CHEERS, LOUIS.

Louis Vuitton has been in the Netherlands for ten years, and that is reason for a party. A party with well-dressed men and women (dress code cocktail), elegant waiters who silently walked around with bottles of Ruinart Champagne to keep filling the glasses, and dozens of antique mirrors on the walls. The location was the beautiful mirror shop of Anouk Beertens on the Amsterdam Prinsengracht. Together with May-Britt and Peggy, I braved the rain (glamour in the Netherlands is so impractical) to join people like Hilmar Mulder, Cécile Narinx, Jan Taminiau (pronounced ta-mi-ni-joo) and Nikkie Plessen. Besides drinking champagne and eating macarons (those were also there), there was the opportunity to see how those beautiful Louis Vuitton bags are put together. In a specially set up workshop for the occasion, a number of really beautiful bags were made live, and that all happens by hand. A wall was filled with tools, dozens of different pliers, hammers, and whatnot. We saw how the handles were sewn on by hand, the corners were rounded, and zippers were attached. We had another glass, admired the beautiful mirrors and similarly beautiful people, and then decided to head home. With a well-filled goodie bag, and above all, with a head full of longing for a real Louis Vuitton. Sinterklaas, are you reading along?