64 ELLE.COM/UK Nove mbe r 2O19
Photography: Collection Louis Vuitton 2O13 © Aaron Curr y, ‘Fkilz, 2O12’.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton, Loewe and Saint Laurent,ELLEMood BoardT
JUST FOR SHOW
Below, from left:
Louis Vuitton’s
Maison Rodeo Drive,
California. Loewe’s
London flagshipIN THE ABSTRACT
From top: Louis Vuitton’s
NYC pop-up store;
a vision of its London
flagship space.
Saint Laurent’s Rive
Droite store“ PAC K IN G
STORES with ART
IS AS MUCH about
CULTURAL CLOUT
AS it IS ABOUT
DRIVING TRAFFIC ”evolution towards something lighter, clearer and, dare I say, happier.’
The selection of art in the made-over store is chosen to incite that same
feeling, with Tall Glass, an immersive LED screen by light-artist James
Turrell, installed front and centre. It’s something you step into, rather than
look at (and something you’ll recognise as the backdrop for Drake’s
Hotline Bling video). It’s also intended to signal a shift: you’re leaving
the streets of London behind for the rarefied world of luxury.
You’re not likely to see a Turrell light sculpture, the size of a small
Zara, in... Zara. That point of distinction, from the high street as well as
e-commerce, is an important factor in the rise of the Spectacle Store.
‘I wanted the space to have a dressier feel, to echo the streets of
Mayfair and the sophistication of the neighbourhood,’ says Marino.
But, for luxury brands, packing the stores with
one-of-a-kind artwork is as much about cultural
clout as it is driving traffic to physical outposts.
Hedi Slimane, keen to establish the creative
integrity of his Celine (and set it apart from the
Phoebe Philo chapter), made the redesign of
Celine’s flagships a priority. He was quick to
announce the ‘Celine Art Project’, wherein ‘site-
specific’ art is intended to sit beside miniscule
mirror-ball blazers and chubby sheepskin coats.
Saint Laurent, too, opened specialist stores
in Los Angeles and Paris this summer, featuring
work by photographer Helmut Newton, while Loewe opened a London
flagship earlier this year, featuring work by Turner Prize-winning artist
Anthea Hamilton. Both are, tellingly, named to reinforce that they’re
physical destinations: Saint Laurent, after Rive Droite, where Paris’
moneyed art set once gathered; and Casa Loewe, ‘casa’ meaning house.here is, of course, an economic imperative. We already
know e-tail is set to usurp bricks and mortar (whether
we’re shopping for clothes or swapping the Tesco trolley
dash for Ocado). Britain has lost 75O retail stores since
2O13. And an enticing – Instagrammable – space
can transform a brand’s fortunes. Burberry is an example of that,
announcing in May that it is closing one in 1O stores internationally
in a bid to boost profits. Its next port of call? A flagship overhaul, with
creative director Riccardo Tisci fitting the London Regent Street store
with a two-storey installation by artist Graham Hudson.
Turning a retail space into a gallery of sorts – a cultural destination- plays into the increasingly lucrative ‘experience economy’, built on
activities such as hitting an exhibition, or going to the theatre (on which
spending has increased 13% in the past year). The fashion exhibition,
specifically, has grown in popularity, with exhibitions breaking visitor-
records year-on-year. (The Met and V&A’s fashion exhibitions continue
to break records.) Because there’s a taste for experiencing fashion-
related spectacles offline. Including o b j e t s d ’a r t in a fashion space.
Shopping is meant to seem secondary to the capital-S Showcase
(however much it remains at the fore of CEOs’ minds.) So the rise
of the Spectacle Store is fashion marketeers’ sleight-of-hand trick,
luring us in with the promise of a cultural activity, browsing one-of-a-
kind art. Once we’re in, we’re susceptible to the ‘exit via the gift-shop’
strategy, which benefits the bottom line of every major gallery
and museum – and we’re likely to document the visit on Instagram.
Luckily for those without a budget for a luxury, though, we don’t have
to buy anything; just browse to our (he)art’s content.