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"They have a very different feeling," he says.
That diplomacy extends to discussions about the economy. Before the opening of the Shanghai maison the papers have been flooded with reports of the slowing down of the Chinese economy and a softening in appetite for luxury goods. Burberry said its sales had been hit by the slowdown. "We're probably more concerned about the speed of the explosion than anything else," Zanardi-Landi says. "We think we've just started. Ten years ago, Chinese customers were not so sophisticated and very logo-driven.
Now they are very knowledgeable. Chinese purchasing of Louis Vuitton is still super strong." Even with the company reporting strong double-digit growth with Discount Louis Vuitton Free Gift the Chinese, according to Zanardi-Landi, the Shanghai maison marks a shift in strategy from expansion to consolidation. "We will slowly continue to grow. We are continuously improving what we have and bringing newness to what we do."
In China, most Louis Vuitton stores are in the capitals of provinces. The emphasis now is on improving service and guiding Chinese customers through different stages of familiarity with the brand. Having shadowed Carcelle for months, incoming chief executive Jordi Constans, a Spaniard and former managing director of yoghurt company Danone, now knows those stages well. "There are three," Constans says. "The new customers, whose first purchase is the monogram. The next step is to buy the ready-to-wear, the jewellery or the plain handbags.
Then there's the most sophisticated of all, the customer who appreciates the logo, not as an obvious outward sign of expense, but because of its history and glamour."
At the runway show, history and glamour intertwine.
The steam train evokes Louis Vuitton's beginnings supplying luggage to worldly travellers while the glamour comes from the brocades, jacquards, laser-etched plastic stones and kangaroo Cheap Burberry Women Coats
leather in the collection. "Travel has always been the inspiration of Louis Vuitton," Carcelle says. "When Marc Jacobs decided to show a real train arriving at the Louvre for the Fall/Winter 2012-13 show, it paid tribute to the world of travel in a most elegant way."
Photographer Todd Selby from influential lifestyle website theselby.com was enlisted to capture the spirit of travel on a two-week train journey from Paris to Shanghai; at the cocktail reception before the runway show, guests were shown the perfect way to stuff your Louis Vuitton carry-all or overnight bag. People may no longer travel by train with a trail of monogrammed trunks but the company is betting that people will buy into the dream.
"Luxury should be an emotion," Carcelle says. Having taken his bow to deafening applause, Jacobs' wide smile suggests he is experiencing an emotion best described as elation and the kind of buzz that doesn't come from tai chi.
With the crowd tearing up the dancefloor once the DJs flown in from Paris hit their Europop stride, and Carcelle waving his hands in the air, it's clear Louis Vuitton is prepared to sweat to continue to reign in China.