Oh, the delicious irony of history.
In March this year, the Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs exhibition opened at Paris’s Les Arts Décoratifs, formerly part of Palais du Louvre, a mere five-minute walk from rue Saint-Honoré where, in 1837, a 16-year-old Louis Vuitton began his apprenticeship with Romain Maréchal, a master trunk maker and packer.
He would undoubtedly be very proud to see the brand that he founded in 1854 now being heralded as one of the iconic luxury brands of our time.
The exhibition celebrates the journey of the brand driven by two extraordinary men: Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs, separated by time but similar in many ways. Both innovators, both craftsmen, both ambitious, and both undoubtedly products of their time: Vuitton harnessing the industrialisation of the 19th century, Jacobs the globalisation of the 21st century.
As exhibition curator Pamela Golbin points out, rather than a retrospective or a thematic exhibition, it shows how these two influenced the fashion industry of their time. “It’s about perfection, innovation and pushing creativity.”
“It’s about perfection,
innovation and
pushing creativity.”
For those who won’t get to Paris before the exhibition ends in September, Rizzoli has published a glorious accompanying tome Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs ($110) divided between the two. The Louis Vuitton section explores the story of the young man who founded his own company and, despite war and political and economic instability, made it a success. Recognising the rising popularity of both the couture industry and recreational travel, Vuitton foresaw the perfect conditions for his luxury luggage business.
Celebrating his 15 years as artistic director of Louis Vuitton this year, Marc Jacobs’s section looks at how the rebellious New York designer shook awake the sleeping giant without trampling on its heritage.
There’s also a look at the successful collaborations Jacobs initiated with artists Stephen Sprouse, Richard Prince and Takashi Murakami, and the effect they had on the brand.
But perhaps the most fascinating section is that dedicated to Jacobs’s Louis Vuitton team and how the creative process flows, including titbits on that very first Collection Zero, where they conceived ready-to-wear for the first time, why the team refers to Jacobs as the Wizard of Oz and why they are not allowed to make mistakes.
Despite the differences of time and milieu, there are many similarities between the two approaches. As Jacobs says: “We all just want to make beautiful things and I think that although what Vuitton made was beautiful trunks and travelling pieces, what went into those things was skill and luxury and a kind of craft, and if we can do that in a fashion handbag or in a shoe or in a dress, then we’re right in line with what Vuitton should be.”
Published in Vogue Australia June 2012
WHY DON’T YOU READ:
The Slap becomes a new ABC show
