Golden age: Was Marc Jacobs' Louis Vuitton Express the most fashionable train?

Grand designs: Marc Jacobs said he was inspired by the romance of travelling by train (AFP/Getty Images)

Fashion loves a train. Think of Marlene Dietrich vamping around in cock-feathers and a veiled cloche in Shanghai Express; of Wallis Simpson in precision haute couture atop her mountains of luggage; of the Eurostar chugging the British fashion press across to Paris every season. (In fact, the latter is not so glamorous, nor fashionable.)

The most fashionable train ever, however, was the multi-million Louis Vuitton Express devised for Marc Jacobs’ autumn/winter 2012 collection...

INSPIRATIONS

"I think it all started with the train. I was thinking about travel, the heritage of Louis Vuitton and then the romance of travelling on a train." So said Marc Jacobs in 2012 explaining where the notion came from to stage his Vuitton collection aboard a steam engine.

Vuitton's history as Malletier (trunk-maker) played a primary role, but so did Downton Abbey and the golden age of train travel between the wars. There was also a major fashion antecedent: in 1998, John Galliano steered a steam train re-branded as the 'Diorient Express' on to a platform of the Gare d'Austerlitz to open his autumn/winter haute couture show. It was still as spectacular 14 years later.

CONSTRUCTION

The locomotive used for the show was specially constructed to precise requirements by an in-house team overseen by Louis Vuitton's visual creative director Faye McLeod. The show space, the Cour Carrée du Louvre, was decked out to resemble a vaulted turn-of-the-century station.

The train pulled in to the platform a full four minutes late (AFP/Getty Images)

"Louis Vuitton created the train and all of the station elements such as the clock especially for this space," said Jacobs. "Every single item was carefully and individually made, right down to the light fixtures and luggage racks."

THE SHOW

Louis Vuitton shows are renowned for running precisely on time – if not ahead. Marc Jacobs once stated that his wish was to stage a show that was over before the last guest had actually taken their seat. It's a tongue-in-cheek declaration, but it's telling that even this most hyper-punctual of fashion houses couldn't make their train run on time.

The Louis Vuitton locomotive pulled in a full four minutes late to the platform at the Louvre, disgorging 47 of the most glamorous travellers anyone is likely to see. Each model –well over seven feet tall in six-inch platform shoes and towering cloche hats by London milliner Stephen Jones – was accompanied by a diminutive porter toting elaborately embellished luggage.

The locomotive disgorged 47 of the most glamorous travellers anyone is likely to see (AFP/Getty Images)

EXPRESS RETURN

"Over the recent seasons we have created sets that have marked a journey, that have had a narrative. I wanted this set to continue that narrative and to reflect the collection, which also mixes different things that we have created together and different references. So, we borrowed from previous sets and realised them in black, in a glamorous way."

That was Marc Jacobs' justification for his spring/summer 2014 collection – the backdrop to which was a "greatest hits" mash-up of famous Vuitton set-pieces, including a little piece of the Louis Vuitton Express. This time, it was that clock looming large, counting down, and chiming to celebrate the finale of Marc Jacobs' 16-year tenure at the house.