In my previous postings related to Louis Vuitton City Guides, I have occupied myself in introducing the contents of theses books. Their boxes and covers are also distinctive and meaningful. The redesigned City Guides boxes reference the heritage of Louis Vuitton, drawing inspiration from a vintage luggage label of the kind hotel bellboys would affix to travellers’ trunks. While deep brown makes an appearance, adding its distinct character to the collection, the guide still features the bright colours that have become its trademark over the past ten years. Pistachio Green for the European cities, Royal Blue for Paris, Rosewood for Tokyo, Magenta for Mumbai, Buttercup for New York and Almond Green for Miami. Now let’s open the blue cover to appreciate the city of light at the crossroads of culture. The Paris City Guide reveals all of the elegance of the French capital through the prism of 500 addresses chosen with distinctive taste and flair. Fashion designers and design trendspotters, unusual antiques, secret museums and art galleries, gourmet restaurants and local eateries… Available for the first time in its own slipcase, the 2009 edition of the Paris City Guide observes the city with a unique, original and deliberately unconventional eye.

As the same with other city guides, the City Guide Paris is compiled by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo. It includes a special section on Paris by Kiraz, the illustrator for his drawings of “Parisiennes”. No matter business or leisure traveler, I bet this city guide would help you a lot. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

Known as “Big Apple”, “City That Never Sleeps”, New York is a city of superlatives: the biggest, the most exciting city in America, business and cultural capitals of America and the nation’s trendsetter. The city seems to pull in the best and the brightest from every corner of the country. Now it is a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. I cannot wait to know how the prestigious Louis Vuitton City Guide New York would capture the spirit of the vibrant, intellectual and legendary city. Compiled by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo, the Louis Vuitton City Guide explores every must-see venue in this effervescent capital through some 500 exclusive addresses. Grand hotels and luxury bars, world-class restaurants, intimate diners, offbeat clubs, fashion designers, furniture makers and innovative art galleries…The selection has been thoroughly updated for the fifth edition of this indispensable guide, which reveals the creative heart of New York. Clear, practical maps allow you to find your bearings easily throughout the city. Just the same as the other Louis Vuitton guides, it has been the very personal tone with which it evokes its chosen destination. In this book, Louis Vuitton invites Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys, to offer his perspective on New York. He tells of his fascination for New York department store window displays. Maybe you can find thousands of city guides to New York, but this Louis Vuitton City Guide New York would be the most distinctive one. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

Served as a vital companion for business and leisure traveler, the Louis Vuitton City Guide Tokyo is packed with addresses that capture the true spirit of this eastern city. Drawing on the talents of journalists and writers, the City Guide successfully and daringly combines traditional values with new aspects, traditional locations with extravagant ones; know with unknown and out of the ordinary. As we all know, Tokyo Greater Tokyo is the world’s most populous metropolitan area and is the center of Japanese culture, finance, and government. A bustling cosmopolitan city, Tokyo is also a major transportation hub and a world economic and industrial center. The city boasts a large number of world-class institutions of higher education, the highest concentration of universities in Japan. For the first time in its history, the Louis Vuitton City Guide is stopping off in Tokyo and exploring the many facets of the buzzing Japanese capital through 600 duly and uncompromisingly chosen addresses. Ryokan, luxury and love hotels, chic cafes, tearooms, gourmet delights, top restaurants and secret gardens, not forgetting the cream of fashion and design, electronic Tokyo and the best of Otaku underground culture. This reference guide offers orientation maps and a collector’s manga specially created by the celebrated artist Leiji Matsumoto for the Louis Vuitton City Guide to Tokyo.

As mentioned at the beginning, this book is compiled by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo and Leiji Matsumoto. Besides, it includes a special section on Tokyo by Ryuichi Sakamoto, composer, as well as an editorial marking the 30th anniversary of Louis Vuitton Japan. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

After the fascinating Mumbai, let’s continue our journey to Miami. This book contains an attentive, informed commentary on the changes shaking the heart of the city and off-beat views on fashion, design, the arts and gastronomy, which highlights the latest trends and offers unique advice. Miami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Described as the “only great city of the world that started as a fantasy,” Miami, with its subtropical climate, naturally protected harbor, and spectacular beaches, has traditionally been a haven for tourists and retirees. Since the late 1980s, however, the city has sustained unprecedented growth and, while transforming its image, has emerged as a center of international finance and commerce and as a regional center for Latin American and Haitian art. In the Miami City Guide, for the first time, the Louis Vuitton City Guide is shining its light into every corner of this flamboyant, sunny city through some 450 exclusive addresses. Luxury bars and hotels on the beach, Cuban cafes and top seafood restaurants, nightclubs and night-time parties around the pool, extravagant fashion stores, pioneering museums and avant-garde galleries, Art Deco monuments…The Miami City Guide also suggests a number of tropical escapades that offer a relaxing alternative to the frenzy of this capital of hedonism. Clear, practical maps allow you to find your way around the city and the surrounding area easily.

Complied by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo, this book includes a special section on Miami by Barbara Hulanicke, designer and Miami personality. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

For ten years now, Louis Vuitton has been sharing its passion for a unique urban immersion. As we all know, this year Louis Vuitton released a series of 2009 City guides, which must have been mentioned in previous posts. These books perfectly capture the spirit of cities with words and imagination. In this collection Louis Vuitton has developed its collection of guides and for the first time-presents five individual volumes devoted to five cities of the world: Mumbai, Miami, New York, Paris and Tokyo. Now follow me to appreciate them one by one. Mumbai is a fascinating, bewitching megalopolis. Known as Bombay until 1995, it is a great port city, situated on the west coast of the Indian peninsula. It is one of India’s dominant urban centers and, indeed, is one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world. Deriving its name from Mumba Devi, a goddess of the local Koli fishing peoples, Mumbai grew up around a fort established by the British in the mid-seventeenth century to protect their trading interests along India’s western coast. The city’s superb natural harbor provided a focal point for sea routes crossing the Arabian Sea, and Mumbai soon became the main western gateway to Britain’s expanding Indian empire. The city emerged as a center of manufacturing and industry during the eighteenth century. Today, Mumbai is India’s commercial and financial capital, as well as the capital city of Maharashtra State. In its debut edition, the Louis Vuitton City Guide to Mumbai explores every facet of this dynamic metropolis through 450 exclusive addresses: luxury hotels and guesthouses, spice-scented restaurants, artisanal fashion and design with a contemporary edge, stunning jewelry, exceptional museums and temples, and fabulous Bollywood stars. This astonishing guide also offers the opportunity to discover three legendary Rajasthan cities – Jaipur, Udaipur and Jodhpur – which offer a haven of rest after the hectic pace of Mumbai.

Mumbai Guide is compiled by a team of independent journalists and illustrated by Ruben Toledo. Special sections on Mumbai by Princess Sangita Singh Kathiwada, stylist and on Jodhpur by Maharajah of Jodhpur are included. Now it is available in both English and French with a price of $34. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

I was amazed at the Louis Vuitton books just yesterday, and I come across a pen this morning. I am wondering is it that I have stepped in a study named LV. Anyway, let’s have a look of this Charm Pen.

Named charm pen, it is not to imply the pen is charming, but because its end can be adored with charms. After all, the pen being charming or not, it is for you to verdict. It is made from golden or silvery brass and tipped with the Louis Vuitton signature. Its slender body is adored with the iconic monogram design. It is the brilliant and luxurious materials make the pen as pricy as $530.00.

The pen features replaceable ink refill and lead with the LV signature, thus the pen can be long used. Its clean design and light weight make this pen Charm the ideal writing utensil. It is said that one need a fine pen to write well, but there is never a definite definition of fine. What’s your opinion? More Louis Vuitton Accessories are on sale at Top1handbag.net

To call Louis Vuitton design house a grocery, I do not mean to degrade it, but to admit that it has a amazingly variety of fashion products. I have found in it bags, coats, shoes, jewelry, scarves, towels, umbrellas, pens. I can go on. What’s the word for this kind of management policy? Yes, it is horizontal integration. And here are books also.

It is not the annual city guide nor about its splendid history. Just as its name implies, it is all about automobiles. This splendid volume charts Louis Vuitton’s long love affair with the automobile, from its collaborations with early motor manufacturers to the present day and the celebrated Louis Vuiton Classic. It is written by Serge Bellu, a leading automobile journalist and illustrator. There are 250 photographs and illustrations within the 264 pages capacity. The book is priced at ?40. Its English version is published by Abrams, and the French version is published by Editions de La Martinière. The book was published in October 2007. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

The top fashion house, Louis Vuitton always walked the line between fashion and art, and collaborations have punctuated in its long history. In 1980s Louis Vuitton started working with painters like César, Sol LeWitt and Olivier Debré. From that on these richly textured collaborations became a tradition and reached a new level when Marc Jacobs joined the House in 1997. During his career as the creative director, Vuitton has worked in conjunction with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and most recently American artists Richard Prince and Kanye West.

Based on such situation, Louis Vuitton is going to release a book, Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture, to give you a detailed look into the various collaborative projects that the brand has been involved in. This book is dedicated to present us the unique creations forged between Louis Vuitton and a growing number of designers from the worlds of art, architecture, design, photography and fashion. The content includes the 400 pages critical essays related to Louis Vuitton contemporary creation as well as illustration with 400 color documents. This book will be published on September 1st in three languages, French, English and Italian.

While the Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, Yves Carcelle, was interviewed, he answered three questions related to these books.

Why publish today a retrospective book on the major collaborations of Louis Vuitton?
At Louis Vuitton, the influence of art has been an obvious inspiration for new products, store architecture, artistic collaborations, and for the Maison’s advertising campaigns. Our will to build and grow our relationship with the contemporary art world has led us to work with numerous artists of our times such as photographers, architects and fashion designers. It was essential for Louis Vuitton to trace, through an enthralling anthology, its most significant artistic collaborations. In this book, the focus remains on artists that have impacted the history of Louis Vuitton.

What is Louis Vuitton’s role in the world of the contemporary creation?
Of all modern luxury brands, Louis Vuitton can claim to maintain the richest and most varied associations with the world of art – indeed, it is a tradition that dates back almost to the origins of the House. This desire to continuously create and reinvent, whilst maintaining and transmitting the history and identity of the brand, has been transformed into multiples collaborations, most of time quite unexpected. Constantly renewed under the influence of Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton’s commitment to the arts has recently been underscored by the establishment of the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation, announced in October 2006 by Bernard Arnault, Chairman & CEO of LVMH/Moët Hennessy.Louis Vuitton. The future Fondation will be an exciting new space and concept intended to stimulate dialogue with a wide audience and offer artists and intellectuals a platform for discussion, inspiration and reflection. If the brand inspires artists, designers and architects, they, in return, inspire Louis Vuitton. This mutual inspiration is very challenging and productive, not only for the luxury world, but also for the contemporary art world.

How do you explain the success of Louis Vuitton’s collaborations?
Fashion, luxury, art and architecture unite to propose a new vision of the world and take us away from the ordinary. Contemporary art gives us an alternative point of view. Modern architecture, inseparable from the luxury world, plays a key role in setting Louis Vuitton’s name in present time. The fashion industry and its designers give a fresh energy and a unique creativity to the House’s ready-to-wear collections. A contemporary artist, whether he is an architect, a photographer or a fashion designer, often produces unexpected creations. It is a bold challenge for Louis Vuitton and I believe that only a handful of brands have been able to surpass the boundaries to this point between luxury and contemporary creation. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

Here are some pictures from the book for your appreciation.

You must have heard the America’s Cup which is the most prestigious regatta and match race in the sport of sailing and the oldest active trophy in international sport, predating the Modern Olympics by 45 years. But do you know Louis Vuitton Cup, one of the most famous and prestigious competitions in the sport of yachting because of its relationship to the America’s Cup. My sports lovers and Louis Vuitton aficionados, would you like to make head or tail of it?Just read the History of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

History of the Louis Vuitton Cup is a book to celebrate this great era in world-class sailing: The Louis Vuitton Cup: 25 Years of Yacht Racing in Pursuit of the America’s Cup . Since 1983, the Louis Vuitton Cup was served as the selection series to select the team to sail as the challenger in the America’s Cup. Until July 2007, Louis Vuitton announced termination of all its sponsorship activities associated with America’s Cup after 25 years of involvement. This book is edited and with a preface by Bruno Trouble, a renowned figure in the world of sailing and text and sketches by Francois Chevalier, a journalist and naval architect. This 212 pages book includes 150 photographs and illustrations. There are two versions. English version is published by Abrams while French version is published by Editions de La Martiniere. More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net

Louis VUITTON, the French luxury fashion and leather goods design house, is the deserved winner in the fashion kingdom with a history of 155 years and endless innovation. Its huge success makes its history a hottest topic. It is just because that you can not talk fashion without mention Louis VUITTON.

Among various versions of Louis VUITTON history, I think that this book named Louis VUITTON, the Birth of Modern Luxury is the most reliable and elaborated. Its richly illustrated volume explores Louis VUITTON’s extraordinary 150-year history of tradition, brimming innovation and fine craftsmanship against a backdrop of sweeping social, cultural and industrial change. To say so may not very convincible. As is known to all, it is the fashion that change faster than any thing else. But fashion is as fashion does, it is dynamic and chanceful. The fashion style is new each season, but the spirit and element is almost the same. A fashion design house must hold the spirit of continuity to form its own style. And this is exactly what Louis VUITTON does.

The book is written by Paul-Gérard Pasols, a longtime consultant to Louis VUITTON, with full access to the company’s archives. Therefore, his book is relatively reliable and detailed. The book has 540 pages with 660 archive photographs and illustrations. Its English version is published by Abrams and its French version is published by Editions de La Martinière. As you can see from the book, there is no content about the recent five year of Louis VUITTON for the book is published in October 2005.

In ancient China, there is an honorable civilian official who is in charge of writing the history of each dynasty. He must be definitely loyal to the true history even at the risk of his life. In the advertising world of today, I am wonder if this book about the history of LV can be as true as that in ancient China. Or is it another version of advertising? What do you think? More Louis Vuitton Products are available on Top1handbag.net