TAKING IT TO THE BANK
PARIS — Louis Vuitton’s newest store opened Tuesday on Place St. Germain des PrAs, just down the street from the historic CafA Flore in the heart of the Left Bank.
The 3,300-square-foot space is Vuitton’s first step across the Seine and marks a new concept that is likely to be implemented in a handful of stores in major international cities, according to Jean-Marc Loubier, Vuitton’s director of marketing.
“We are a Paris house. We are manufacturers and distributors, and our product has evolved,” Loubier explains. “We needed to develop a store of reference.”
The store was designed by Anouska Hempel, whose design at her own Blakes Hotel in London inspired Vuitton management. “There, every room is different, but there are Vuitton goods everywhere,” Loubier notes, referring to antique trunks and other accessories dotted throughout the hotel.
“I wanted to give the new atmosphere of the future of Vuitton in a never-stationary, gypsy kind of way,” explained Hempel, in Paris for the store’s opening. “Vuitton represents travel, movement and elegance of a bygone era that is still do-able today.”
To achieve these themes, Hempel used a mix of materials like mahogany, steel and glass for walls, flooring and display cases. But the modern edge is softened with period antiques reflecting stages in the company’s history.
The store, which has two upper level mezzanines, is divided into separate areas to distinguish product groups or colors. But mixed in are vintage Vuitton goods.
“Putting the old trunks in with the new helps give the customer a sense of Vuitton’s continuity,” explained Catherine Vautrin, the store’s network manager for Vuitton worldwide. A special feature of the store is its exotics section, secluded on the top mezzanine, for accessories made with skins like ostrich, crocodile and lizard. One Alma handbag is made from a crocodile skin and sells for about $7,540, while a small structured handbag in deep blue lizard sells for about $2,440.