Inside A Harvard Employee’s Dreamy, Marc Jacobs-Era Louis Vuitton Archive

Lauren Pyes, however, was hunting down rare pieces from the period well before the hype. Pyes, who’s based in Boston and works in alumni affairs at Harvard University, has cultivated a deep admiration for the designer, amounting to a carefully curated archive of nearly 60 pieces of his most iconic work for Louis Vuitton.

“There is a certain irreverence to everything Marc Jacobs makes,” she tells Vogue of her connection to his vision. “I love how his items allow me to go out into the world, inhabit the fairly conservative work environment I have a career in, and still feel like there is something different and elevated about how I am dressed. His designs have a wink of silliness, without being costume-y.”

Pyes, in a Louis Vuitton by Marc Jacobs spring 2006 dress, carries a Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami bag—also spring 2006.

Photo: Courtesy of Lauren Pyes

Louis Vuitton by Marc Jacobs fall 2012 platforms.

Photo: Courtesy of Lauren Pyes

Louis Vuitton by Marc Jacobs spring 2006 dress.

Photo: Courtesy of Lauren Pyes

Pyes first fell in love with Jacobs’ work during a trip to Paris at 16. A highlight, she reflects, was visiting the Louis Vuitton flagship on the Champs-Élysées, where the spring 2007 collection had just arrived. “The sight of a pair of sandals with a cut-out architectural wedge that looked to have gold foil wrapped over their heel set my heart aflutter,” she says. Though they remained in-store (“despite pleading and impassioned reasoning, it was a rational decision by my parents,” she adds), her curiosity was sparked. “The beautiful soft romanticism of that season led me to explore what had come before,” she says, like the grunginess of fall 2006 and collaborations with Murakami and [Stephen] Sprouse.

Her pursuit of rarified goods is both meticulous and delightfully unpredictable. She scours resale platforms, proxy services, and social media accounts, and occasionally enlists a professional sourcer, to track down hard-to-get finds. Of the extreme lengths she’ll go to for an item, she admits: “I should probably be vague, but let’s just say there is something in my closet that I recently chased down from a country with whom the U.S. currently has trade sanctions.” That dedication is evident in the breadth of her collection, which includes the “Nurse” dresses and coordinating face masks from spring 2008 and a full yellow and white damier look from spring 2013. Every piece, from the theatrical to the understated, from statement-makers to little touches, is seen as a portal into Jacobs’ world.