Bubbly Bash at Vuitton Debut
Since finishing touches were still being applied Monday morning, we weren’t sure the new Beverly Hills Louis Vuitton store was going to be ready in time for its launch party that night.
But the doors opened as scheduled at 6:30 p.m. for the first of several overlapping parties co-hosted by luxury goods group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and the protean fashion publication Visionaire.
Cool patent-leather wristbands in Vuitton’s candy-apple “Monogram Vernis” pattern (sure to be the status accessory of the week) were passed out at the door of the Rodeo Drive retailer, and served as passes for a dinner that followed. Unfortunately, champagne (the drink of the evening for obvious reasons) was hard to come by at the in-store party, and hors d’oeuvres were nonexistent. (Perhaps they were trying to spare those $9,000 Marc Jacobs capes from sticky fingers.)
For dinner, guests migrated to West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, done up like a giant Louis Vuitton gift box--with red LV logos projected on outside walls. The effect was somewhat muted by a Gucci billboard on Sunset. (We could not confirm the rumor that party planners asked if they could cover the sign but were rebuffed by Gucci.)
The most coveted dinner tables were in the garden, where we spotted Dennis Hopper, Jennifer Tilly, Vidal and Ronnie Sassoon, Rose McGowan, Maximilian Schell, Kathleen Turner, James Coburn, Rachel Hunter, Salma Hayek, Michael Chow and his wife Eva Chun. Many of these A-listers no doubt wished they’d sat indoors after discovering there weren’t any heaters (which turned up later, poolside). Hotel blankets helped, but when the time between the first and second courses stretched to half an hour, actor Donald Sutherland and a few others took off.
Once dessert and coffee appeared, the after party was already in full swing with a second group of guests. This decidedly younger crowd was in a better mood and got down on the dance floor (actually the covered pool).
By then, it was 11:30 p.m., and even the now-flowing champagne and ample snacks couldn’t perk up the weary dinner guests, who left the dancing to the late arrivals. As party girls clamored at the velvet rope to get inside, we departed. It was a long night for us; theirs was just getting started.
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While we’re on the subject of luxury, Robb Report’s 16th annual “Ultimate Gift Guide” is on newsstands with must-haves for the very rich. Topping the list: a $31-million Kensington Palace-adjacent estate; a $389,000 residential-scale replica of the iron gates designed by Albert Paley that surround the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.; and a $40-million Gulfstream “Superyacht” with an exercise room, pool, home theater, wine cellar and motorcycle garage. So where’s the Bentley supposed to go?
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Actually, we’d be happy with something more modest: the “Be My Guest” card, which can be redeemed at any restaurant in the United States that accepts American Express. For information: https://www.americanexpress.com.
