travelswithalice

May 15, 2017

Jeff Koons (or is it Jeff Cons?) for LV

Grabbing a quick lunch at Plat du Jour in Hong Kong's Pacific Place, I don't know why I'm so angry.

Maybe it's because I'm hungry. It's

almost 3pm, and my light breakfast of fruits and coffee is proving to be not enough for a growing girl. Yup, I may have grown two dress sizes in the past two months or so.

Anyway, in front of me, in the center of the vast lower ground floor of this retail temple, is a glass altar dedicated to handbags. The glass walls are peppered with shiny metallic LV logos.

A raised platform, accessed by staircases manned by serious looking men in dark suits, displays images of time-honored ouvres by da Vinci, Titian, Rubens, Fragonard, and Van Gogh. These art heavyweights share floor space with handbags bearing iconic names like Speedy, Keepall, and Neverfull.

On the floor are bright young things in the regulation black suits. Claudia, until recently a financial accounting student at the London School of Economics, now helps to sell handbags for Louis Vuitton. She says Jeff Koons, in this collaboration with the handbag heavy, may have chosen the five Old Masters either because they are his personal favorites or because, as some experts have opined, he merely wants to be as ridiculous as he can be.

I myself believe this infuriatingly successful con artist has achieved the latter aim with ease.

One can only assume, paraphrasing the song of Fraulein Maria, right before she became Mrs Von Trapp, that somewhere in his youth, he must've done something good.

Labels: Hong Kong, Jeff Koons, Louis Vuitton, LV