A neon-colored wooden cladding featuring the logo of Louis Vuitton covers the scaffolding of the building opposite Paris' Pont Neuf that is a stone’s throw away from the perpetual construction site of the former department store complex La Samaritaine. A queue of people patiently waits under this structure to be admitted to the pop-up store that hides behind it.

Louis Vuitton Homme has opened an ephemeral shop ahead of the upcoming menswear Fashion Week in Paris (January 19-24), which will now take place exclusively online. The shop’s customers can discover and buy a fine selection of new and vintage sneakers and accessories. The pop-up is part of a series of events of virtual and real experiences around the brand in Paris.

The shop is intended as a shopping experience. Inside the construction site of a former furniture shop and part of the LV headquarters, menswear designer Virgil Abloh has created a colorful interior on 250 sq. meters in the style of his first collection for the house of Louis Vuitton, named “Rainbow.” Three limited-edition products were created especially for the shop: an upcycled sneaker that was temporarily sold out after only two days, a necklace in Abloh's chain design style and a special edition of the "1.1 Millionaires" sunglasses originally designed by Pharrell Williams x Nigo and revisited by Abloh. Due to Corona rules, only a maximum of 30 visitors at a time are allowed into the shop and are accompanied from start to finish by an LV staff member wearing a mask with a "5" to match Abloh's 5th collection. The sales consultants show the latest upcycled models of the s/s ’21 collection and explain past models. Some of the sneakers from earlier collections were specially pulled from other LV stores around the world back to Paris to have as many sizes as possible in stock.

Florian Eduard Kempf, one of the salespeople who usually works in the store on Avenue Montaigne, explains: "Many of the sneakers from Abloh's first collections are cult today, very sought-after and are traded on the net for more than €2,000." In the shop they cost the "normal" retail price of €950. That is certainly one of the reasons why most visitors of the pop-up also buy. They will find models here that are otherwise difficult to obtain. For bags, there is also a customizing service where motifs are painted on the products on site. In the middle of the month, dresses from the upcoming summer collection will expand the range. The pop-up will run until January 31.



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