For Louis Vuitton 2023 is all about color and timeless beauty.
The collaboration between the Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, and the French luxury brand, is renewed after eleven years with a project that celebrates the power of art and craftsmanship, reinterpreting the iconic pieces of the Maison with the characteristic motifs of the artist: painted, metal and infinity dots and psychedelic flowers. An idea that was born during the 2020 pandemic and takes up the first joint venture between the artist and the maison in 2012.
A real dialogue that represents Yayoi’s obsession since she was 10 years old: the search for infinity, artistically expressed through colored, hypnotic and indeed infinite polka dots. Elements full of creativity and which, with their boundless shape, conquered and blended perfectly with the Vuitton universe.
A campaign titled “Creating Infinity”. A project that invites you to look at the world through the eyes of Kusama, defined as the most influential living female artist, also with regard to the relationship between art and mental health, of which the artist has always spoken freely. Indeed, the obsession with repeating dots and patterns is said to be the result of auditory and visual hallucinations that Yayoi has suffered from since she was a child. Problems that led her to voluntarily hospitalize herself in a psychiatric hospital in 1975 while continuing to work with her art.
This collaboration immediately became an unforgettable spectacular phenomenon that led to a complete immersive rebranding of the stores in the main world capitals, furnished and transformed by the art of Kusama.
In New York, the window of the boutique on Fifth Avenue was set up with a hyper-realistic robot in the likeness of the artist intent on painting dots on the window.
In Tokyo, on the other hand, we find a mammoth and unusual billdboard which, thanks to a three-dimensional effect, allows passersby to notice the iconic Louis Vuitton trunk, open, with animated pumpkins inside and a 3D reproduction of the head of the artist Yayoi Kusama watching passers-by from the top of the Shinjuku building.
While in Paris, an enormous installation is hosted by the historic Champs-Elysées building where the maison’s boutique is located, covered in colored dots and an imposing Yayoi Kusama who paints them.
The French brand chooses Milan. The new Louis Vuitton concept store in Via Bagutta, ex Garage Traversi, which has been closed for 20 years, transformed into a stage for animations that best express the universe of the Japanese artist. The first floor of the building is dedicated to the French maison’s special projects, including Creating Infinity. Black dots overrun a yellow space while the metal balls reflect the surrounding environment in a sort of infinite repetition.
The flower kiosk near Via Bagutta is covered in kaleidoscopic polka that seem to have been brushed by the artist. Finally, we find three imposing pumpkin-shaped fiberglass sculptures with Kusama’s characterizing dots, positioned on green hills in contrast to the fascist architecture of Piazza San Babila. The installation will be open to visitors until Tuesday 14 February 2023.
Louis Vuitton undertook the restoration, as well as the redevelopment and care of all the greenery present, in compliance with the design concept of the square, through a one-year technical collaboration with the municipality of Milan.
The campaign dedicated to the LV x Yayoi Kusama collection is so impressive and important that the shots entrusted to photographer Steven Meisel, with the creative direction of Ferdinando Verderi, a famous art painter, who have brought together a series of supermodels in a party of colors in which play and dream coexist perfectly.
To fully immerse yourself in this world, the brand launched several online initiatives by creating filters for Instagram and Snapchat inspired by Kusama’s motifs, then developing a mobile game that allows users to visit extraordinary worlds in search of infinity, through an exclusive gaming experience in virtual reality.
Through this remarkable project, Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama invite each of us to enter in their magical universe, recognizing art as something special that uses strongly recognizable codes, able to speak to everyone and connect people all over the world through its incredible charm.
More from collaborations
The 60s in the co-lab “La Vacanza” by Donatella Versace and Dua Lipa
Donatella Versace and Dua Lipa together for Pre Fall 23 to celebrate the Italian summer. The co-lab between fashion and …
Fashion and design: an open dialogue
From the very early 60s, the artistic dimension that followed the economic, artistic and scientific renaissance saw fashion as the …
The collaboration between Nike and Travis Scott will arrive on the 27th of May
After a few months of stand-by, Nike and Travis Scott have announced that their highly anticipated collaboration will be released …