Vuitton in Technicolor

It's no secret that bags are the big revenue generator for Louis Vuitton. While the classics bring patrons back, it's the shock value that bring LV free publicity. So for Spring 2008, in what appears to be free reign over the collection despite the bottom-line, Marc Jacobs went ballistic, and in collaboration with artist Richard Prince, devised the most insane line that I've ever seen Jacobs do. They have really pushed the boundaries between commercialism and art.

To start off, the palette was inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants. What you end up with is a very nonsensical but uniform array of neon and acid colors, where some bags appear to have been spray-painted on, others imprinted with text, and in some cases, there is a Warholian effect with the color inverse of the famous LV logos and flowers.

The show itself was a very straight-forward inspiration from Prince's work. Models dressed as nurses were inspired by Prince's Nurse paintings.

The colors of SpongeBob permeate the line of clothing, starting with the bright yellows, melding in with the soft dreamy blues, creams, exploding with the red, and finally, ending with the darks, as if entering the bottom of the ocean. The collection ends with your eyes descending on the myriad of purses that look like they fell out of a rainbow on crack.

Even the self-references on some of the bags made me laugh. It's like the painting on the wall in a museum, and you need to look at the plaque to read the name. So when I look at this bag, not only is it a bag, or that it's an LV bag. You can now call it by it's catalog name. It's really going beyond branding, and re-assessing the identity of the piece. (Think I'm bull-shitting? This is what the art world's all about, my friend.)

The big question is, would you buy it? I think there's something so fundamentally free to be playful and just let all proper wisdom go out the window, and create something really edgy and zany and not be apologetic about it. But beyond "art," can the same view be that this is less about the artist, and more about capitalism at its worst? Now that Jacobs has taken the classic house of Vuitton and turned it upside down, but will charge you double or triple the norm, how do you take this piece of art and not look at it with some sort of distaste, as if the joke isn't so much the humor of taking something so dowdy as the classic monogram and having fun with it, but that the joke's on you 'cause you bought into the hype and mass hysteria for a bag that aesthetically, is, quite honestly, pretty ugly?

How different is the bag below from the Coach Scribble line? Who copied who, since Coach was copying inspired by Murakami's Multicolor Monogram? Why not buy the Coach instead, if "art" is really what you're after? (Yes, I really don't like Coach, which is why I bemoan the fact that you would even compare the two. Coach cannot replace LV!) When do you hit yourself on the back of your head and say that this is all a scam? Do these artists really believe in their work, or do they think that the can keep pushing, and no one can ever push back?

I have no idea which of the actual pieces will be available for sale, but I would love to see it in person. I have read comparisons of this collection to the Murakami collections in the past, but I thoroughly disagree. Murakami's pieces were of a very decisive, simple, direct, feminine, and clean aesthetic. Prince went the opposite. He didn't reign anything in at all, it's in all directions, some pieces still running with the ombre fades that was influenced by Vermeer, others mocked the proper printing of the logo on canvas, and yet others had really bad cartoon art on it. Seriously? Seriously.

If you catch me carrying one, would you call me an art collector or a sucker?

Photo Source 1

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Lilliputian London

Oh, how I wish I was in London again.

All of my life, I have had an obsession with miniatures. There's something just charming about an item that has been reduced in size, but still maintains its form and function. In the 7th grade, there was a girl I knew named Martha, and she had the most darling miniature dollhouse. I dreamt that one day I could have something as lovely as what she had. I also kept articles about famous dollhouses that were commissioned by royalty, where the chandeliers actually lit up, the sinks had running water, and the books could be read, with the aid of a magnifying glass, of course.

This is why I'm very excited about an exhibit that unfortunately I cannot attend, but I can still appreciate the artistic persepctive. At Paul Smith's Albemarle Street store in London, there is currently an exhibit of Japanese photographer Naoki Honjo's latest work. Using a method known as tilt-shift photography, and shooting from somewhere up high, such as on top of a building or from a helicopter, Honjo manages to reduce one's depth perception, thereby making real settings look like artificial lilliputian villages. In the past, his works have only been of Japan, so I wish I could be in London to see his works of all the famous UK landmarks. Wouldn't that be a wonderful souvenier, to bring back a photo that captures all the excitement and chaos of this wonderful city into little enchanted fairylands?

The exhibit ends Oct. 12th, so if you're in the area, definitely take a look, and if you do get to see it in person, let me know how it went! Were the photographs worth purchasing? If the price was too steep, there's also Honjo's book, "Small Planet." I'm going to order that real soon.

Paul Smith - Naoki Honjo "Small Planet" exhibit - 09.28.07 - 10.12.07 - £3,000 per piece of work

"Small Planet," by Naoki Honjo - £21.50

I HEART...!

I want I want I want!!! 'Nuff said?


The official photo from LV didn't quite capture the beauty of WHY I love this purse, so below is a pic from the Purse Forum. Sigh... It's so gorgeous...but I can't possibly buy another LV! I have too many expenses. Need to buy a new car. New phone. Have my 5-year anniversary with the bf. His 30-year bday coming up. Wedding in Bermuda to attend. Bachelorette party in Vegas. X'mas. Argh!!!!! I need a new job with a higher salary!!!!


According to LV, the gradient in this purse was inspired by the works of Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. He is perhaps most famous for the painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring," which incidentally inspired both a novel and movie starring now ubiquitous Vuitton spokesmodel Scarlett Johannson. As Justin Timberlake most famously sang, "What goes around comes all the way back around." Oh yeah, ScarJo was also his love interest in the video. OK, enough already...six degrees of separation is so much fun! or incestuous... :P


The purse doesn't have milkmaids or stuffy old merchants popping out of the canvas, so what was the inspiration? Vermeer is most famous for his use of light in his paintings. I suppose this is what LV meant when they say that his work inspired the specially silk-screened pattern, where when you look at the background of the pattern, from top to down, the color fades from brown to black. As you look at the logos, from bottom to top, it gently fades to where the logo is almost indiscernible near the zipper. The handles are all done in black patent leather, which of course allows light to bounce right off of it. I think for something that looks like just another Speedy, some thought definitely went into this collection.

Naysayers could lament that this isn't any different from what other brands have been doing with their leather treatments, such as Prada's current Ombre collection, but I think this is a bit more interesting in terms of what Marc Jacobs decided to do with the classic monogram. Definitely a bag that can be carried through the seasons.

Louis Vuitton Monogram Mirage Speedy - Noir - $1,800

There is also a Bordeaux (red) version, but I wasn't loving that. Black all the way!

because I'm inane...

I REALLY want to stop buying Louis Vuittons, but this is certainly something I'm not about to pass up on. Takashi Murakami, the Japanese artist famous for plastering his cartoon creations all over the the LV monogram bags, has a new gimmick. He is going to have an art exhibit running in LA's MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), and along with this artwork, there will be a freestanding Vuitton store selling an exclusive version of handbags and leather accessories with a special character printed on them.

Murakami was a big reason I started to buy LVs. It started out so innocently, beginning with a pochette covered in cherry blossoms (pink on brown). Then I bought another one, in a different color (red on cream). I chased every future Murakami piece I could afford, from owning 2 cherry handbags (one of them a runway piece accented in bright red lizard - GORGEOUS!) and a wallet embellished with a panda. Not to mention the variety of clutches and wallets I bought with the colorful monogram on white canvas. (Never was a fan of the black canvas.) I even succumbed while on a trip to Italy...I stood in the Venice LV store like a deer in headlights, and I HAD to buy. So I did.

While the curator of MoCA thinks that having the store within the exhibit breaks the barrier between low and high art, I don't know if I buy into that. If that's the case, why are these bags costing $800-900 each? Why not lower the cost? And is it about art anymore when pieces right then and there are for sale? Are the pieces on exhibit for sale, too?

Also, why isn't MoCA getting a cut of the profits? MoCA isn't charging LV rental space for the shop either. Maybe MoCA needs to invest in some finance guys to help them out here. Sounds like Bernard Arnault got his way and found another way to make money without giving anything up.

I have no idea how I'm going to get my hand on one of these goodies, but if I need to call the museum, or even fly to LA, I might have to. Maybe this can be a treat for X'mas break. :P After all, LV promises that there will be enough merchandise to last the length of the exhibit. I hope that's true, 'cause I can't wait!

“© Murakami” Exhibit at MoCA (10.29.07 - 02.11.08) - handbags and accessories for $875-$920

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Paintings Du Jour

Continuing on my adoration for the latest Bottega Veneta fall campaign, I think the one reason I love the ads is because it reminds me a lot of the paintings by one of my favorite artists. I'm too poor to own any originals, but Spanish artist Nydia Lozano paints these gorgeous portraits of young women in mid-states of pensiveness, conversations, preparing for a party, or sitting in their gardens. Take a look below and you'll see what I mean. I hope to one day be able to buy an original. Prints just don't capture the beauty that an original has.


Nydia Lozano Official Website