Frank Gehry designed it, Korean actor Gong Yoo attended it: Louis Vuitton’s new Seoul opening

Louis Vuitton has been called one of the world’s leading patrons of the arts, and for good reason. The luxury house’s new flagship Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul store brings together two celebrated international architects, some of the best living artists and designers and one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century for its inaugural gallery exhibition.

The store was opened with a ceremony on October 30 attended by international and Asian celebrities such as Alicia Vikander, Chloë Grace Moretz, Mark Ronson, Claudia Kim, Gong Yoo, Jessica Jung, Jung Woo-sung and Karena Lam.

The first thing visitors will notice when approaching the building is the undulating glass facade. Layers of great curved sails twist and turn in the trademark style of Frank Gehry, ascending skywards as if blown by a violent storm.

A decade after completing his iconic, titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in the 1990s, he designed the landmark Fondation Louis Vuitton, a private arts centre in Paris.

This marks the first collaboration between the 90-year-old Gehry and 70-year-old fellow American designer, Peter Marino, who did the interiors of the building’s five floors.

“When I heard that Peter was going to be involved, I was keen to work with him. I respect him and I like him. I would change some of his stuff and he would change some of my stuff but there were no clashes,” says Gehry.

The Seoul Maison’s glass structure takes its cue from the design of Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. “Once I start down a line of working with materials, which was very successful in Paris, I like to continue exploring it and this is a further exploration, and hopefully there will be other ideas in glass.”