Amazing Grace

Louis Vuitton Travels with Grace Coddington and her cats Blondie, Blanket, and Jimi

- AA PATAWARAN

At the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Louis Vuitton turns travel into theater.

The storied trunks become stages, the rooms transform into a world where Grace Coddington's cats pad across silks and nylons, curl into secret compartments, and leap from Paris to Sydney to the Amazon. They climb the Great Wall, they float into outer space. The collection is called Travel with Grace Coddington, and it is less a fashion line than a dream in motion, guided by creatures whose paws never seem to touch the ground.

Cats have always been Grace's muses. Long before she became the flame-haired visionary who redefined decades at Vogue, she was sketching their sly silhouettes, letting their aloof elegance slip into her work. They demanded nothing, not even attention, and yet they stole the scene. Where other muses preened, hers blinked languidly and moved on. They were companions, yes, but also accomplices, reminding her that glamour was never about clamor, but about poise, mystery, and a suggestion of grace.

Louis Vuitton gives her a caravanserai for these muses, a stage as storied as her own career. The Maison invited her to imagine what travel looks like when cats take the lead, and she answered with a wardrobe for seasoned voyagers. Soft cashmeres, silk pyjamas chicer than any suit, foldable nylon bags that collapse flat but unfurl without flaw, flat sandals and tennis shoes, blankets and plaids to ward off the chill of trains and flights. On these pieces, her cats Blondie, Blanket, and Jimi leave their paw prints stamped like visas, charting journeys the way old labels once decorated Vuitton trunks.