Traditionally, Louis Vuitton has always laid out the blueprint for each of their stores across the globe, with plans drawn up exclusively by an in-house team of designers. In recent years, however, the maison has taken to collaborating with a local 'muse', by their own definition, to lend a distinct regional appeal to each retail outlet. Towards this end, RooshadSHROFF was brought on board for the flagship store housed within the Jio Plaza in Mumbai.
We were invited to design certain key areas within the space -- a private salon for VICs, specific walls and carpeted sections -- as well as proffer locally-sourced art and furniture. The private salon displays one of our signature embroidery-on-wood panels, featuring Indian zardozi based on French knotting techniques and coincidentally representative of the fusion of the two cultures. For the men's section, we created a bespoke blue wallpaper using block printing, designed using custom blocks; the space also contains one of our Fordite tables, made from recycled Burma teak and inspired by the vivid patterns of fordite, an agate-like enamel which is a by-product of the automotive industry. A specially commissioned hand-carved marble table serves as a stand-alone display piece, and we also designed and fabricated several carpets for the interiors.
In addition to bespoke objects from our studio, we curated several created by different Indian designers, so that a significant percentage of the LV flagship store features accents primarily made in India.
