Roughly 350 people make it to Louis Vuitton’s catwalk show each year. The iconic brand’s presentation usually takes place on the last day of Paris Fashion Week and along with Chanel’s show it is considered the grande finale of the international fashion week’s Odyssey.
The exclusivity of shows of this calibre has made it almost impossible to become part of the spectacle that brands like Louis Vuitton present.
A holographic image welcomes guests to the first room of the exhibition.
However, in past years, digital technologies have made this experience completely accessible though the web. Back in 2010, McQueen was one of the first to live-stream his last and most iconic show “Plato’s Atlantis” all over the internet, followed by Burberry (whose last fashion show took place in a transparent tent in the middle of Hyde Park.)
Most recently, the British Fashion Council live-streamed all their presentations. It’s no wonder that even Tom Ford decided to avoid the buzz around his Spring/Summer 2016 show and instead, streamed Lady Gaga’s latest fashion video.
The creative director of Louis Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquière went one step further. Series 3 represents his creative and innovative journey using 3D and holographic technologies to reveal the craftsmanship and the reinvention of the new IT girl, at least-according to him.
[pullquote align=”right”]“48 looks, 30 make-up artists backstage, 25 hairdressers, 45 model dressers” and only one designer.”[/pullquote]
Going through the rooms of Series 3 is like a trip through space and time. Recently renovated, the former hotel-now exhibition art and fashion space at 180 The Strand is in close proximity to Somerset House -an iconic location associated to London Fashion Week.
Series 3 is an interactive blend between 3D projections of iconic Louis Vuitton bags and the AW15 catwalk show.
Starting from the architectural inspiration for the setting at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the exhibition takes you through the many faces of the new Louis Vuitton girls and the savoir-faire that the brand is famous for.
For his show Ghesquière referred to the geodesic dome that was built for the fashion catwalk at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.
The architectural structure is designed by the Canadian modernist Frank Gehry and is an homage to the architect Richard Buckminster Fuller.
[pullquote align=”right”]“it usually takes up to 30 hours for the completion of one bag from scratch with the participation of seven people in the process.”[/pullquote]Since the appointment of the new creative force behind the French house in 2013, the brand has gone through a transformation which had led to a new modernised vision and younger audience.
Series 3 is part of a sequence of travelling exhibitions, one of which previously took place in Tokyo.
These “experimental and emotional journeys” through the principles of the collections reveal the designer’s inspiration and creative motivation.
The exhibition starts with a futuristic tunnel that leads visitors to the heart of the digital projections that make retrospective of the house’s history and its founder’s studio in the outskirts of Paris.
The next room is called the “infinite show” where visitors can lay their hands on interactive tables where the process of creation of La Petite Malle, the Dora, is live-streamed. Stepping into the next room reveals the secret behind these videos.
Series 3, exhibiting campaign pictures for Louis Vuitton’s Autumn and Winter line.
The intriguing part about the curation of the exhibition is the way history and technology blend and result in a multi-screen projection of the Paris fashion show, which could be viewed by an estimated number of 100,000 people, according to Ghesquière.
Exclusivity in a digital era like ours is becoming less valuable. Making things accessible and transparent has become far more popular and has become a stronger marketing tool.
Stepping out of Series 3 made me feel as though I was an insider in the world of Louis Vuitton.