A space on the fifth floor, which is reserved for private clients at Louis Vuitton's temporary new store. NEW YORK – Being temporary in the world of luxury is still quite nice. A new store by Louis Vuitton is opening near a stretch of Manhattan also known as Billionaires’ Row.
It is built to last for only a couple of years while the company renovates its flagship across the street. Customers are greeted with a towering installation in the store’s atrium, designed by Shohei Shigematsu, an architect at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture firm. Four sculptural pillars of stacked Louis Vuitton trunks climb toward the roughly 15m ceiling, reminiscent of a game of Tetris.
“Stepping into a Louis Vuitton store is about embarking on a journey,” Louis Vuitton chief executive Pietro Beccari said in an e-mail. During Mr Beccari’s tenure, Louis Vuitton has aggressively continued to position itself as a cultural brand. Mr Beccari featured tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal hiking in the Dolomites for an advertising campaign in 2024.
In 2023, he appointed producer Pharrell Williams as Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director. The house has also expanded into the world of dining and hospitality. It brought on board acclaimed French chefs Arnaud Donckele and Maxime Frederic to oversee various culinary ventures, including Le Cafe, a concept restaurant designed around what the house calls “luxury snacking”.
Louis Vuitton bags hanging on hand-shaped hooks at th.