The Artycapucines VII – Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami Collection sees the renowned Japanese artist bring his unique vision to 11 interpretations of Louis Vuitton’s iconic Capucines bags and other collector pieces.
Since the first Artycapucines Collection in 2019, the Capucines bag – named after Rue Neuve-des-Capucines, the Parisian Street where Louis Vuitton opened his first store in 1854 – has provided a perfect blank canvas for 30 contemporary artists to create exclusive and highly limited-edition Artycapucines bags. Today, the seventh chapter of the artist-designed collection further confirms the iconic bag’s capacity to inspire unbridled creativity. The eleven latest designs – each one created by internationally renowned Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami – pay testament to the collection’s ability to unite artists’ talent and invention with the savoir-faire and craftsmanship of the House’s masterful artisans.
Born in Tokyo in the 1960s, Takashi Murakami has long been renowned for his unique blend of traditional Japanese painting, sci fi, anime and whimsical kawaii characters, often brought to life in repetitive motifs and depicted in paintings, sculptures and films that embody the intersection of pop culture, history, and fine art. It is Murakami’s vibrant and playful universe, as well as his wide-ranging creations, that forms the basis of his Artycapucines Collection.
Together with Louis Vuitton’s design team, Murakami reinterprets the Capucines bag – and in some instances completely resizes and reconfigures it – to become sublimely sculptured portable works of art. Showcasing a broad range of the artist’s wildly imaginative oeuvre – including iconic motifs and characters such as the
‘Colorful Monogram’in 33 colours, Smiling Flower, Panda, and Mushroom – the collection is brought to life using the extensive signature codes of Louis Vuitton’s atelier experts, from traditional artisanal craftmanship to cutting-edge technology.
Highlights of the 11-piece collection include the kaleidoscopic Capucines EW Rainbow which reworks the construction and dimensions of the classic Capucines bag to take the form of Murakami’s iconic Rainbow Flower motif; the Capucines Mini Mushroom is a psychedelic masterpiece which sees 100 of the artist’s fantastical mushroom characters hand polished and hand embroidered onto the bag’s silver mirrored canvas; the astonishing Capucines Mini Tentacle which draws inspiration from a Murakami sculptural work that transformed the artist’s iconic ‘alter ego’ Mr. DOB into a playful octopus; the exquisite Capucines EW Dragon which combines unprecedented bag restructuring and extraordinary levels of craft expertise to faithfully reproduce one of Takashi Murakami’s most monumental works of art, the 18-metre long Dragon in Clouds Indigo Blue (2011) painting; the Capucines BB Golden Garden which exudes grace, sophistication and the House’s longstanding commitment to unparalleled savoir-faire with leather marquetry and radiant gold-leaf-covered leather body; and the remarkable Panda Clutch as a sculptural masterpiece, meticulously crafted from lustrous silver-tone brass and adorned with 6,300 hand-set strass.
The Artycapucines Collection today contains more than 30 distinctive designs by celebrated artists from across the world including Beatriz Milhazes, Ugo Rondinone, Zhao Zhao, Daniel Buren, Vik Muniz, Henry Taylor, Paola Pivi, Urs Fischer, Alex Israel, Park Se-Beo, and Tschabalala Self. Each special bag is further proof of how for over a century Louis Vuitton has continuously placed its innovative spirit and artisanal expertise at the service of artists and their creativity, from Louis Vuitton’s grandson Gaston-Louis commissioning work back in the 1920s to collaborations with legends such as Sol LeWitt, Yayoi Kusama and Richard Prince, to the opening of the Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2014. The Artycapucines Collection reveals the quintessence of that commitment to artistic creativity, savoir-faire and craft, while affirming the Capucines as the ultimate expression of femininity and the perfect embodiment of the Louis Vuitton woman.
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