Bonne Année! Paris is definitely the place to be for the holidays with all the lights and of course the Champs-Elysées. It was a treat to stay a block away from the new Louis Vuitton store. The first day we arrived it was around zero degrees celsius and there was a line of around 30 or so people waiting to get into the store. We already froze our butts off walking down the Champs-Elysées all the way down to the Louvre in between crazy boughts of snow flurries that we were not going to wait outside just to get into a store. Instead we asked when they opened the next morning, which was 10am, and decided to take a look then. Walking outside and around the building to the Avenue Georges V, I loved the window displays outside that incorporated these tall vertical screens complete with colorful motion graphic displays.
We got there a little after 10am and surprisingly, the store seemed pretty busy already. We asked if we could take pictures but unfortunately we couldn't. I was only inside the store but for a few seconds and I was already gasping at all the vintage LV trunks that were peppered throughout the walls (very high up to 20 feet), some still with monograms of their previous owners. I wondered if these trunks lived through the old cruise ship voyages from Paris to New York were the rich socialites packed their gowns and jewels in the massive boxes.
The store made all the goods accessible and it was cool to be able to take a close up look at some of the trunks when we got up to the 2nd floor. The store is designed in such a way that there are stairs to nooks and crannies with lots of things on display everywhere. I also loved looking at the jewelry and cosmetic travel boxes. They had compartments and drawers for everything which I loved to check out. Obviously, its nothing I need but cool to think that someone in time like Gretta Garbo was taking this little box with her on her travels.
Anything you could think of was there except it was emblazoned with the LV signature logo. There were golf club caddies, umbrellas, Sony PSP cases, small carry on luggage with wheels, monogram cherries, multicolored logos, and more. It was all so overwhelming, but the store was just beautiful and amazing in its design, layout, and presentation of all the goods. There was also a bookstore where they had quite a number of design, travel and fashion books, including their own Louis Vuitton book. This book was also highlighted via an interactive projection display where you could flip the "pages" by gesturing your hands either to the right or left of the "book". I liked the novetly of seeing the animation of the pages turn as well as the sound effects for it. It was almost like a flash movie on a web site but more fun because it was a huge book being displayed and you didn't have to lift the real heavy book to take a look inside.
Of course I didn't get anything there (more on shopping and what I got later) although I loved a pair of sunglasses I saw. I loved the shape but wasn't too cool on the LV logo and emblems going all the way down the sides of the glasses. It was definitely fun and worth it to check out the store which was like a museum of sorts. The people there are so nice and you can pretty much touch and look at all the things you want to get a better glimpse into the Louis Vuitton world.
