Louis Vuitton has introduced the Haute Maroquinerie service to its new boutique in Beijing. Photo provided to China Daily

Restoring a golden touch

Street snaps of China

There is a colorful plate in the center of a leather box in a secret corner on the second floor. It looks like an artist's palette. But upon closer inspection, the customer will notice that the colors on the plate are different leathers.

Louis Vuitton has introduced this Haute Maroquinerie service to this boutique. The service allows customers to pick from eight fine leathers specially provided by the label, and then choose from 27 colors, to create their own handbags. Customers can also put their names on the inner lining of the handbags.

The newly opened boutique store is a little bit "artistic". Beside the stairs on the first floor is a giant golden sculpture. Twisting and expanding like a rising spiral, the art piece Divide is from British sculptor Tony Cragg.

There are also two paintings in the store. One is Meldi, created by French artist Bernard Frize in 2012. This giant oil painting is simple from a distance, but when looked at closely, it is a complex structure of detailed small lines and various colors. The other work is On Travel 108, painted by Remy Markowitsch in 1998. The beautiful scenery in the painting matches Louis Vuitton's core spirit: traveling.

Chinese actress Gong Li attended the opening ceremony, carrying a scarlet Melas bag from the label.