Ready to visit the Louis Vuitton x Supreme pop-up store? Read our 6 shopping tips before you go to downtown L.A.
A collaboration between French luxury label Louis Vuitton and New York-based streetwear brand Supreme won’t officially launch for another few weeks, but some pieces from the capsule collection are available at eight pop-up shops around the globe, in
If your holiday time-off plans include popping by the Louis Vuitton x Supreme pop-up in downtown Los Angeles, one of only two temporary boutiques in the country (and eight worldwide) serving up the collection before it officially launches in mid-July, the retail feeding frenzy that’s familiar to Supreme fans may feel foreign to the collab-curious coming from the Vuitton side.
To that end, here are six helpful hints based on our Day 1 survey of the scene.
1. Ditch the wheels
Parking in the downtown Arts District is, on the whole, a less vexing experience than it is in other parts of Los Angeles, with ample metered street parking and several nearby lots (some of which take credit cards). But unless you’re familiar with the layout of the neighborhood — or driving a van with 20 of your most-fashionable friends on board — it might be wise to leave your own car behind and take a taxi or hail a ride-sharing service. (Added bonus: You can Instagram your haul from the backseat all the way home.)
2. Don’t ditch the sunscreen
Don’t rely on a shady spot to shield you from the sun. Whether your wait time to enter the pop-up is one hour or four, it’d be wise to bring a tube of sunscreen, a bottle of water and a pair of sunnies to protect you from the elements. If you don’t, you could end up as bright red as the collaboration’s leather bags and wallets.
3. Bring a photo ID – and be ready to smile
One way the pop-up posse keeps the blocks-long line from degenerating into chaos is to hand out numbered tickets in advance of the scheduled opening time, which allows early arrivals to secure entry without having to be on site and on line for the entire duration. To prevent line-ticket scalping, each ticket number is paired with a photo ID and a photo taken at the time of issuance.
4. Do your homework first
Given all the preparation and effort that comes before your visit, it’s easy to think the hard part is over once you step into the Wonka-like wonderment that is the pop-up space itself. It is not. Don’t be distracted by the red-and-white allover print carpet beneath your feet. Same goes for the gleaming digital walk-in steamer trunk that fills the room. (According to a Louis Vuitton representative, each city’s pop-up shop is different on the inside. The one in Miami, for example, has a skate-ramp set piece.)
Accompanied by a sales associate — they’re the ones with the red-and-white Louis Vuitton x Supreme logo-covered bandannas ($370) knotted jauntily at the neck — you’ll have roughly 20 minutes to browse the racks and pull the trigger on a purchase. (“That’s to be fair to the rest of the people waiting in line,” our Louis Vuitton tour guide explained Friday.)
But thanks to social media — and the #LVXSupreme hashtag — doing a pop-in preflight check of the collection is supremely easy (ah, see what we did there?). Instagram is full of people sporting Supreme x Louis Vuitton box logo T-shirts (retailing for $485 and one of Day 1’s bestsellers) and allover print hoodies ($935) and carrying armloads of red-and-white leather bags, including the Keepall 45 duffel bag ($3,650), Christopher backpack ($3,900) and a $2,250 bumbag. A handful of pieces can also be viewed, along with pricing information, at Louis Vuitton’s website.
While the offerings in the red-and-white colorway are certainly the most eye-catching — and the ones you’ll be able to spot from blocks away — the camouflage-patterned pieces are the ones that need to be seen at close range. That’s because the Keepall bags, bumbags, camp caps, chore coats and overalls are made from heavy-duty denim, but unlike the light blue, washed-down Japanese denim pieces, the jacquarded allover design melding Supreme’s box logo with the Louis Vuitton monogram and quatrefoil design is, well, camouflaged, hiding its co-branded parentage from all but the most observant.
5. Think outside the capsule
While the main purpose of the pre-launch pop-ups are to showcase the collaborative capsule collection, it’s also a chance to acquaint the Supreme side of the fan base with the rest of Vuitton’s menswear offerings. To that end, a couple of racks and a few display cases are filled with non-collaboration pieces from the fall/winter 2017 men’s collection. These pieces can also be purchased at the pop-up shop ahead of the full collection’s launch in mid-July.
6. Prepare to rewind and repeat
Not everything that came down the runway was on display on Day 1 (a red-and-white monogrammed skateboard carrying case, for example), and it’s a pretty safe bet that additional items from the collaboration will be added to the mix until the pop-up ends its run. (There’s been no official word on a “pop-down” date, but we’re guessing it’ll be in advance of the collection’s official launch in mid-July.)
This is significant for two reasons. First, it means that if you’re not the kind of hard-core collector who hops a flight from San Francisco to be in line when the doors open (like one of the people in our video above), there’s still a chance to score something from the collaboration. Second, it’s added incentive to revisit and repeat at a later date in hopes of finding something fresh.
Louis Vuitton in collaboration with Supreme Pop-Up, 833 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. After this weekend, the pop-up shop will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Additional information available at louisvuitton.com.
For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me at @ARTschorn.
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