Heightening the air of exclusivity is a private second-floor atelier offering haute maroquinerie (or custom-designed handbags), which Valérie Chapoulaud-Floquet, president and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton North America, calls “the cherry on the cake” of the new store. Toronto is now one of only seven cities in which LV offers haute maroquinerie, the others being New York, Paris, Milan, Shanghai, Taipei and Sydney. During the tour last week, Chapoulaud-Floquet showed off the eight different kinds of fine leathers, a palette of 26 colours and five handbag shapes that allow for more than 40,000 custom bag options. Bespoke handbags range in price from $8,000 to $60,000, depending on the skins and hardware used.
The practice of making custom bags started with the company’s namesake, who in 1892 began using the finest leathers to craft purses for women of elevated social rank out of his workshop in Asnières, a suburb of Paris, where LV leather goods are still manufactured today.
Toronto customers participating in the deluxe program select from the array of coloured skins and metal hardware. Their design choices are then shipped to France, where the purse is handcrafted at Asnières and delivered back to Canada, usually after six months of handcrafted labour.
How popular is it? “We made a sale almost the minute we opened our doors,” Hecquet said. “Customers love that they can now get in Toronto what they have seen in other Maisons around the world. The product speaks for itself.”
