Louis Vuitton & Marc Jacobs Fashion Show

There is nothing quite like a Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear show. Marc Jacobs never ceases to amaze.

Backstage beforehand, roped off from the makeup, the models and the milling hands, are the shoes, the bags, and other accessories that will accompany the outfits themselves, and it is a bit like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Marc Jacobs has been the one and only designer for Vuitton clothing, since its inception in 1998. To say it has been a success is akin to saying Sting is a bass player.

The purpose of a show like this is to establish some basic themes, and provide plenty of riffs on those themes, and thus set in motion a whole array of worldwide press coverage, emulation, and influence on future lines of clothing, all the while finding, in some alchemical way, its way to the street, almost immediately. It is a prime example of how art and commerce mix, and the buzz is always high-pitched, before, during, and after. There is nothing quite like a Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear show.