Sail, Fly, Travel
TOKYO, Japan — Cate Blanchett, golden goddess in a fall 2016 Louis Vuitton dress, glides through the unsuspecting crowd, undetected, save by a few celebrity hounds who desperately try to snap photos. Among said hounds is myself, a magazine editor from Vietnam, and an online lifestyle editor from Malaysia. The Japanese, ever polite and proper, are not to be bothered with stalking A-listers. Meanwhile, we stood by the side of the photo wall sniffing for celebrity skin — a Louis Vuitton event would draw no less.
This one, “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez,” the exhibition’s tongue-twisting title that means “Sail, Fly, Travel,” came straight from the Grand Palais in Paris to Kioicho in Tokyo, Japan. Louis Vuitton has always had an interest in Japanese culture, and the LV monogram was part inspired by Japanese family crests. Naturally, Louis Vuitton would bring the exhibition to Tokyo, the culture being heavily entangled with the brand’s history. But a mere historical exhibition it is not.
Curated by Olivier Saillard, director of Musée Galliera in Paris and one of fashion’s premier historians, “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez” explores Louis Vuitton’s archives in the context of travel, the heart and soul of the brand. Saillard, a fashion archeologist and expert in contemporary art, attacks the challenge — and digging through centuries of material is a monumental one — with a sharp eye and the singular purpose of taking the viewer on an immersive journey.
It starts with a portrait of young Louis Vuitton and, to its right, the most exquisite LV trunk you’ll ever see, bathed in golden light. Saillard, who despises the predictability of chronology, segments the exhibition into voyages — by land, air and sea — and according to themes — collaborations, Japanese-inspired collections, and celebrity patrons.
“Into the storage, it’s not chronological. All the documents are packed together, all the letters, registers. So it’s very different. Sometimes it’s classified by volume, by dimensions. I always say to students when I give lessons, ‘You have to take off your glasses. To be a very good historian, you don’t have to see very clearly.’ (Squints) And then the shapes become very clear,” Saillard says.
The exhibition, as a result, presents the importance of individual items as well as their significance to the period, as a whole. Through the rooms, entangled with the smell of fresh wood and leather, we find items from 1903 side by side with their contemporary counterparts. An LV trunk with a built-in ironing board (for long voyages on ships), an LV trunk bed (for land travel, set against a desert backdrop), and a treasure chest-shaped trunk designed such that water rolls off it, are among the interesting artifacts that reveal Louis Vuitton’s thoughtful craftsmanship and attention to detail, while giving viewers a glimpse of each period’s intricacies. The first trunk is highlighted: a vertical one in which belongings are suspended — kind of like a traveling wardrobe — from 1875. Got vinyl? Vintage books? A picnic set? There’s a trunk for that!
Through every room is a different theme, brought to life by Robert Carson’s custom set designs, all in all covering 160 years of Louis Vuitton, as well as the advent of different forms of transportation that have carried LV-toting passengers over the years. The first of which is Louis Vuitton himself, who walked 280 miles (two years of walking) from Anchay to Paris in 1935 to start a life of his own. So you see, more than luxury, Louis Vuitton is really a symbol of passionate travels and chasing dreams.
His legacy was continued by his son, Georges, who invented the brand’s signature tumbler lock, which allowed customers to open all their baggage with a single, unique key. In prepping for the exhibit, Saillard notes that one of the most interesting items he found in the archives is the registry of these locks: “The register is very interesting. It’s like an art piece, very conceptual. You have a register with a lot of numbers of keys, belonging to a lot of people. It’s like a book of the history of the 20th century but without the narrative. It’s a long story of numbers, and it’s something very poetic,” he says.
The exhibition, through its thematic rooms displaying historic and contemporary pieces in harmony, delivers an interesting show of how Louis Vuitton has refined the art of travel. The brand’s success is based on French elegance, which recognizes the beauty of an object in its function. “Louis Vuitton, Georges and Gaston used to say that, if we have to invent a new luggage, a new wardrobe, a new trunk, we have to think about, first, utility, not beauty. Every object they invented was very connected to use. And beauty comes from the use. Style comes after,” Saillard, fascinated by the Louis Vuitton history, says. “I believe that the most important luggage they invented is the steamer bag, because it’s very simple. Simplicity is always timeless.” The Steamer bag is the ancestor of today’s hand luggage. The Keepall, the Speedy, the Noah and the Marceau bags are replicas of the designs that were invented over the decades.
“I always thought that history is very important. It’s like moving to a house. It’s always important to understand the natural history of a place, of a brand, of a people. I’m doing an exhibition devoted to Louis Vuitton, devoted to Gaston Vuitton, devoted to Bernard Arnault. It’s important to explain to many people that there is a long history,” Saillard says.
“I spent a few months looking into the archives of Louis Vuitton to see the history of Louis Vuitton as well as the history of society. I proposed to Mr. Arnault to do a very classic and historic exhibition. To do a classic exhibition devoted to 1,000 items is a challenge. It could be quite boring. I try to introduce something more poetic instead of just presenting objects that are not connecting sometimes.”
Saillard, who is sometimes referred to as a “bad boy” curator, has more of a professor vibe to him than someone who works in fashion. He isn’t precious about clothes. His last exhibition, “Impossible Wardrobes,” featuring Tilda Swinton and Palais Galliera’s collection of iconic clothing treated historical items (like Napoleon’s coat), as part of performances — touched, worn and experienced. At “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez,” there was no touching the incredibly well-preserved vintage items, but there was definitely an interactive feel to the exhibit. You are transported to that world.
“When I do an exhibition, I don’t think I’m doing a fashion exhibition. I think I’m doing an exhibition devoted to a person, to an artist, author or fashion designer. I’m not thinking about fashion or art, I’m just very passionate about the life of this community. Fashion is not in my mind. I prefer the term ‘clothes,’” he says. Still, he shares that the exhibition was a joy to put together. “I was very happy to play with trunks, bags, especially clothes. It’s a challenge to do a display of a beautiful dress as still life, not as you see them in fashion shows. It was a pleasure to do something very different, less stoic.”
Saillard’s work, the mere existence of his job title, is a reflection of the fashion industry’s evolution. “Into the ‘50s, the fashion show took two hours. Into the ‘80s, 20 to 40 minutes. And now it’s seven minutes. I really think the success of the exhibitions came when the fashion shows became very quick. An exhibition is very open. If you want to take your time, if you want to spend all day long in a fashion exhibition, you can,” he says.
With so much to see, how could one not linger?
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Louis Vuitton “Volez, Voguez, Voyagez” runs until June 16, 2016 in Kioicho, Toyko. In the Philippines, the Louis Vuitton store is located in Greenbelt 4, Ayala Center.
