{NM Daily}

It might be a stretch to compare a 21^st century American designer to a 19^thcentury French trunk maker, but that’s the ambitious conceit of the new “Louis Vuitton – Marc Jacobs” exhibit that just opened at Paris’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs and runs through September 16th. Visitors who climb the stairs to the first floor of the multi-media exhibit are immediately confronted with formal portraits of the two men: Louis Vuitton drawn in 1892 by Studio Reutlinger and Marc Jacobs peering out of a highly stylized Rankin photograph. The show, dreamed up by curator Pamela Golbin, compares the work of these two innovators in the context of the seismic cultural and industrial shifts of their times. In broad strokes, it’s an analysis of the fashion industry during two decisive periods of enormous change—19^th century industrialization and 21^st century globalization. That’s really where the similarities between Mr. Vuitton and Mr. Jacobs end. After all, what do 19^th century steamer trunks have in common with $3,000 Murakami bags?

You would be surprised.