Even in 2018, the powers that be in luxury shopping do what they can to ensure that buying luxury goods is an in-person experience. Not only does getting shoppers into stores help control the flow and availability of product for control-hungry brands doing everything they can to maintain their image, but shopping in person and with a sales associate encourages buyers to form a psychological relationship with the experience of buying from a particular place, and it also gives both the brand and the shopper a personal point of future contact for future business. Some of the biggest names in luxury leather goods, like Chanel and Goyard, still don’t allow online shopping, and many other brands keep their most sought-after pieces off their e-commerce sites—too much of an incentive to shop online keeps people out of boutiques. That’s why it’s so notable that a huge brand like Louis Vuitton has launched a bag that is, at least for the time being, only available online.
The Louis Vuitton Haumea
The Louis Vuitton Haumea Tote debuted on the brand’s website earlier this week in three colors of Mahina leather, and with a qualifier I’ve never noticed on any of the brand’s bags before: a note marking it as an online exclusive for a limited time. Louis Vuitton’s primary points of sale for the brand’s entire history have been its large global network of boutiques, so putting a bag only online is a big step. It also suggests a forward-thinking outlook for which the luxury sector is not always known: millennials want to buy stuff online, whether boomers like it or not.
The bag itself is of a very particular Louis Vuitton style: it’s a flared-gusset tote, rendered centrally in smooth leather and accented with tonal panels in perforated monogram. It’s a workhorse piece that won’t star in any ad campaigns but will appeal to longtime Louis Vuitton fans who might not be as enthusiastic about the liberties designer Nicolas Ghesquiere takes with the brand’s bags on the runway. It’s a solid everyday bag, with a main compartment buttressed by smaller ancillary sections to the front and back, plus an optional shoulder strap.
The bag is priced at $4,250 in all three colors, and as of this writing, all three are still available. If you want to scoop this bag up before it’s available in stores, you can do it at the links below.
