LOUIS VUTTON X COMME DE GARCON

In an extraordinary collaboration, Louis Vuitton, the ultimate French luxury brand, and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, the ultimate fashion rebel, will open a joint Tokyo store in September — an ephemeral three-month space where six one-off bags, designed by Kawakubo in LV monogram pattern, can be ordered by shoppers.

Yves Carcelle, chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, sitting front row at Kawakubos’ show on Friday, said that he was approached by Comme and considers the project a fine way to celebrate 30 years since Vuitton first opened in Tokyo.

Backstage, Kawakubo said that memory of her excitement at the arrival of Parisian luxury in Japan in 1978, resulted in this unlikely idea of the new design duo creating the store within the Comme des Garçons shop off Omotesando.

For Comme acolytes, this move will be considered either as sleeping with the enemy — or a brilliant and imaginative partnership.

Kawakubo has re-designed the entire Comme des Garçons store on Kottodori, Omotesando for the Vuitton project. Carcelle says that LV is investing in the store, and that any financial profits will be divided.

Although there have been many recent collaborations between ‘high’ and ‘low’ fashion, starting with Karl Lagerfeld’s mini collection for fast fashion store H & M, this meld is different, since it involves a beacon of individuality with a company at the heart of corporate luxury management, as part of the LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) group.

Carcelle said that Marc Jacobs, artistic director of Louis Vuitton, admired Comme des Garçons and was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of a joint venture.

“It is impossible to overstate Rei Kawakubo’s influence on modern fashion,” Jacobs said in a prepared statement, ‘I find it wonderful to think that 30 years ago, this immense talent, someone who has inspired so many others, was inspired by Louis Vuitton.”

Kawakubo described her designs as ‘party’ bags, promising multi-handles or two handles morphing into one. All will use the Monogram toile, with the LV initials, and the offerings will hark back to the styles of 30 years when Vuitton made only bags and leather goods.

by Suzy Menkes for THE MOMENT