Louis Vuitton’s under-renovation New York flagship store features a luggage facade modeled after the brand’s distinctive trunks.
Designed by Louis Vuitton’s in-house team, the luggage facade wraps entirely around the construction and resembles six grey trunks of various sizes stacked in descending size.
The facade also contains detailing of handles, locks, rivets, and silver hardware rendered in chrome-plated, laser-cut steel. The heaviest handles weigh 2,267 kg (5,000 lb).
The locks and latches were created using 3D scans of the brand’s hard-sided trunks, and the steel corners were hand-welded. The stack features 840 rivets, each etched with the brand name.
While construction is underway at the flagship, the brand has relocated its retail operations to a five-story building around the corner.
The building’s exterior architecture and interior floor plan feature a material palette of light woods, creams, and shades of brown, surrounded by an exposed concrete structure.
Other features of the temporary building are oversized sculptures of a giraffe and ostrich and a screen with Louis Vuitton motifs covering the building’s facade, lined with bright exterior pendants.
