February 21-February 25, 2016
Visiting Brussels in 2007 as a backpacker, and revisiting Capital of Europe as a Client Advisor, my 2016 EU trip begins with an exciting expectation on the induction training at Louis Vuitton.
Located on Avenue Louise, the headquarter building is surrounding in a vivid and convenient neighborhood. Godiva, Chanel, Dior, GUESS, Sonia Rykiel, Zara and even Zadig & Voltaire are in a walking distance. And my favourite waffle yellow van parking at the major intersection, and that evokes my desire to have a bite after long training day.
The training starts at 9 and ends around 6 every day. Our trainers have us to focus on clientele service at class, adapting several methods such as brainstorming, fast Q&A, video watching, group discussion and role play. I especially find group discussion as my ‘back to the academic good old days’, that we sitting down, having a pen, a note and a cup of drink at hand, sharing different point of views with each other, giving the feedbacks and smiles, and friendship grows every second pass. For no doubt we often encounter difficult questions from the trainers, such as ‘listing at least 5 iconic signatures of our collection’ and so on. We try our best to contribute what we have learnt, and back to the hotel room after training day, we would eager to look up the product handbook to enhance the knowledge and memory. And interestingly, the inspiration could grow immediately over one night.
Meeting new faces from the Nordics and Benelux is one of the best parts of the trip. We greet each other at breakfast around 8, together walking toward to the headquarter from ZOOM Hotel, and spend at least almost 8 hours side by side during the training, and even more, discover the City of Brussels after the long day. I experience the fusion sushi, the fresh salad, the traditional Belgium cuisine and national treasure--the waffle--with these warm-hearted new friends. In my opinion, product knowledge can be gained not so difficultly from the various media, but the gathering with people is the incalculably precious.
The other best part of the training is visiting the head office and store in Brussels. The office building is always bright, and in the training classroom, at the entrance, the blossom and the iconic trunk greet us all the time. Brussels store building was constructed back to the 19th century, accordingly, the space at each floor is rather limited spacious. Still, Brussels store has lovely women’s ready-to-wear collection, and the visual merchandising is echoing the color tone of SS16 theme. Climbing the staircases to the second floor, the eye-catching wardrobe trunk stands still, is well established by its unequalled strength and lightness. The ultimate symbol of Louis Vuitton, has known a myriad of innovations, hiding the signatures such as rivet, corner, malletage and the S-Lock , which of all, also inspired the design of shoes, accessories, city bags and so on. The trunk is like a chronicle of design history, open to recording each and every journey.
And the journey of the connection of warm friendship and profession onto the great design, is to be continued.
Special Thanks: Team Nordics & Benelux
From 2007-16, the backpacker tour to the training trip. Gaining info is easy, but gathering is precious. Brussels, Je t’aime.
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