A night of private shopping

 On one side you had the French painter Paul Gauguin, famous for his Post-Impressionists and his Tahitian series of paintings. On the other side, you had the American painter and photographer Richard Prince, famous for his installations — huge canvases printed with jokes such as “With my wife I got no sex life, she cut me down to once a month. Hey, I’m lucky, two guys she knows she cut out completely” at the Barbara Gladstone Gallery in 2001 — and his series of “Nurse” watercolors, his send-up of covers of pulp romance novels.

The only thing these two artists — a century, a lifetime and several art movements apart — have in common is that they both inspired the spring-summer collections of Louis Vuitton. Under the artistic directorship of Marc Jacobs, the 154-year-old brand is getting more avant-garde with every collection but at the same time it stays true to its heritage. Pop artists are co-designing bags while the masters are inspiring new trends. 

Prince collaborated with Jacobs on the Monogram Jokes and the Monogram Watercolor lines, while Gauguin was the inspiration for the Tahitienne collection.

You can imagine the waiting lists for all three collections at the Louis Vuitton store in Greenbelt 4. But for one night early this month, bags that normally had three- to five-page long of waiting lists were made available as Louis Vuitton and Citibank invited the bank’s Platinum cardholders and CitiGold clients to a very exclusive night of private shopping.

Both the bank and the fashion house make it a point to treat their valued customers to special events. These clients actually share the same profile: people who travel the world, who love lifestyle events and luxury products, who are big spenders and are mostly entrepreneurs or professionals in upper management. They have exquisite taste and will spend on the best things in life, whether it’s a tote to use every day to work or airline tickets to take them to the opposite end of the world. 

Louis Vuitton-Philippines PR manager Pamela Picazo says their clients “enjoy this type of setup because we offer a night of luxurious shopping. They get to see their favorite sales associates to address their needs on a one-on-one basis, they enjoy the cocktails, the champagne. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere compared to coming to the store on an ordinary day.”

That night, guests enjoyed Moet et Chandon, also part of the LVMH Group, wines and hors d’oeuvres on the store premises. There were also sections of the store that featured Tahitian elements such as palm trees and sand, and accessories designer Kia del Rosario made  wooden bead bracelets that customers took home.  They also took home a keepsake of a Polynesian pearl.

Citibank sent out invitations to 200 Platinum and CitiGold clients based on the clients’ spending patterns. Rio Llanto-Mayuga, Citibank vice president for cards marketing, says, “Citibank always wants to give the very best to our customers and we couldn’t choose anything less than Louis Vuitton. We always treat our customers a cut above the rest, offer them really unique and the best privileges.”

Platinum cardholders’ credit limits range from half a million to as high as P4 million. “They know how to manage their credit card and a lot of them use it for business and travel.”

Platinum perks include invites to the hottest and most exclusive events tailored just for them (like the recent BMW test drive event), exclusives or premium items from the Citibank rewards catalogue, which they can avail of for fewer points (such as a Mac Air laptop from Apple), and other dining and shopping privileges.

“We reward them with what they love best — travel; they earn triple reward points when they use their card abroad. When the principal cardholder charges his and his family’s tickets to the card he gets a P20-million travel insurance and travel inconveniences are covered, too, such as lost luggage, delayed flights, and other emergency expenses.”

CitiGold is the wealth-management service of Citibank that offers investment products and options. “Normally when you do banking, you just put it in a time deposit or a normal savings account,” says Jenny Lacerna, Citibank vice president for retail bank marketing. “With CitiGold, we are able to give you a wide variety of products including those that are not available in the Philippines, like gold or multi-currency investments, for which we refer you to Singapore.”

Jenny says that the difference between CitiGold and ordinary banking is that CitiGold offers “the expertise and opportunities” to reach your objective whether it’s wealth preservation for some retirees or to grow the wealth for young people who choose high-risk, high-yield options. “It really is a total relationship as opposed to a transactional relationship.”

CitiGold clients start at $80,000 or its peso equivalent (around P3.3 million in today’s forex). “When you have that much money to invest we put you in the CitiGold segment. Our clientele is very varied. You’d be surprised, there are very young people investing with us — some are as young as 24 years old — and a lot of them made their money in technology.”

Louis Vuitton’s Pam Picazo says that for the Philippine market, the bestseller is still the Monogram Speedy. Now, women who just can’t leave home without toting everything but the kitchen sink will love the new Galliera, which is a large hobo-shaped bag with a “Louis Vuitton Inventeur” plaque on the front.   

Pam says the new product has gotten quite popular here. “For this bag there is usually a long wait list but it’s available tonight.”

Louis Vuitton’s spring-summer collection is perhaps one of the most whimsical ever. Even its catwalk launch in Paris was very pop culture with blown-up images of pulp fiction covers.

Some of the new collections are:

• Tahitienne: Very summery and feminine, the colors are inspired by the beach and Paul Gauguin’s paintings which he did when he lived in Tahiti and other islands of French Polynesia — sable, rose, lila and menthe. With its small Monogram-pattern lining, the Tahitienne  is a “two bags in one” because it can be worn with the snap hook open or closed, adjusting the shape and capacity of the bag.

• Monogram Jokes: It’s a direct homage to Prince’s series of paintings, and at the launch show 12 supermodels — including Eva Herzigova, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour and Natalia Vodianova — appeared dressed in nurses’ uniforms. (Prince has a series of paintings called “Nurses,” one of which was used for a Sonic Youth album cover, inspired by pulp fiction covers.) Jokes, taken by Prince from Seventies magazines, are silk-screened onto the faded Monogram fabric. The fabric is not your typical Monogram but rather is unevenly colored with off-shade patterns. The bag comes in medium size with a double zipper, a zippered handbag and a shopper in large and outsized versions.

• Monogram Watercolor: This is what I personally love best (aside from the big Galliera bag) because it features a “smudged” Monogram canvas.

• Monogram Pulp/Monogram Bonbon: The Monogram After Dark series encompasses two bowling bags in Monogram fabric and, like a Richard Prince painting, they are daubed with acid shades of pink, yellow and blue then coated with a glossy varnish.

• Monogram Motard/Monogram Cartoons: Prince’s cartoons are hand-embroidered on brightly colored pony finish while the artist’s take on the iconic Speedy bag is in super luxe material.

So, how did the women react to the new collections? Oh, be still, their beating hearts!  There were men, too — who mostly came to accompany their friends or significant others — and some who shopped for shoes and wallets.

But on that night of private shopping, it was all about women, bags and two painters who just made their favorite brand a whole lot hipper.

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For inquiries on Citibank promos and rewards, call its hotline at 995-9999. For inquiries on Louis Vuitton’s latest collection, call 756-0637.