Mr Cruikshank was both surprised and flattered to be approached by the French fashion house to create six pieces for its new retail store in Queenstown.
``It was amazing to be approached by a brand like Louis Vuitton ... to be asked to do that is a real honour and incredibly exciting,'' he said.
The brief was to create timeless furniture with an authentic local character, in a departure from the international look the brand adopted in the majority of its stores.
Louis Vuitton wanted to create an atmosphere in the store, in the Skyline Enterprises building in Marine Parade, that had a mountain-resort feel to it, he said.
So Mr Cruikshank created two custom-built display tables, made from 40,000-year-old kauri, and two mountain beech low tables. Two of his signature club chairs, upholstered in leather, also featured in the store. The assignment took six months from the initial concepts to installation.
The mountain beech tables had specific local relevance and a pertinent link to the location as the site of the store was one of the first areas of Queenstown to be established. The mountain beech, which grew in the southern part of the South Island, would have begun its life around the same time, about 150 years ago.
The project was also quite a departure for Mr Cruikshank because a lot of his work was in quite traditional materials such as walnut and oak.
The commission also coincided with a new era for Mr Cruikshank, who closed his Arrowtown showroom earlier this year to focus on bespoke projects from his private studio.
``This new phase is all about conversation and collaboration. I love working personally with my customers to design meaningful pieces of furniture that they will cherish for a lifetime,'' he said.
A love of fine cabinetmaking, while he was living in England, led to a degree in industrial design, followed by a decade working alongside furniture maker David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley.
That was the ``perfect'' place to sharpen his skills and he learnt much about good design, enduring artefacts and the attributes that constituted them.
``You can imagine, working for the Queen's nephew you meet some pretty interesting people. That was great fun,'' he said.
After a stint in Australia, the plan was to head back to England with a ``quick'' ski season in Queenstown on the way. But his wife got a job and Mr Cruikshank got ``itchy fingers'' again, and started to look at what was around the resort.
He did some design work for someone and discovered there was great potential in the area, so he set up his own business doing custom designs.
It had been an organic process from there, setting up a showroom in Arrowtown, which ended up becoming a shop.
After 10 years, Mr Cruikshank realised he wanted to refocus on his passion, creating bespoke work, so he closed the shop and set up a private studio.
That had proven to be a ``fantastic move'' and all his time now went into designing, and meeting customers looking for bespoke pieces. They came from all over the world and there was a wide cross-section. Generally, they were well travelled people looking for high-quality pieces that also had meaning behind them.
Those bespoke projects often incorporated quite personal things, whether about sense of place or family, he said.
It was somewhat ``bizarre'' that while he had effectively dropped off the radar since closing the shop, he had never been busier.
``The sort of projects I've been dreaming about the last 10 years are landing in my lap now. The phone doesn't stop ringing.''
A book about his work was forthcoming and he was hoping Viscount Linley would write the introduction. The pair kept in touch and had talked about working on a project together.
As for skiing? His home and studio were at the bottom of the road to Coronet Peak skifield, and he kept his skis outside the studio during the ski season so was ``always ready to go''.
