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Paris: Graphically Graphite at Louis Vuitton

Turns out graphite is the new black, at least at Louis Vuitton which kicked off the men’s fall 2008 season with a stylish and urbane collection featuring a major new product category – Damier Graphite.

All the stars seemed to line up at Vuitton Thursday, with a show serenaded by a pianist of a Yamaha grand piano covered entirely in the dark gray and black Graphite print.

Staged in the Sorbonne medical faculty, revamped to look like some a futurist bank, the show featured a collection that was a clever mélange of updated Anglo tailoring and inventive fabrications and materials.

Underlining the smooth criminal feel of the collection, the invitations were imitation old bank notes with the LV logo as the currency.

Graphite hounds tooth suits and trench coats in nylon or silk had a sensationally strong spy chic quality; ties came with watch part designs, bomber jackets were cut with architectural seams and darts, ideal for skipping the scene of the crime after a bank heist.


Jacobs – sporting indigo blue hair, we kid you not – elegantly took his bow with men’s design director Paul Helbers, applauding the Dutchman for his classy and innovative collection, his best to date for Vuitton.

Using the Graphite form, Helbers and Jacobs also sent out very natty looking crash helmets, super weekend bags – with changeable handles – tough chic wheeled cabin bags, and the Catch a Thief computer bag that’s sure to be a best seller. But the piece de resistance was the shiny python briefcases, embossed with the Damier print, an instant collector’s item.

“Graphite gives things a more masculine image and finish. Paul did an amazing job introducing all the possibilities it offered,” Jacobs told FWD post show, as he posed for photos with Bernard Arnault, president of the giant French luxury conglomerate LVMH, whose crown jewel is Vuitton.

“We are going to put Damier Graphite in every store. We are expecting great things,” Arnault smiled.

Vuitton re-launched Damier back in 1996 immediately building a significant business, the checkered pattern now accounts for one third of the label’s bag and accessory business.

Vuitton is famously secretive about exact numbers, not even revealing its annual sales, which are believed to be around 3.5 billion euros. However, executives indicated that their goal is to build Damier Graphite into a 100 million euros business within a few seasons.

As we said, Graphite, Damier at least, is the new black.

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