This weekend, LVMH opened their doors to the public for the very first time... The haute couture salons like Dior, the ateliers of Berluti & Vuitton & wine cellars (Ruinart, Veuve clicquot, Moet) of this great empire were opened for visits.
On very short notice, we were lucky to get the last 2 invitations for Vuitton's ateliers in Asnieres-sur-Seine, near Paris.
Long queues were forming outside the ateliers when we arrived... The waiting time was up to 4 hours!
Basically, if someone who had an invitation didnt turn up on time, their place would be given to someone queueing up. Which i think is very fair considering the cold weather.
Waiting for the visit to start... Beyond this point, security was very tight & understandably, no photos were allowed. These were taken from the internet & the ateliers looked exactly like that.
Serious artisans who only stopped to say Bonjour & continued pasting, sewing, hammering, stamping... it was amazing to see pieces of leather slowly transformed by hands into bags sold all over the world.
The artisans all wore a vest with their names sewn on & the year in which they joined the company! There was even someone who only specialised in quality control.
I was so happy to be able to discover the secrets of savoir-faire of Louis Vuitton.. Even though the brand's image has changed over the years & they are constantly producing new designs to appeal to the nouveau riche, there is no debate over their quality, workmanship & impressive history as luggage makers.
It was an excellent PR initiative by LVMH & i do hope it will continue every year. And to round off the weekend... some pictures from Vuitton's spring 2012 show.
A carousel of fairytale confections. Kudos to Marc jacobs for creating such a wonderful set.. I was reading the review on the train earlier this week & a girl next to me ooh & aahed over the pictures too.
The models rode on horses... too beautiful. The creativity of the fashion world really blows my mind sometimes.
Icing on the cake? He got Kate moss to close his show.
Now i gotta do my homework.... yikes. Have a great week! x
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