Comparing Barricades

By Eva Dec-Prat

One of my favorite things to do when I have a day to walk around NYC and I happen to be passing by 57th street on 5th Avenue is to look at people's reactions—taking photos and posing—of the Louis Vuitton scaffolding cover. At first, I found this concept to be unique; however, I have started to realize that all barricades are used, a lot of the time, to say something about the company. We can even look back at a Kate Spade barricade that enforced accessibility and curiosity, or, even now, the new Prada barricade on the same street as the LV building.

Kate Spade's shoppable barricade from a construction project in 2014 in Short Hills, New Jersey turns a construction inconvenience into an invitation. By making the barricade accessible and functional as a retail space, Kate Spade opens itself up to passersby who might never have walked into the store—curious tourists, casual shoppers, people who wouldn't otherwise seek the brand out. This is fundamentally an introduction strategy. Kate Spade doesn't have universal name recognition the way LV or Prada does, so construction becomes a chance to say "here's who we are" to an audience that's discovering them for the first time. Crucially, this openness extends to literally exposing the "foundation" of the brand—the barricade doesn't hide the construction, it becomes part of the pitch. 

LV and Prada, by contrast, use their 5th Avenue barricades to reinforce status rather than build awareness. They know they're already recognized globally, so their goal isn't introduction—it's making sure construction never reads as vulnerability or ordinariness. Neither brand lets pedestrians glimpse the actual scaffolding or "foundation" underneath; instead, both convert the barricade into an architectural spectacle. LV builds an oversized replica of its iconic travel trunks, tying the installation to its heritage while symbolically claiming 5th Avenue as a new, permanent "home." Prada takes a different route, using its Shifting Moiré Skin material to turn the barricade into a piece of high-fashion art. At night, a light grid activates and reveals the scaffolding beneath—but rather than exposing weakness, this becomes a designed reveal, framing the renovation process itself as part of the artistic statement.

Link to a video of the Kate Spade barricade: https://vimeo.com/109281002