Shanghai Station
As seen at the opening of Louis Vuitton's first maison in the mainland, the flamboyant Marc Jacobs certainly knows how to put on a show, writes Divia Harilela
Marc Jacobs is fond of making a scene, whether that means showing up in a see-through lace dress to a huge event (see the Met Gala in New York in May) or sending out a custom-made US$8 million steam train as the centrepiece of a fashion show.
Last month, Shanghai was treated to the latter and a whole lot more when the designer and his posse descended upon China's fastest-growing city to open Louis Vuitton's first maison in the country.
A two-day event to celebrate the opening of the boutique and the Louis Vuitton Express travel exhibition included a spectacular party and a fashion show: a replica of the autumn-winter show staged in Paris in March. Having been shipped from Paris to Shanghai, the train chugged into a warehouse on the Bund, which had been transformed over 21 days into a "station", carrying 48 models decked out in jewel-covered jackets and trousers. The models disembarked and each had a "porter" to carry their monogrammed luggage as they paraded around the train.
After the spectacle, Jacobs, LV's creative director, made an appearance, wearing a smart tailored suit, and posed for snaps like a happy tourist with local celebrities such as Fan Bingbing, Gong Li and "it" girls Alexa Chung and Poppy Delevingne.
Lana Del Rey sang as the city's monogrammed elite partied until dawn.
If luxury goods sales are slowing down in the mainland, as reports suggest, you certainly wouldn't know it from this extravaganza. In Jacobs' world, the economy doesn't matter much anyway.