Los Angeles, California

The Murakami store at MOCA

NYTimes:
[The woman] trained a covetous eye on the handbags pristinely arrayed on white-lacquered shelves. She was not quite sure what to make of the display, housed in a 1,000-square-foot island of commerce inside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. No matter. She was there to shop. She had come from San Francisco nominally to see an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, [and] was delighted. Here was a luxury store — operated by Louis Vuitton, no less — in the midst of a high-tone exhibition space.
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“If you look at the world of art people interested in contemporary art, they are usually interested in luxury,” said Yves Carcelle, the president of Louis Vuitton. “The bridge between the two worlds is more and more obvious.” Mr. Carcelle underscored the point by noting that 60 of the MOCA Murakami bags were sold in the show’s first week alone.

Referring to the original Murakami leather goods, Mr. Carcelle added, “For us, the payoff has been extraordinary.” He declined to break out sales figures but said that the Murakami profits, which account for only a small percentage of the Vuitton business, add up to more than the total profits of some competing brands.

Such products, a kind of art couture, appeal primarily to a rising class of affluent culture chasers, “people who are very focused on having those hip luxury signifiers,” in the words of Simon Doonan, the creative director of Barneys New York. Owning such products “signifies informed consumption,” Mr. Doonan said. “They say: ‘I’m not just a shopper. I’m a super groovy shopper.’”