PARIS — Michael Burke won’t be enjoying his office at the Louis Vuitton headquarters in Paris, France, for much longer.
In an interview with WWD, the president and CEO of the French luxury brand revealed plans to transform Louis Vuitton’s corporate offices into a sprawling complex that includes the world’s first Louis Vuitton hotel and its largest store in the world, and that means giving up his office, with its panoramic views of the historic center of Paris.
“It’s the most spectacular view in the world,” he said, describing a panorama that stretches from the Eiffel Tower to Notre-Dame de Paris, without mentioning the neighboring Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, which dates back to the 13th century. century.
Parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has radically transformed the surrounding neighborhood in the last 18 months with the opening of the renovated La Samaritaine department store and the Cheval Blanc hotel, and the opening of the first Paris branch of its Italian pastry shops, Cova .
“Parisians are finally rediscovering it. They have embraced it. Outside here there is street music at 11 pm. When we took over, this was no man’s land, if not worse. No one in their right mind would walk here at night,” Burke said.
And he revealed that Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of the world’s largest luxury conglomerate, is just getting started, with plans to bring more offices, shops, homes, restaurants and cultural activities to the area.
“My dream was to create a revival of the original mall in Paris,” Burke said. “It’s been Bernard’s vision all along and we’re halfway there. He will take another 10 or 15 years to get him to where we think he should be.”
A representation of Maxime Frédéric in the Louis Vuitton cafe.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
On Tuesday, Vuitton will hold an event to launch an experiential space dubbed LV Dream as the first step toward its ambitious transformation of the 400,000-square-foot headquarters. “I told Bernard, you know, my office won’t be my office in five years, that’s for sure. There are better uses, more contemporary uses than a corporate office,” Burke said.
The plans reflect a growing momentum from fashion and luxury brands in hospitality, as consumers increase spending on experiences. “That’s what our customers want from us. They want a 24/7 relationship,” Burke said.
Actually, the space will not open to the public until December 12. Due to be open for a year, the 20,000-square-foot venue features an exhibit highlighting the brand’s collaborations with artists, along with a gift shop and cafe. and chocolatier run by Maxime Frédéric, head pastry chef at Cheval Blanc Paris.
It occupies a commercial space, located inside the Vuitton building, which formerly housed a Conforama furniture store. Before that, for nearly a century, the building was home to La Belle Jardinière, a department store famous for its affordable clothing. Along with La Samaritaine, it made the area a magnet for shoppers in the second half of the 19th century.
La Belle Jardinière department store in 1924.
Courtesy of the Louis Vuitton archives.
“Ultimately, the largest Vuitton store, most likely, will be the venue for this event to open,” Burke said.
“It’s going to be a work in progress for the next 10 years. The exhibit space has a lifespan of one year, and then next year, we’re going to do something else. And ultimately, probably most of this 400,000-square-foot building will be more than just an office,” she added.
“It has all the characteristics of an ideal lodging place. Just two years ago, people were belittling the idea and saying how crazy you must be to put on the Cheval Blanc,” he commented. “And it’s a resounding success.”
The executive said LVMH was not concerned that a future Louis Vuitton hotel would cannibalize the Cheval Blanc. “It would be its own identity, its own segment and its own service, a completely different experience,” he said, adding that he hopes to open the hotel “within five years.”
A portrait of Louis Vuitton from Mister Cartoon.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
LV Dream will feature nine rooms offering interactive experiences and a deep dive into the brand’s partnerships with artists, architects and designers. Designs by artists including Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama are on display, along with never-before-seen portraits of the Louis Vuitton founder by Alex Katz and American tattoo and graffiti artist Mister Cartoon.
Visits are free but must be pre-booked on the Vuitton website. Access to the cafeteria, chocolate shop and gift shop does not require a reservation. The restaurant, filled with tropical plants, will offer a selection of cakes adorned with the brand’s motifs, specially created by Frédéric, who was named Pastry Chef of the Year at the 2022 Gault & Millau food guide awards.
It’s the latest hospitality venture for Vuitton, which in the past year has opened a pop-up restaurant at its flagship in Seoul’s Gangnam district and a summer restaurant in Saint-Tropez with lively chef Mory Sacko. He also has a restaurant and cafe at his flagship boutique in Osaka, Japan, and a cafe inside his seven-story Ginza Namiki building in Tokyo, Japan, both run by Japanese celebrity chef Yosuke Suga.
“Food, drink and accommodation are clearly in the future for Louis Vuitton. And our specific approach, which is very different from everyone’s, is that each of those experiences is absolutely contextualized. It is not about taking the food tastes of an individual and taking them to the world. That was perhaps appropriate 20 or 30 years ago. Today, it’s all about creating unique dining experiences,” said Burke.
“The chef invariably changes depending on the city and the moment. The menu changes, the teams change, but always around the values of Louis Vuitton,” she added. “There will be 20, 30, 50 or 100 places where you will have Vuitton chocolates, but each time the chocolate recipe and the experience will be unique to that place. We are banning cookie cutters.”
Louis Vuitton chocolates by Maxime Frédéric.
Martin Colombeg/Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Open seven days a week, LV Dream marks the brand’s first showroom space in central Paris and is expected to attract 2,000 visitors a day.
Vuitton has previously exhibited its archives at La Galerie, a mini-museum opened in 2015 on Louis Vuitton’s historic grounds in the northern suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine, France, which also houses the former family home and workshops where the brand is housed. deluxe. it still produces its most unique made-to-order items.
“Asnières has always been a destination and above all by invitation. We have weekends in the spring and fall where anyone can sign up, so it’s not completely private,” Burke said.
The exhibit builds on previous exhibits, including the “Louis Vuitton X” show in Los Angeles, California in 2019, designed to highlight the collaborative process, which the brand launched in its current form in the 1970s and became a industry game changer. under the tenure of former artistic director Marc Jacobs.
michael burke
Jean-François Robert/Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Burke said that these presentations were key to channeling the values of the house.
“Vuitton is so inclusive, and has been so inclusive for the last century and a half, that it’s not that easy to synthesize Vuitton. It is much more than a fashion house, it is much more than a luxury house, it is much more than a luggage manufacturer, it is much more than a retailer,” he argued.
“There are so many things that Vuitton is involved in that it is sometimes difficult to capture all of them. And what this exhibit does is it allows you in 2,000 square meters and half an hour to really get a good sense of the richness and richness of Vuitton’s history and presence,” Burke said.
Turning to his future projects for the location, the executive said it was part of a broader rethinking of the role of city centers.
“Where people live, where they work, all of that is changing right now. We are rewriting the history of cities for the 21st century as we speak, and brands like Louis Vuitton have to be a force, we have to be a player. It goes way beyond a store,” she reasoned. “From an ecological perspective, it’s crazy to have all these buildings that are only occupied 20 percent of the time.”
And if that means losing the fancy office, so be it. After all, Burke’s maxim is: “The brand rules”.
Source: news.google.com