So, where you going?

THE LOUIS Vuitton City Guides 2014 trot through 15 metropolises for their 15th anniversary. Sadly, Bangkok isn’t among them, but of course you have The Nation to guide you around here.

Instead, the Vuitton Guide, boasting a complete makeover with new features, offers a mix of places from the conventional to the quirky and the classical to the avant-garde. You have Cape Town, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo and Venice and, in America, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.

Since 1998 Louis Vuitton has been sharing its urban wanderlust through its City Guides, avoiding the usual and expected places to explore others off the beaten track. You get the exquisite hotels, the best chocolate shops, all the nice restaurants and luxury boutiques, the dance clubs and the little-known museums. 

Each city, covered in 320 pages with 600 addresses to track down, is assigned its own colour. Paris-based studio Lords of Design, which handled this edition, assigned royal blue to its hometown, rosewood to Tokyo, buttercup to New York and queen purple to London, while Beijing gets draped in imperial red. 

New feature “24 Hours in the City” recommends a dozen experiences to try in each locale within a single span of day and night. It’s a schedule guaranteed to generate memories that last a lifetime. “The Scenic Route” is in fact five different mapped itineraries for exploring the cities on foot, dodging the hustle and bustle of the crowd. 

Readers’ input over the years has made the new City Guide even more discerning and personalised in its selection of places to see. Their advice is added to that of editors, translators, product experts and other professionals speaking from direct experience in their home cities. 

Seoul, which first-time visitors will be surprised to find is a haven of cinema lovers, has actor Lee Byung-Hun as your tour guide, while Beijing’s creative side is unveiled by influential blogger Hung Huang. Lourdes Lopez, director of the Miami City Ballet, shows you where his ballerinas hang out, and medical expert Philippe Charlier takes his scalpel to the history of Paris. Jazz pianist Makoto Ozone pulses to the beat of Tokyo. Architect Marcio Kogan fills out the details of Sao Paulo. 

Other contributors are actresses Miranda Otto in Sydney and Carol Cheng in Hong Kong, chef Melia Marden in New York, photographer Tim Street-Porter in LA, former Olympic sailor Alberto Sonino in Venice, textile designer Celia Birtwell and David Hockney in London, artist Beezy Bailey in Cape Town and hotelier Carlos Couturier in Mexico City.

The photographers’ collective Tendance Floue fills the pages with 300 previously unpublished images. These are true snapshots of life and offer a fresh perspective, going far beyond mere illustration of the text. 

 

 

MAP OF THE WORLD

 >>Each City Guide costs Bt1,200. There’s a |limited edition (3,000 copies) including all 15 books that comes in a lacquered wooden box for Bt17,800.

>>They are available at Louis Vuition shops – Gaysorn, Siam Paragon and Emporium.