Courtesy Of The Genius Japanese Artist, Yayoi Kusama
(photo: ART REVIEW)
Already one of my favorite artists for years now, I was very excited to hear about the upcoming collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama. Recently, WWD reported how Marc Jacobs had already alerted the masses of this pairing during his 2006 visit to her studios, where she in turn presented him with a Louis Vuitton Ellipse bag.
(via HIGHSNOBETTE)
Seen above, the bag’s monogram canvas was covered in dots, her signature motif (throughout her career). Such a moment was captured on film for the camera lens of Loïc Prigent’ in the 2007 documentary “Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton”, where Jacobs twirls the bag and comments, ‘That’s so beautiful, look at that.’
(photo: Frank Mura)
On July 10, before Yayoi Kusama’s major retrospective at the Whitney Museum July 12, LV will be unveiling it’s collection which is the most obvious collaboration of all – Even Vuitton’s president and CEO Yves Carcelle agreed by telling WWD, ‘In a fascinating way, the monogram canvas is as obsessional as Yayoi’s dots’ and who can deny that, really?
The collection will include apparel and accessories ranging from trenchcoats and silk pajamas to a pendant necklace and wristwatch.
(photos: Frank Mura + Courtesy Photo)
In October, a second wave of products will include more ’Kusamacised’ monogram leather goods. This time, the skins will be covered with Kusama’s tentacle-like “nerves”, another signature motif as seen in below installation.
(photo: Keiko Kioku)
Now, Vuitton being no stranger to artistic collaborations with contemporary artists, has so far had an impressive list of collaborators including Stephen Sprouse with his spray graffiti in 2001 + again with rose motif in 2009 and Richard Prince’s quirky “joke paintings” allover bags and deconstructed monogram in 2007. Yet it was the 2003 Takashi Murakami collaboration that really set the bar really high, garnering bigger success in sales and all due to his cartoonish eyeballs sprinkled throughout his designs alongside rainbow monograms, cartoon cherries and cherry blossoms.
“It’s really charming. It has the essence of the spirit of her work,” Jacobs said of the collaboration, describing Vuitton’s monogram and Kusama’s spots as “both timeless and endless.” All the pieces created for the collection have all been a true collaborative effort between designer and artist which then turns one into the other, over and over again, back and forth.
(photo: Frank Mura)
But ‘don’t fret my pet’ if you can’t wait until July to see dots for Vuitton has something special in store for next month. In June, an iPhone app (Hello….Droid?!) will become available where users can take pics and customize them with Kusama motifs – dots and tentacle-like ‘nerves’ – dedicated to the artist and her unique vision of the world.
(photo: Frank Mura)
In what looks to be a lot of fun, this free app — available in English and Japanese — will also allow users to share their creations in several ways. Users can not only share their ‘vision of the world’ via social media platforms, they can also choose to submit them to a dedicated site at louisvuittonkusama.com.
Can’t wait for it all!
(via WWD)