Love the window display at the Louis Vuitton boutique around the corner- on Rodeo Drive!  I love the creativity behind these displays.  They always make me think of the part of the Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton documentary where shows some of them put up and being evaluated by- I believe it was Bernard Arnault himself!

Anyway, anything cool up in the windows of the boutiques in your neighborhood?  Take a quick pic on your phone and email it over!  I'd love to post it!!!

Ohhhh... sparkly! Totally love it. Ya can't throw a rock in Las Vegas without hitting a Louis Vuitton boutique. The video above shows the light show at Louis Vuitton City Center in celebration of the opening of the new Crystals store. This one is the largest in the US and the 5th largest worldwide.

Anyone else need to make a little trip to LV for some LV?

Well, they're wrapping up the Louis Vuitton Soho Boutique quite nicely for the new Stephen Sprouse collection release, exhibit and party!  WWD's saying the collection is released today at the Soho boutique and worldwide on February 2.  Keep your eyes on eBay- you know you'll see them there in a flash!

Now that Graffiti is so dang cool, what are all the anarchists and other rebel rousers gonna do to make a statement?

For a refresher on "Who is Stephen Sprouse?"  Check out my old blog post on it!

Is that a florescent pink Louis Vuitton graffiti floor inside???

Picture Credit:  Hypebeast

Louis Vuitton had been weathering the whole economic downturn so well... even recording profits this October when everyone else was seeing major losses.

After seeing numbers go down in Japan, LV's scraping the ten story Ginza Flagship Boutique that was scheduled to be completed by 2010.

Story from IHT.

Louis Vuitton opened thier first in-store boutique in a Nordstrom on North Michigan Avenue.  Read more about the opening here.

We'd heard about the opening and were hoping that it would be unveiled when Emily and Ben were at eBay Live in Chicago this year at the end of June.  But alas- it didn't finally open until just this week.

Lucky for us... vtachgyrl from The Purse Forum WAS able to check it out and got some really cool pictures of the Norstrom Louis Vuitton window display that she's graciously let me share.  I think it's so interesting.  Take a peek:

Yes, those are Louis Vuitton Neverfull bags being blown in the wind by steel industrial fans.

I'm trying to get my tiny little brain wrapped around this.  I keep thinking about the scene in the Louis Vuitton & Marc Jacobs documentary where LV upper-ups are walking around like this huge area with all of the display windows that are to be used all over the world.  I'm wondering what Arnault, Carcelle, etc would think about the concept.

What do you think Nordies LV is trying to say?

And there you have it. In no time at all... relatively speaking, Louis Vuitton's dotted their "i's" and crossed their "t's" and the Hangzhou Louis Vuitton Boutique is back in business.

That didn't take long!  Now, let's just hope the Administration of Industry and Commerce authorities returned all 556 bags!

The story gets more interesting.

It looks like the Hangzhou Boutique was closed because,

"three Vuitton products sampled were considered to not be in accordance with the QB/T1333-2004 standard due to lack of material samples on them."

So in response, authorities "confiscated" 556 Louis Vuitton bags. Hmmm... Yeah, I'll bet those Administration of Industry and Commerce agents were just hating that job.

We're hoping that this is resolved quickly so the Hangzhou Boutique can open it's doors once again.

Temporarily, for sure.  But for how long?  Who knows.

Dang.  This isn't good news.  Louis Vuitton has had issues in China ever since the whole Olympic Torch Paris thing (and the backlash that followed)...  I hope this has nothing to do with that- but it sure as heck sounds like it.

The local Commerce & Industry Authority went into the Hangzhou Boutique, inspected some items, and then "seized most of its products" according to Hangzhou's Today Morning Express newspaper.

According to the paper, last Friday morning, some Industry and Commerce Authority Officers dropped by the boutique for a spot check.  Soon after, LV SAs cleared out the store of all customers.  They then contacted the head office.  After all was said and done, apparently the I & C officers "seized nearly all of the bags in the shop".

WOW!!!  That does NOT sound right to me.

Apparently, back in May the Administration of Industry and Commerce did a check of the boutique and found that "some of the boutique's products did not measure up to standards".  Louis Vuitton had 15 days from to request a re-inspection or dispute the charges.  They had till June 6, but let the deadline lapse.

The Louis Vuitton China Director of Communications, Zhao Xiaojing said that the problem had something to do with the way that leather goods have to be marked in China.  A small leather piece didn't have the proper material marking.  Zhao said,

"All our leather accessories are produced in France and the mark is not required by regulations there."

So, for now the store is closed.  You'll find the window display's gone and all the Louis Vuitton door logos completely covered.

Administration of Industry and Commerce did not order the boutique to shut its doors- but according to in internal source, Louis Vuitton "luxury products are generally made one-year in advance and then allocated to shops around the world, based on a reasonable need. Thus it is not possible to transfer stock from other cities or to get supplies from the source in a short time."  Hmmm?

That doesn't make sense according to what we know about Date Codes.  But interesting, none the less.

Hopefully, Louis Vuitton will figure out how to comply and the store will re-open before more stores in China meet the same fate.

It's got to be a nightmare manufacturing items for an international audience... making sure to keep in mind each country's individual customs, specific laws and regulations.

Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it. It should. Louis Vuitton is opening its flagship store in the famous shopping Canton Road. It's the largest in the world, outside of Paris.

It's HUGE! Four levels- 1749 square meters. That's 18,826.23 square feet! What a fantastic way to get a workout... walk laps, do stairs. Who needs the gym?

I'm dying to see it. I'll post pictures of Friday night's opening celebration as soon as I get them. Kanye West, Chow Yun Fat, Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, Marc Jacobs and Chinese Supermodel Du Juan were there.

Well, you learn something new every day!  I always thought "the Holy City" was Jerusalem, but apparently Charleston, South Carolina has the same nickname!

Anyway... it looks like South Carolina will be getting it's first Louis Vuitton.  It won't be a full- stand alone boutique, but will be inside the Charleston Place: a luxury hotel alongside Gucci and St. John.