Louis Vuitton exhibit traces brand through past, present, future
Louis Vuitton’s “Series 2” exhibit in Hollywood wrapped up on Sunday, after a month of rooms filled with videos and holographics to celebrate the brand’s clothing and accessories and to promote the Spring 2015 Women’s Ready-to-Wear collection. (Austin Yu/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Marina Romanchuk-Kapralau
Feb. 23, 2015 4:52 p.m.
Twilight, mystery and fashion week atmosphere reigned at the Louis Vuitton exhibit in Hollywood.
The Louis Vuitton exhibit closed on the day of the Oscar’s on Sunday. The exhibition, “Series 2: A Presentation of the Timeless Inspirations Behind a New Collection,” was held to promote the Spring 2015 Women’s Ready-to-Wear Collection by Louis Vuitton. There was no product for sale at the exhibit, but posters and stickers were given away for free as souvenirs.
Nicolas Ghesquière, women’s artistic director of the designer house and the display creator, fashioned the exhibit as a series of the rooms showcasing past, present and future of the brand. Guests entered the show through the dark corridor with the gigantic red Louis Vuitton monogram, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Los Angeles fashion-lovers walked through the animation of the Louis Vuitton upcoming women’s runway show.
An unearthly illusion labyrinth called “Talking Faces” was a room filled with reflected light rays and three-dimensional holograms of planets. Mirrors on all sides of the labyrinth created an impression of being in the never-ending strip of model talking heads. The room was mysterious and even a little ghostly, with dim lighting and chanting Louis Vuitton models on screens. It didn’t take long before I started to loose myself in the space.
The “Savoir-Faire” room contained three screens displaying a different Louis Vuitton product being made by hand in real time: a shoe, handbag and dress. The show creators demonstrated that mass production is not valued at the designer house and emphasized the amount of time, attention and skill required to craft every piece produced by Vuitton. The description of the room stated, “Only the hand can create truly exceptional objects.”
The busiest and the most popular area was a bright white room called the “accessories gallery.” The room contained vintage luggage bags and elegant female mannequins holding iconic Louis Vuitton purses.
“I have always loved creating accessories. For me, they are always connected to the collections, they hold an integral place in the creation of an ensemble, either juxtaposing or completing the outfit,” Ghesquière said in the description accompanying the accessory room.
Finally, the “backstage” room was filled with fashion show outfits and matching shoes, recreating the atmosphere of the runway behind-the-scenes. The voices of 48 models, 25 makeup artists, 25 hairdressers, 40 studio staff, 40 dressers and one designer – Ghesquière himself housed the room and added realism to the scene.
“I left the ‘Series2’ exhibit with this incredible feeling, which is so hard to catch in Los Angeles. The city dictates its casual clothing style, but events such as this one make me feel like Carrie Bradshaw,” said exhibit-goer Uliana Maynskaya. “ Louis Vuitton did a really good job at combining marketing and art and bringing this event to public.”
