PARIS — Will Louis Vuitton chief executive Pietro Beccari, mastermind of the Dior 30 Montaigne super mega flagship in his previous job, break the luxury mold again with another mind-bending attraction?
Monogram hoarding is expected to start going up this week on a mammoth building on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées that had earlier been earmarked for Dior Couture’s new headquarters.
Vuitton confirmed exclusively to WWD that it has taken possession and will begin renovation and interior design work on the Art Nouveau-style building, formerly occupied by HSBC, for an undisclosed “new project for the maison.”
The building will also serve as the venue for Louis Vuitton’s spring 2024 women’s fashion show on Oct. 2 during Paris Fashion Week, the house confirmed.
Nicolas Ghesquière, Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections, has selected many architectural marvels for most of his destination shows for Vuitton, and some of the ones in Paris — the Louvre and Musée D’Orsay museums among recent favorites.
But he also has a penchant for the rawness of buildings under renovation, having staged Vuitton shows at the Samaritaine Paris department store and Vuitton’s Place Vendôme flagship store while they were still construction sites.
“Work in Progress” is printed on tall white walls surrounding 103 Champs-Élysées, and the Dior hoarding of white couture prototype that wrapped the building since 2021 has been removed, leaving mostly bare scaffolding.
The Vuitton hoarding will take the form of a monogram trunk in wood and aluminum, inspired by ones used by explorers that are now stashed in the firm’s archives. Vuitton noted that all the materials employed to create the facade will later be reused or recycled.
Vuitton is keeping its precise plans for the building under wraps. A construction permit registered with the city of Paris mentions retail, hotel accommodation and the construction of a basement level and interior courtyard.
Specialized real estate news site CFNews Immo first reported in January 2020 that Vuitton parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton had signed a lease for the Art Nouveau style building, which is under Qatari ownership.
Located at numbers 103 to 111 on the famed thoroughfare, the building sits next door to Vuitton’s historic flagship on the Champs-Élysées, which opened in 2005. That location was roughly double the size of the previous unit. Vuitton has been present on the famous shopping thoroughfare since 1998.
Beccari, who moved over to Vuitton from Dior last February, has a reputation for bold gestures and audacious events, frequently telling his teams, “Don’t think big — think huge!”
During his tenure at Dior his mantra seemed to be “Go big or go home” as he rolled out dreamy destination fashion shows, impactful pop-up shops and department-store takeovers, mega exhibitions and a Paris flagship store that set a new standard: It incorporates a museum, a restaurant, pastry café, leafy courtyards, a 26-foot-tall rose sculpture by Isa Genzken and a hotel suite that offers a special few the run of the tore all night long.
In an interview with WWD last December, he said: “If you don’t take risks, you have no reward,” and also, “I believe in boldness and presence.”
Since arriving at Vuitton, he conscripted Ghesquière to add a pre-fall destination show to his workload, and a monumental one at that, staged on the lower deck of the Jamsugyo Bridge. Beccari also recruited music superstar Pharrell Williams as Vuitton’s creative director of menswear, privatizing emblematic Paris bridge Pont Neuf for a bombastic fashion and entertainment spectacle.
The luxury behemoth’s previous CEO, Michael Burke, let slip last November that he was mulling transforming Vuitton’s corporate offices on Rue du Pont Neuf, with its views of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, for a large store and the first Vuitton hotel.
To be sure, the brand has been rapidly adding hospitality components to its boutiques — from full-fledged restaurants to chocolate shops — as it cements its status as a cultural brand.
Vuitton did not specify how long the construction works at the Champs-Élysées site might take.
It is understood Dior plans to establish corporate offices elsewhere in the neighborhood.