Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs, which has just opened at the Musée Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, is an attempt to give life to the Vuitton label by casting it as a double biography: of Louis Vuitton himself, the man who began his career as trunk-packer to Napoleon’s Empress and invented modern luggage, and of Marc Jacobs, who over the past 15 years has reinvented Vuitton as a fashion house whose point of view steers our wardrobes, not just the suitcases we pack them in.
Running from 9 March to 16 September, the show titled Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs: The Exhibition will highlight their contributions to the fashion world and how they have succeeded in taking the pulse of their respective periods to innovate and take an entire industry forward.
Above all, the exhibition will provide an analysis on how the parallel Vuitton-Jacobs comparison provides new insight into the fashion system during two pivotal periods, beginning with its industrialisation and ending with its globalisation. Along with this, the event will focus on its artistic professions and crafts, technological advances, stylistic creations and artistic collaborations.
The exhibition mainly covers two floors of the Paris museum and includes creations, mostly tunks, of Louis Vuitton on the first floor and the works of Marc Jacobs on the second floor.
According to the New York Times, the most revealing space of the exhibition may be the first room on the Jacobs floor, described as “Marc’s World.” High-definition video monitors cover the walls, some showing still images of Barbra Streisand, Nicki Minaj, Rei Kawakubo and Mrs Prada, and others displaying brief animations played on a loop: SpongeBob SquarePants, a campy scene of Bette Midler in “The First Wives Club,” Mr Jacobs sticking out his tongue at a Vuitton show and a clip from the episode of “South Park” in which Mr Jacobs appears as a doll.
The Louis Vuitton suitcases are presented in relation to the collections and fashion accessories of the XIXth century museum’s first floor, while a selection of the most iconic models designed by Marc Jacobs for the last 15 years is staging the second.
