|
TRAVELLING AND CARRYING a virtual love
for Paris link Louis Vuitton Malletier with Mme Sevigné,
a woman who was constantly on the move from one district to another
in the capital. The Musée
Carnavalet, situated on the rue de Sevigné, hosts a new
exhibition, Voyage en Capitale: Louis Vuitton et Paris (closing
February 27, 2011). For a short time, the exhibition unravels the
history of the Louis Vuitton brand, presenting visitors with more
than just a fashion statement.
The exhibition invites spectators to go on what they
call a voyage and what is perceived as an escape. The first room,
the ‘Vuitton Trunk’, prepares the visitors to set sail
as they pass under a large door in the shape of a ‘monogram
flower’.
In the 18th century, travel played a large role in people’s
lives. When thinking of travelling, we associate it to luggage and
bags. At the time, baggage was considerably heavy and impractical.
In the 1850s, new forms of transportation evolved and developed,
and in 1890, packing techniques also ameliorated.
During this time, Louis Vuitton created spacious trunks
with secure locks, facilitating travel. The other attractive feature
of the Vuitton trunk was the organizational methods: there were
compartments made for travellers to easily attain their desired
item. There were trunk desks, trunks for storing plates, brushes,
clothes, toiletry, and anything else to fit one’s needs.
The famous monogram was created by Georges Vuitton in
1896. He formed a more complex feature of a monogram with four patterns:
an intertwined house initial, a lozenge with a quatrefoil flower
at the centre, another larger quatrefoil flower and, finally, a
flower with a four-leafed flower placed in the middle. In 1996,
a shoe trunk was designed by Manolo Blahnik to celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the monogram.
Apart from history, the exhibition presents a variety
of items made from a series of materials including copper, monogram
canvas and crocodile skin. Many of the LV
bags we know of today were created back in the early years. The
chrome bronze Sylvie Fleury bag was born in 1961 and reborn in 2001:
proof that a trend never dies, it simply fades away, awaiting its
revival.
As visitors pass into the final room, ‘The Extraordinary
Voyage’, the dim lights and a tune in the background provokes
an illusion of taking an actual trip.
To attain a deeper insight of the exhibition, we spoke
to the museum’s heritage curator, Rose-Marie Mousseaux, who
worked side-by-side with Raphaël Gérard, the exhibition
director.
How was this exhibition made possible?
Jean-Marc Lèri, the director of the Musée Carnavalet,
knew Raphaël Gérard very well. They sat down together
and discussed this project. The next step was to look for a place
to highlight the story of Louis Vuitton and la maison Vuitton.
Since Vuitton is very much associated with Paris, they were looking
for a place to present the exhibition in the city. Since Lèri
is the director of the museum, he proposed that the exhibition be
held here, at the Musée Carnavalet. And that is where I come
into the story, sharing my archæological perspective and understanding
to make this project more profound in detail.
It took us eighteen months to put together the details
needed for this exhibition.
When you walked through the exhibition and you saw the work
you put together alongside Raphaël, what was the first thing
that went through your mind?
Once the exhibition was finally inaugurated, it was a moment of
[with a wipe of the forehead] ‘Yes! We were able to finish
everything before the deadline!’
It was, as a matter of fact, a race against time: as
soon as we began to put this project together; we had to work very
fast. During that time, Raphaël was also working on the 2010
Universal Exhibition in Shanghai, which, as you will see, we included
a touch of in the exhibition. Another part of our job was to quickly
choose a scenographer. We chose to work with the Jean-Marc Gady
Agency. Gady, who works a lot with la maison Vuitton, has
much experience in the Vuitton domain, so he was able to fit 220
objects into a space of 750 m² (7,500 ft²). I have to
admit, they created such a majestic scene; I sincerely tip my hat
off to them.
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think
of Louis Vuitton?
Honestly, in the beginning when I thought of Louis Vuitton, I directly
thought about the famous monogram. Finally, as I worked deep into
this project I found myself studying about people who had worked
on various techniques that were very much genius! These techniques
where soon adopted by the generations that followed in the Vuitton
family.
To sum up, when I think of Vuitton today, I think of
genius techniques and æsthetic, which were not automatically
what I thought of before, and, of course, I think of trunks. Trunks
were the first things that were created the moment that Vuitton
opened its doors, and now it goes down from generation to generation.
What changes did you notice from past Louis Vuitton designs
in parallel to the current ones?
This is exactly what the exhibition tries to highlight; it is the
progressive change, mainly in terms of the trunk’s forms. The
shapes of trunks changed; in 1856, there were flat trunks. Eventually,
the trunk’s canvases differed as well. There were various colours
that were added; soon there was the monogram canvas that emerged.
Not only were there exterior changes, but as one can see while looking
around, there were also interior changes that evolved.
What would you like visitors to ponder upon as they walk through
the exhibition?
I especially invite them to travel, which is why we called this
exhibition a Voyage en Capitale. Our main goal is to allow
the visitors to imagine what trunk they would use and which one
would be a perfect fit for them. •
|  |
Apart from history, the exhibition presents a variety
of items made from a series of materials including copper, monogram
canvas and crocodile skin
Lola Saab is Paris editor of Lucire.
|
Departments
Selected RSS feeds Lucire News | Jack Yan | Summer
Rayne Oakes | Stanley
Moss | Jennifer Lawson | Anna Deans
The Louis Vuitton voyage The Musée Carnavale’s exhibition
tracks the history of Louis Vuitton and the evolution of the famous trunk
Lucire Facebook group
Digg it