At last, the famous LV monogrammed bags, wallets, suitcases and shoes have made their way to Poland. If you’ve been around Al. Jerozolimskie over the past month, you would have noticed that the upscale, ultra elegant Vitkac department store has become home to the Louis Vuitton shop (the huge LV bag installation as an extension of the mall’s entrance should have been a not-so subtle giveaway).
The two-storey boutique offers everything from the all-time-classics, to the newest designs. As each of the items is displayed in its own personal space, with its own spotlight, along with a team of security guards who carefully survey every customer’s move, the impression of being in a museum lingers heavily. And that’s not the only “artistic” connection. To celebrate the opening, Louis Vuitton commissioned a young upcoming Polish artist, Wojciech Pus, to conceive a unique art project in its shop windows. The installation, entitled Paparazzi, will be on display until mid-August and will then be housed at Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art.
This is the first Louis Vuitton shop in Poland, which signals, according to Robert Eggs, President of Louis Vuitton for Northern Europe, that “the Polish client is increasingly ready to invest in luxury products.” Eggs himself was present at the launch last month.
Apparently, at the beginning of the 20th century, renowned Polish pianist and politician Ignacy Jan Paderewski, as well as the blue-blooded Lubomirski and Czartoryski families, were all loyal clients of the brand – now you can be too, provided you are ready to shell out at least €500 (the base price for a bag). Prices go north from there, all the way up to €19,000 for the most expensive python, ostrich or crocodile leather goods. And don’t expect a late summer sale bargain: Louis Vuitton prides itself as a place with no bargains, or sales. Ever. So it might, unfortunately, be a while before my piggy bank collects enough quarters for one of those bad boys. (ID)
