Louis Vuitton opens the doors of its new store in the heart of Milano, right next to Piazza San Babila, inside the historical Garage Traversi. The building is an example of rationalist architecture designed by Giuseppe De Min and erected in 1939: after 20 years of inactivity, thanks to Louis Vuitton the building has been completely renewed and given back to the city. The brand develops its new store on three levels: the ground floor and second floor are dedicated to retail: especially he first one is for womenswear and the second one for menswear. The first floor has an important role for the Maison, it is destinated to host special projects, with a calendar that alternates immersive pop-up stores with artistic and cultural exhibitions. Renewing the building, Louis Vuitton’s mission is to valorize and homage it, maintaining some of its original characteristics, like the exposed monumental fan beams designed with a curved wall system. The spaces are distinguished by precise chromatic identities that exalt the contrast with the original structure of the building: for the part dedicated to womenswear, Louis Vuitton chose an intense and bright shade that goes from yellow to fuxia, while the floor hosting menswear is characterized by a deep Klein blu.
“I am determined to create a Kusama world that nobody ever saw before.”
This new opening wants to make the customer experience unique, making the client immersed in the world of Louis Vuitton through the accurate choice of vintage furniture, borrowed from the Italian design heritage, influential artworks, objects from the Maison’s historical archive, and unique artisanal savoir-faire elements. The store’s first floor instead is completely dedicated to special projects, such as collaborations and exhibitions brought from the art world, an interest Louis Vuitton always had. Milano’s store opens in parallel with the drop of the collection “Creating Infinity: the worlds of Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama”, the second collaboration between the brand and the Japanese artist. The fusion between the two creates a partnership that has the purpose of once again awakening, expanding, and evolving the creative exchange that began in 2012, with a campaign that depicts international top models portrayed beside Kusama’s characteristic pattern. Thanks to the arrangement, the customer can dive into the creative world presented by Louis Vuitton: the artist’s classic coloured dots invade the space and contaminate all the surfaces, offering the visitors a unique and dystopic experience, together with the huge Metallic spheres where the space reflects on, multiplying infinite times. The products unveiled inside the space are the result of a collaboration rooted in iconoclasticism and the mutual admiration of craftsmanship and excellence. Apparel, bags, shoes, and sunglasses have been contaminated by the motif and imagination of Yayoi Kusama. Demonstrating Louis Vuitton’s savoir-faire, an innovative screen printing technique reproduces the Artist’s brush strokes, giving life to a hand-painted 3D effect extraordinarily realistic. Applied one by one, are the half-metallic spheres in different dimensions that animate a selection of different pieces donating a silver reflection effect.
To highlight the collaboration between the brand and Kusama, the facade of the building is characterized by a strong presence of the Infinity Dots applied on the windows. The terrace is dominated by three huge pumpkins with bright colours, to recall the Artist’s recurring theme of Pumpkins, an emblem of the dichotomy intrinsic in the artist, but representing at the same time her alter-ego, symbol of a hostile nature, of fears and worries and a reassuring memory of her childhood. Milano has not only been chosen to open a store to host special projects, but also to be a place to be filled with unexpected vibrancy around the city to celebrate the creative partnership. To express Kusama’s universe at the fullest, the city will be invaded by colours, dots, and pumpkins, the iconic elements of the artist: from the 10th of January the flower kiosk in front of the store will be dressed with the kaleidoscopic coloured dots replicating Kusama’s brush strokes, while from the 13th of January, San Babila Square will hold three gigantic pumpkin shaped sculptures, realized by the Studio Kusama. Through its second collaboration, Louis Vuitton and Kusama suggests once again an interesting and contemporary union between fashion and art, letting the customers participate and be included in the explosion of colours and creativity of the innovative space.
For further information louisvuitton.com.
