Cultural, culinary and collaborative, Louis Vuitton’s new exhibition, café and chocolaterie is a one-stop designer destination with all the heritage and delectables one could ever dream up. Opening up its dazzling doors last week, the exposition, dubbed LV Dream, displays a rich exploration of Louis Vuitton’s collaborations and creative exchanges over the course of its 160-year history. Located within the building of the former Parisian emporium, the historic La Belle Jardinière department store, the immersive exhibit is comprised of nine enigmatic rooms and on the floors above lays a premium dedicated café and chocolate shop (la chocolaterie) named Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton. There, the renowned Cheval Blanc Paris Chef-pâtissier, translates Louis Vuitton’s signature motifs into a selection of patisseries staged like objets d’art atop a curvilinear counter. You can have your cake and eat it too!

Beginning with two portrait rooms, Mr. Louis by Cao Fei and Louis Vuitton: As Seen By, the works of Yan Pei Ming, Mister Cartoon, Alex Katz and Refik Anadol are laid out for all our hungry eyes to devour. Next, the Origins room, panelled with vivid photography by Kenta Cobayashi, features Louis Vuitton’s collabs with Nicolas Ghesquière and Virgil Abloh along with Jeff Koons, Stephen Sprouse and Marc Newson, a bed trunk from 1892 and Christian Liagre’s folding chair. The Art on Silk room displays the silk scarfs interpreted by a number of artists in the 80s, and later by Urs Fischer, Tracey Emin and André Saraiva. The World of Vuitton According to Rei, is a room dedicated to Rei Kawakubo, the artistic director of Comme des Garçons whose “Party Bags (2008)” and “Bags With Holes (2014)” are enlarged to a scale such that visitors seem have entered the actual bags.

In the Reinterpreting Icons room, the creative minds who reworked and transformed the LV Monogram in 1996 for its centenary, and again in 2014 come into question with Karl Lagerfeld’s “Punching Bag”, Cindy Sherman’s “Studio Trunk”, Frank Gehry’s “Twisted Box”, Christian Louboutin’s “Shopping Bag”and more on display. Elsewhere, the Leather Goods in Fashion room is dedicated to Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama. Then come the Bags as Blank Canvas space which is split between variations on the Monogram and the Artycapucines collections over the years. Finally, Art Meets Fashion brings together those who have worked with Louis Vuitton’s artistic directors, taking a look at Daniel Buren and Richard Prince with Marc Jacobs, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Christopher Nemeth with Kim Jones, Atelier Fornasetti and Grace Coddington with Nicolas Ghesquière and Nigo with the late Virgil Abloh. With many interactive components, spanning the earliest artistic undertakings by the maison, a digital wall projects motion-sensitive animations and two never-before-seen portraits of Louis Vuitton by Alex Katz and Mister Cartoon, the showcase conveys Louis Vuitton’s limitless spirit of creation.

LV Dream is open from Monday to Sunday, 11am to 8pm at 2 rue du Pont-Neuf, Paris 1er, with free admission. Reserve your ticket here.

Photography by Adrien Dirand.

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