LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton : Selective retailing · September 2, 2021 Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche installs 20,000 flowers designed by Thebe Magugu for the “Porte-Bonheurs” exhibition

Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche will curate the 'Porte-Bonheurs' (Lucky Charms) exhibition in partnership with the South-African designer Thebe Magugu, until October 17. The artistic and philanthropical project pays tribute to the sensitivity of fashion's new rising star.

The exhibition created by the designer is an installation of 20,000 multicolored fabric flowers made into brooches, pinned onto countless vines, and suspended over the store's staircase. The flowers come in all seven colors of the rainbow and in two formats. The young designer picked this pattern as it expresses hope: a flower is a seed sowed in the ground that turns gradually more beautiful and sumptuous.

Thebe Magugu won the LVMH prize in 2019, which rewards each year a new designer with a grant and support program. He presented a classical and elegant line that is offset and improved by asymmetrical effects and ultra-colorful motifs.

The installation consists of flowers that were sewn by a hundred women living in precarious conditions, in four workshops supported by Dessine l'Espoir (Designing Hope), a humanitarian association in South Africa and Eswatini. In December 2019, Le Bon Marché's team and Thebe Magugu went to Johannesburg to meet members of the organization that helps people in Southern Africa. Since 2003, it has run a host of HIV prevention campaigns and supported afflicted populations, both in terms of health and nutrition and in training and educating young children. Patrice Wagner, CEO of Le Bon Marché Group highlighted how important it was to support charity work and that it was part of the group's DNA 'to do this from a fashion perspective'. Frédéric Bodenes, Art and Image Director, explained how the project was started: 'A few months ago, we went to meet Dessine l'Espoir and its President, Cyrille Varet. Together we came up with this initiative, which we then proposed to Thebe Magugu, who immediately joined forces with us. Through this exhibition, we hope to raise awareness amongst our customers and contribute, in our own way, to supporting these people'.