The Thousands

It’s because, according to the Louis Vuitton CEO Yves Carcelle, Sydney deserves, “a Fifth Avenue of New York” that the corner of George and King Streets is now home to the thirteenth Maison for the brand – a three-storey behemoth oozing new-car smell and bag-laden tourists.

As you step through the gold-gilded swinging doors, resist the urge to feel like Pretty Woman. Even if you are a dude, resist this urge. No-one is looking at you, no-one is mentally calculating the dollar-value of your outfit, or the pavement-to-pimped-out ratio of your stride. At least, I hope not.

Level one is dedicated to bags, displayed in a honeycomb fashion up the soaring walls. The carpets are plush and the staff members bountiful. Price tags are suspiciously absent. Dotted about are quite amazing animals constructed out of LV leathergoods: a deer, and something resembling an armadillo. In the display window there is a life-size kangaroo.

Levels two and three are men’s and women’s fashion and footwear. Couches punctuate the rooms, in case you are weary from fingering pure silk, or slipping your stockinged foot into a hand-stitched loafer. One unique element the Sydney Maison boasts (along with Milan) is Haute Maroquinerie (design your own bags) and Made to Order Shoes, which is a VIP personalisation service. This suggests there are living, breathing leather artisans hiding somewhere … perhaps in the basement.

This is a maison of pure, shiny spectacle. Sydney, are you ready for it?