The School of Cool

摘要

It was just a store opening, but the festivities taking place behind New York City's Lincoln Center could have rivaled the christening of the new Queen Mary. A giant tent glowed with the image of a logo-laden Louis Vuitton trunk, a beacon for the handbag obsessed. On the ceiling inside, tiny stars shaped like Vuitton's LV logo twinkled above the crowd. Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rudy Giuliani swept in to congratulate LVMH Moeet Hennessy Louis Vuitton chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault on his spectacular four-story Fifth Avenue emporium. The 150-year-old Vuitton brand may have been the star of the night, but on the ground, the talk was all about Marc Jacobs, the designer who has been widely credited with boosting Vuitton's profile and bottom line ever since he was named creative director in 1997. Rumors were flying around the tents at the New York fashion shows that Jacobs was unhappy with the way LVMH was handling his signature label and that he had been approached by rival Gucci Group N.V. to design the Yves Saint Laurent line. Arnault dismissed the chatter, saying that the relationship was very good and that Jacobs had the potential to become as big as Ralph Lauren or Donna Karan.