L O U I S . V U I T T O N . M A I S O N .

Last Friday I had the absolute honor of attending the opening of the Louis Vuitton Masion store on George Street in Sydney. Being only the 13th of its kind in the world, the Louis Vuitton Maison is spread out over three beautiful levels and is Australia's largest stand-alone luxury store. Full of exquisite and breathtaking pieces, this store is home to $6 million dollars worth of jewelry, each with its own story and inspiration behind its design. Trust that my favourite piece (the jeweled statement necklace above) is worth a cool $1.5 million dollars alone. Cate Blanchett was described as "part of the Louis Vuitton family" and was there to show her support by cutting the ribbon to officially open the LV Maison store, which just so happens to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Louis Vuitton in Australia. I didn't know it was humanely possible to illuminate the way Cate does in real life, but apparently it is. Besides its incredible decor and mouth watering collections, the most fascinating part about this store is the VIP room located on the very top floor. Here you will find Haute Maroquinerie, the luxurious service where customers can custom build their very own Louis Vuitton bag. Only the second store in the entire world to receive this exclusive 'Made to Order' service, customers have the option to choose what leather, shape, size, colour, lining and hardware they desire to suit their own personality and taste. Designed to be a 'dream of a process', each bag takes between six to twelve months to make in Paris and comes with your initials iron stamped on a leather patch inside. Considering there are eight different types of fine and exceptional leathers, including shiny or matte crocodile or alligator skin, available in a range of twenty-six colours and over eighty thousand shades of silver and gold hardware to choose from, I think someone as indecisive as myself would have to spend a week in there just to choose what colour I would want the lining to be! That being said it would be a process I'd be more than happy to undertake for such an iconic and timeless piece such a Louis Vuitton bag.

A special thank you to Matt, Natalia and Sophia from EVHPR for making this happen, and also to Amanda Gay, Phillipa Jenkins, Yves Carcelle and Jean-Baptiste Debain from Louis Vuitton for taking one day to new heights of surreal. This experience is definitely in my top three. Ever.