An Inside Look at Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama’s New Collaboration
After 10 years, the luxury brand Louis Vuitton has come into the new year with a second collaboration with famed artist Yayoi Kusama. The collaboration features Ready-to-Wear clothing, leather goods, accessories, and fragrances. It was released on January 6th in 460 stores with pop up stores in both New York (in the Meatpacking District and Soho) and Tokyo.
Tokyo Pop Up Shop Courtesy of Hypebae
New York’s Meatpacking District Pop Up Shop Courtesy of CR Fashion Book
New York’s Soho Pop Up Shop Courtesy of CR Fashion Book
In true Kusama fashion, the collection is filled with various bright colors and polka dots of different sizes, including her metal, printed and infinity dots. Kusama takes a “the more the merrier” approach when it comes to her artistic creativity and this collection is no different. With Louis Vuitton, she was able to get bold with her design choices while still keeping the infamous aspects of Louis Vuitton like their monogram prints and variations of their logo. The brand spared no expense in marketing. Louis Vuitton partnered with Instagram and Snapchat to create filters for people to use to promote the collection on social media. They got talents such as Bella Hadid and Gisele Bündchen to model in their collection campaign. The campaign had black and white photos of the models with polka dots over the photos posing with various leather goods from the collection. Additionally, the models shot a film for the campaign in color with polka dot graphics with the collection’s leather goods. For this collection, Louis Vuitton’s craftsmen were able to replicate Kusama’s dot motifs to the T by applying the dots one at a time by hand and reproducing how Kusama would paint them. They also used printmaking techniques to achieve the hand painted look that they have. The collection is a perfect blend of Yayoi Kusama’s artistic signatures and Louis Vuitton craftsmanship.
Yayoi Kusama deserves her flowers. She was born in 1929 and grew up in the town of Matsumoto in rural Japan. Her family was not supportive of her wanting to be an artist. Her mom often took her early artworks away from her before they were even finished. At the time, a woman having a career outside of domestic spaces was frowned upon; She was expected to be a wife and mother only. She often looked at the artist Georgia O’Keefe as artistic inspiration and influence. She even wrote the artist a letter for advice on how to make it as an artist in Japan. O’Keefe wrote back eurging her to move to the US to make a true living for herself. For her journey to the US, Kusama sewed money into her kimono and traveled by boat to New York. She arrived in New York to a male dominated art world. Women often did not get exhibited in museums or promoted. Her male counterparts often stole her artistic ideas with no credit and took praise for her work.
Courtesy of BBC
In 1965, she created her first Infinity Mirror Room at the Castellane Gallery in New York. Unfortunately, another male artist stole her concept a couple months later in a more popular gallery to great success. Kusama was distraught after this but with the help of her friends and peers, she poured herself into another art installation called “Narcissus Garden,” which she showed at the 1966 Venice Biennale without a formal invitation. The installation featured 1500 mirrored spheres on the ground as a carpet. People were able to purchase the spheres for $2 each. Eventually, security stopped her and her installation but it got people talking about her within the art space. From there, Kusama stopped relying on galleries and began showing her installations at various public places such as Central Park.
Courtesy of NPR
She has cemented herself as an avant garde artist that plays with various color and psychedelic motifs in her work. Her work tends to be geographic and surreal in its approach. She also used forms of nature for her art such as her use of pumpkins starting in the 1940s. Today, she is mostly known for her Instagrammable Infinity Mirror Rooms that are increasingly popular. She often describes her art as “Kusama art” and she is one of the most famous and biggest selling female artists in the world.
Courtesy of NPR
Kusama is the perfect fusion of both fashion and art. At 93 years old, she has cemented herself in both the art and fashion worlds as an influence and icon. In 1968, she started the Kusama Fashion Company. Through this endeavor, she partners with various department stores for collections. She also started the Nude Fashion Company, which designs more avant garde clothing for consumers to purchase and wear her art.
Courtesy of BBC
Kusama’s Louis Vuitton collaboration shows how far she has come in both the art and fashion world. She grew from not being supported as an artist to being one of the most well known female artists in the world. Her being able to reach multiple people by working in various creative fields shows how influential she is and how far she has come as an artist. The Louis Vuttion and Yayoi Kusama collaboration is an exciting endeavor in the fashion world and hopefully is the first of many fashion brand and artist collaborations this year. The collection is now available here.
