Craig Redman

Among luxury addicts, few pieces of paper were more coveted this week than the invites to Louis Vuitton’s launch party for its new London “Maison”—an historic occasion, given that Vuitton’s first international boutique was opened in the city in 1885. A fearsome crowd of paparazzi gathered outside the shimmering, gold-mesh façade (which spans half a block on the corner of New Bond Street and Clifford Street), while Marc Jacobs welcomed friends—including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst and Jerry Hall—to the store’s decadent, art-strewn spaces, designed by architect Peter Marino to resemble the well-stocked archives of a connoisseur collector. Among the pleasures on offer across the Maison’s three floors are a dizzying display of vintage Vuitton trunks; works from Gilbert & George, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince; an exhibition of Vuitton ready-to-wear curated by super-stylist Katie Grand; and, on the ground floor, a wall display of handbags that shifts and revolves, as if by magic. The Maison is to retail what St Paul’s is to cathedrals, and rivals even Vuitton’s Paris flagship for sheer extravagance. It was almost impossible to get on the guest list, but the ever-hopeful Darcel from the celebrated blog Darcel Disappoints managed to charm (or is that whine?) his way in. Darcel sent NOWNESS his increasingly champagne-blurred and typically wry impressions of his brush with fame and luxury, which we here pass along for your vicarious viewing pleasure.