Just before New York Fashion Week, Louis Vuitton hosted a cocktail reception in its recently renovated Fifth Avenue store at 57th Street. To celebrate the new façade designed by Peter Marino, guests like President and CEO of Louis Vuitton Americas Anthony Ledru, Stefano Tonchi, and Yvonne Force Villareal mingled. Between bright, new photography by Todd Eberle and Flowers That Bloom Tomorrow S (2015) by Yayoi Kusama, guests made their way through the multi-level store, browsing the new collection, sipping champagne, and chatting about the store’s sleek new style.
Eberle, matching his pink floral art, stopped to chat about his new work for the store, and how photographing homegrown flowers led him to showcasing them within Louis Vuitton.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
“I’ve been making these for a number of years,” said Eberle, describing that his partner Richard grows the flowers in their garden in Connecticut. “I did a show with Eneas Capalbo at the National Exemplar last summer—the show was called “Flowers for Richard”—and Peter [Marino] came to that show. When he saw them, he started asking if I had very specific colors…he said, ‘I want more pink,’” said Eberle. While not many of his garden photographs were, he did have a few which Marino has subsequently put in Louis Vuitton locations in Paris and Shanghai. “It’s also very gratifying because [since] they’re so big, most people can’t have them—they’re 6 by 8 feet. So the fact that he integrated them into his architecture is very gratifying,” said Eberle.
After wandering up a few flights of stairs, we were able to get a look of the new store with Marino from a bird’s eye view. Standout art surrounded fashion in a mix of culture, design, architecture, and conversation.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
