Press Preview: Louis Vuitton's Global Store Opening & "Malaysia's League of Extraordinary Women" Exhibit
7 February 2014

Press Preview: Louis Vuitton’s Global Store Opening & “Malaysia’s League of Extraordinary Women” Exhibit

The Travel Room

Last week, us press peeps were invited to Louis Vuitton’s first global store launch in Malaysia at Star Hill. The store was made to look like a luxury apartment, with each area representing a room, complete with furniture, art pieces and Vuitton’s iconic bags.

Kathy Lam and Christopher Kilaniotis, President of LV South Asia

 

  Artwork by a renowned New York artist Yolande Batteau in the Private VIP Salon

 

The VIP Salon

 

 

Women”s Ready-to-Wear room

 

Even the grilles have the Vuitton motif!

 

 

The New Noe bag, ready to be pre-ordered!

 

The Small Leather Goods room

 

 

Men’s shoe salon

 

Only 10 pieces of these Limited Edition Chapman brothers embroidered Steamer bags were made for men. And this is the last piece left in the world, retailing at RM 71,000! 

 

The Men’s Fitting Room with sports themed rings

 

Men’s private area

 

 

The hot stamping machine, where you can get all your LV items embossed with your initials at the store!

 

The Trunk on display at the Travel Room with the Travel guides atop the table

 

 

Women’s Bags, front and centre after entering the store

 

 

hat box anyone?

 

Archival piece – Damier trunk c. 1890

 

 

Capucines bag, available via reservation and pre-orders only.

 

The High-End leather section

 

The newly renovated global store is the 12th store in Asia to have the Haute Maroquinerie service where customers can choose from 5 different shapes – the Lockit, the Noe, Neo Steamer, Triangle, and the new Milaris – 8 different types of leather, 26 colours and 2 finishes to create your very own bespoke one-of-a-kind piece.

 

The Exotic Leather section

 

 

Women’s shoes salon

 

Vuitton also stays true to its commitment  to the Arts. At the centre of it all is a painting entitled “beLieVe” located at the Woman’s universe by Malaysian artist Ivan Lam. We got to meet the artist and ask him questions about the piece that LV had commissioned him to do for the store. In fact, it’s his first commissioned piece in 10 years!

 

Lam said that he chose to name his work “beLieVe” because if you take away some of the letters, it becomes “Be LV”, and that’s exactly what his piece is about because it was inspired by the femininity of LV’s Ready-to-Wear collections. The artist wanted to take elements from the women’s RTW pieces, and to integrate that into his work. I got to have a chat with the artist, and he says that for the first time ever, he didn’t use a single drop of paint for his works. Instead, he opted for sequins (which he remembers vividly as one of the prominent elements in LV’s previous RTW collections), aluminium, resin, charcoal and dust to put this piece together. “beLieVe” is made up of 1 million sequins (yes I kid you not) in various colours to signify Malaysia’s multicultural society. The result? The sequins sparkle and glitter in the light, and it almost seems as if the piece of art is winking at you from a distance. The top half features oxidised handprints from 3 different generations of women from Lam’s own family. Although the handprints at first glance, seem to be haphazardly positioned, Lam tells us that none of the handprints actually overlap or touch each other. Oh and guess what? the weight of this piece of work? A whopping 40kg due to the layers of resin that he has had to brush over to create that flat and smooth texture despite the heavy use of sequins. The painting is nestled in the Women’s Universe section of the store, and the wall on which the art piece rests on, was specially cut to fit Lam’s work.

 

When I asked him if he’d be working more closely with LV in the future with regards to more commissioned pieces for the store, he very humbly says that he hopes this would open the doors for other of his fellow Malaysian artists, and having their work also installed alongside his, instead of forming an exclusive relationship with the luxury brand.

 

 

The artist Ivan Lam with his work

Once we were done with the tour of the new store, we got to experience the Louis Vuitton photographic exhibit, held in collaboration with YTL, called “Malaysia’s League of Extraordinary Women”.

The 8 women being honoured were styled by Sean K in complete head-to-toe Vuitton looks, and photographed by renowned Hong Kong photographer Wing Shya.

The Behind-the-scenes shots

 

KDYTM Tengku Puan Pahang Tunku Azizah Sultan Iskandar, “The People’s Princess”

 

Michelle Yeoh – “The Silver Screen Goddess”

 

Marina Mahathir – “The Equality Advocate”

 

Dr. Jemilah Mahmood – “The Golden Heart”

 

Sheila Majid – “The Songbird”

 

Tom Abang Saufi – “The Designer Doyenne”

 

Nicol David (Isn’t she Gorgeous here?) – “The Game Changer”

 

Ling Tan – “The Supermodel”

 

 

BTS at Nicol David Shoot

 

BTS Ling Tan shoot

 

BTS Sheila Majid shoot

 

BTS Marina Mahathir shoot

 

BTS Tom Abang Saufi shoot

 

BTS Michelle Yeoh shoot

 

BTS Dr Jemilah Mahmood shoot
BTS

 KDYTM Tengku Puan Pahang Tunku Azizah Sultan Iskandar shoot

 

The photo exhibit will be held from January 28th right up to February 28th,  on the Indulge Floor (next to Fendi) from 11am to 8pm daily so do check it out!

All images by Bag Addicts Anonymous

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