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Pharrell calls for reintroducing arts and architecture competitions at the Olympics

2024-08-01T17:54:00-04:00

[Pharrell] Williams is aiming to reinstate arts competitions back on the world’s biggest sports stage, starting with raising awareness through his star-studded Louis Vuitton event Thursday in Paris. He passionately shared his goal to see the tradition revived by the Olympics in 2028 the night before the Games’ opening ceremony.

As we detailed three years ago during the Tokyo games, the modern Olympics were at one time also meant to showcase feats of artistic and architectural talent (although most were tinged by racist theories of the time). Pharrell’s view, which he wouldn’t elaborate, is that having them included would “raise awareness.”

Francesca Aton of ARTnews joined the musician and Louis Vuitton creative director (and avid skateboarder) in espousing: “[It’s] clear that reviving them would not only take a big effort but would also require the support of those active among the categories in each respective field. As recent studies on arts workers reveal gaps in professional continuation and low wages, support for those in the field could be a welcome change and an opportunity for impactful discovery.”

Frank Gehry designs Louis Vuitton handbag collection for Art Basel Miami Beach

2023-12-12T12:53:00-05:00

The 21st edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which took place last week, featured a special capsule collection from Frank Gehry for Louis Vuitton. The latest in a string of creative product collaborations that have to date included a special fragrance bottle design and the 2014 'Iconoclasts' series contribution offers a “reinterpretation” of the brand’s iconic Capucines bag designed to encapsulate four themes: 'Architecture and Form,' 'Material Exploration,' 'Animals,' and the 'Twisted Box.'

Image courtesy Louis Vuitton.

“It is hard to adjust the existing Capucines shape, which is very strong. We had been working on that design graphically in 2D, and the images that we had made were compelling. I was skeptical that the architectural shape would be strong enough, though,” Gehry explained in Vogue. “The final bag not only got the sculptural feeling that I was looking for, but it also has the graphic quality that we liked.”

Image © Mario Kroes

The fluid fish motif Gehry has revisited tim...

Peter Marino debuts signature handbag for Louis Vuitton

2022-10-20T11:25:00-04:00

Peter Marino is one of six artists included in the latest update of Louis Vuitton’s signature Artycapucines handbag collection. The incorrigible leatherdaddy and designer of several of the brand’s flagship locations says his all-black contribution was inspired by a medieval strongbox he discovered while visiting a 14th century Venetian palace.

He joins Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Sol LeWitt, and other artists to have been featured in the now 9-year-old collection. Bags go for €8,000 but are still rugged enough for everyday wear, despite the dual sculptural qualities he also preferred.

“It was a fun challenge,” Marino recently told WWD. “I design furniture for Vuitton; I design carpets and doorknobs, so it’s very much in the vein of what I do for them. This is not a wussie handbag,”

The Salk Institute opens its doors for Louis Vuitton fashion show

2022-05-16T14:28:00-04:00

The Salk Institute recently opened its iconic campus to Louis Vuitton for a private fashion show presenting the brand’s Cruise 2023 collection. This event was the first of its kind to be held at this location.

As noted by the Institute, the use of space, natural light, materials, and bold lines throughout the Louis Kahn-designed structure was a fitting setting for the French fashion label’s showcase. Its travertine courtyard was converted into a temporary runway, framed by the two mirrored concrete buildings. At the center of the courtyard, the Institute’s “River of Life” water feature cut through the runway. Guests were able to enjoy both the show and views of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

Video via Louis Vuitton on YouTube.

“Salk has a global reputation as ‘a cathedral to science, an homage to art,” said Salk President Rusty Gage. “The Institute’s founder, Jonas Salk, understood that art and science come from the same creative source. It was his intention that his Institute...

Louis Vuitton announces Frank Gehry's new fish-inspired perfume bottle collaboration

2021-10-08T17:20:00-04:00

Taking from the movement and fluidity found in his fish motif, Frank Gehry has now teamed up with one of France’s most storied fashion houses for the design of a new fragrance bottle that was unveiled today.

As part of Louis Vuitton’s new Les Extraits Collection, the 92-year-old architect transformed the iconic bottle into a sculptural form that embodies the fragrance’s evocation of travel designed and developed by master perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud.

Image © Florian Joye via Louis Vuitton Les Extraits Collection

“This bottle is a fixed gesture,” Gehry said in a statement to Elle Decor, “a hydrodynamic line that recalls the undulating motion of fish, the spatial expression of that slow, continuous back and forth, the interplay of unstable equilibrium and gliding underwater, which have always been an architect’s obsession.”

Image © Florian Joye via Louis Vuitton Les Extraits Collection

Following the completion of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2014, Gehry has collaborated with ...

Featuring a rippling glass facade by SANAA, the fully restored La Samaritaine department store opens in Paris after 16 years

2021-06-24T15:16:00-04:00

The overhauled La Samaritaine department store is now open in Paris after an $894 million restoration that has kept the building closed since 2005.

The new Samaritaine features a rippling glass veiled facade, covered patios, repaired skylights, and an updated 1907 roof that gives the shopping center's restored interior an opulent feel.

The Art Nouveau facade on Rue de la Monnaie. © Pierre-Olivier Deschamps via SANAA.

Japanese firm SANAA worked to restore the Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings for LVHM with help from Canadian studio Yabu Pushelberg. The new Samaritaine Pont-Neuf building will now serve as a luxury shopping destination in a 19th-century retail space itself reconstructed a century ago by architect Frantz Jourdain.

Interior view of La Samaritaine's staircase and skylight features. © Pierre-Olivier Deschamps via SANAA.

The newly restored buildings had once been host to an unprofitable venture and will now feature contrasting retail spaces, with three floors aimed delibera...

Louis Vuitton's London flagship reopens as a Peter Marino-designed spectacle

2019-10-24T15:51:00-04:00

Reopening after a 14-month makeover, the renovated store is a multi-storey expo fitted with the work of [...] artists, which – unlike those collections, and art you'd find in a concept store – is intended to be viewed, rather than purchased.

Photo: Stephane Muratet, courtesy Louis Vuitton

Elle's Sara McAlpine on the rise of 'The Spectacle Store' among luxury retailers and how Louis Vuitton's newly reopened London flagship fits right in.

"The face of retail changes so fast," Peter Marino, whose New York-based firm was in charge of the lengthy makeover, tells Elle, adding, "It’s very much a necessity for [brands] to have these big special statements in key landmark locations."

Photo: Stephane Muratet, courtesy Louis Vuitton

The Louis Vuitton London Maison on New Bond Street reopened today after undergoing 14 months of renovation to "reveal a complete reimagining of the space, featuring a sweeping double helix shaped staircase crafted in cerused oak and worked as a sculpture with an offset centre."

Photo: Stephane Muratet, courtesy Louis Vuitton

There are 43 artworks throughout the store — from 25 artists including site-specific commissions from Sarah Crowner, Jim Lambie, Josh Sperling, Farhad Moshiri, and Matt Gagnon — as ...

MOCA Chicago celebrates Virgil Abloh's career outside of architecture

2019-08-21T18:11:00-04:00

I doubt that Virgil Abloh is ever going to design a building, even if Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA, the most successful spotter of talent in allied fields that architecture has seen in the last century, has added him to his stable of associates...

The famous Louis Vuitton designer has carved out an impressive career for himself, working as a DJ and advisor to Kanye West in addition to producing "furniture, performance sets, art work, and graphic design projects." Despite receiving his Master of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2006, Abloh has foregone a traditional path in architecture for a more multidisciplinary one.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has a current exhibition about Abloh's near 15 year career that will run until September 22, 2019.

Louis Vuitton's “shoppable museum” pop-up makes a pitstop in Beverly Hills

2019-07-22T18:52:00-04:00

Louis Vuitton X brings together a remarkable collection of early twentieth-century special-order trunks, beautiful art deco perfume bottles and window displays commissioned and designed by Louis Vuitton's grandson Gaston-Louis, iconic Monogram bags reworked by renowned artists and designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Rei Kawakubo, Cindy Sherman, and Frank Gehry, and original collaborations and commissions by artists including Yayoi Kusama, Richard Prince, and Zaha Hadid.

Fusing art and commerce, “Louis Vuitton X” is a pop-up exhibition currently at the 458 North Rodeo Drive building through September 15 in Beverly Hills. The glitzy pop-up space is a burst of color that showcases 180 items from Louis Vuitton's archives and traces the fashion house's 160-year creative history. Of course, the exhibition features a shopping element to it, where visitors can browse LV's latest “Artycapucines” collection designed in collaboration with six international artists. After its LA stop, the pop-up exhibition will go on a global tour.

For Paris Fashion Week, Louis Vuitton recreates the Pompidou Centre

2019-03-11T16:50:00-04:00

Closing out Paris Fashion Week, Louis Vuitton's runway show was set inside a museum within a museum. Put on by artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière, the fashion brand recreated the Centre Pompidou inside the Louvre, transporting Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers' multi-colored piping and other iconic features to a great glass box at the historic museum's Cour Carrée.

Mr. Ghesquière was inspired by the way the revolutionary building, the design for which was heavily criticized at the time, has become a distinctive symbol of the city. He told the Guardian, "it has become central to Paris, to culture, to young people, to everyone who loves the future. Your eye gets used to something, and your tastes evolved and change.”

Like the Pompidou, Louis Vuitton is pushing on the boundaries of taste this season, sending down a collection of awkward pairing and visually jarring shapes. Done in collaboration with La Mode En Image, the international agency known for its transformative set designs an...

Peter Marino designs Louis Vuitton store in Paris's Place Vendôme

2017-10-05T14:00:00-04:00

What could be more fitting as a symbol of rebirth in the City of Light, than a golden sun streaming spiralling metal rays? That’s the resplendent installation that Louis Vuitton visual creative director Faye Mcleod conceived for the façade of the maison’s new Peter Marino-designed Paris flagship.

Louis Vuitton moves back to Place Vendôme in the most expensive part of Paris. The store occupies two 18th centurary hôtel particuliers. On the building façade, shines a giant golden sun. Apart from this addition, the exterior has not been transformed. The interiors of the store are contemporary and thus, we can't blame the loss of their historical cachet to Marino—the building had already been redesigned in the 1980s to become an office space.

About the project Marino says "I thought I would juxtapose a modern aesthetic to everything within the walls and restore as beautifully and faithfully as possible the exterior. The balance between modern and old, is for me, what Paris is all about."