Vuitton continues to be the most counterfeited designer brand in the world. As the preeminent fashion status symbol it is perhaps of no great surprise that Louis Vuitton has the unenviable position.
Nevertheless, Louis Vuitton has a tenacious legal team who vigorously pursue all counterfeit criminals wherever they maybe and have a no-nonsense approach to dealing with these individuals, who are invariably engaged in all kinds of base criminality from illegal weapons trading to human trafficking.
“The momentum we are gaining in our relentless fight against counterfeiting is tremendous, not only in the US but also in other marketplaces worldwide,†said Nathalie Moulle Berteaux, Director of the Intellectual Property Department for the Fashion & Leather Goods division of LVMH. “By working closely with law enforcement authorities and other trademark holders and compelling those aiding and abetting counterfeiters to accept responsibility for the counterfeiters’ criminal actions, we are putting a stranglehold on the distribution of fake goods.”