FROM A CHALET MADE OF BREAD TO THE CREATION OF FANTASTIC ANIMALS AS LOUIS VUITTON’S NEW CHARACTERS – URS FISCHER IS THE MAISON’S NEWEST ART EXPLORATION
Text by Fiammetta Cesana
The kinship between Louis Vuitton and the arts has always been inextricable. In addition to the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi in Paris, which hosts exclusive modern and contemporary collections since 2014, over the years the Maison has carried out several collaborations with artists making its collections’ pieces real work of art. From Takashi Murakami, the Superflat artist in love with Japanese manga culture who made iconic LV monogram an explosion of colors, to Stephen Sprouse’s graffiti-printed bags, to the master of appropriation Richard Prince with whom Marc Jacobs’ SS2008 became a runway of provocative nurses-models carrying bags with the artist’s jokes in watercolor, to the pois invasion of Yayoi Kusama over LV garments, accessories, and a whole pop-up store in Paris, to Jeff Koons, who created a series of bags inspired by great masterpieces in his fine-kitsch trademark…
From the ‘Art of travel’ invented by the founder Louis Vuitton in 1854 with his iconic trunks, in these almost two centuries, the maison’s passion for art has diversified and still keeps evolving. Today, Louis Vuitton, whose creative direction is now guided by Nicola Ghesquière, presents a new art-meeting-fashion collection with the Swiss Urs Fischer. Responsible for the construction of huge operas and installations – including a natural-sized chalet made of bread, a huge aluminum pack of cigarettes intersected with a wooden chair, a 7-meters sculpture of a lamp getting out the head of an enormous teddy bear, and wax female nudes – Fischer today expresses his creative intuitions in new forms, exploring fashion design products and consumer’s experience.
Louis Vuitton x Urs Fischer is a collection comprising leather goods, clothing, shoes, bags and scarves, with a vivacious new version of LV monogram. Fischer plays with the signature pattern through hand drawing, making the initials and flowers look like they are fluctuating over the garments. For each piece, the drawing is specifically adopted in its perspectives and application techniques. In the seven special editions of bags, the effect is particularly attractive thanks to the use of tuffetage, which creates a pleasant relief with velvet.
Not only, the artist introduces new Louis Vuitton’s bizarre characters. Animals and objects interviene in the print of a silk scarf and more. A cat sleeping on a banana peel, an avocado that meets an egg, a cat with a light bulb and a bird carrying a peach, will be the protagonists of selected Louis Vuitton stores’ windows around the world, transforming the experience of its consumers through digital screens and sculptural elements.
To make its use of the art even more contemporary, the launch of Louis Vuitton x Urs Fischer will also feature digital content and social media, which will animate the characters and the collection.
Available in stores since January 2, you can already order you favorite pieces in boutique by calling LV service number: 800308980.
To find out more visit: LouisVuitton.com
