Artist Takashi Murakami has never been one for subtlety—and thank goodness for that. For Louis Vuitton’s Artycapucines VII art bag launch, the maison handed the artist full creative control on 11 new pieces, all launching today. Murakami, whose technicolor universe has long dipped in and out of the worlds of art, pop culture, and luxury, brings both signature characters and new motifs to the collaboration.
The artist takes the Capucine’s elegantly simple silhouette and lets his imagination run wild in the Artycapucines’s seventh edition since its 2019 launch. A grin-shaped rainbow is reborn in mink fur. A redux of the Monogram Multicolor appears, but now in luxuriant crocodile. A watchful eye beams over at an oversize green denim tote patterned in skull-meets-camouflage, while a fuchsia calfskin number is devoured by slithering tentacles.
A personal favorite? Somewhere between plush toy and fine jewelry, a silver tone, brass panda bag emerges, glinting with 6,250 crystals, surely destined for a glass case (or a very brave shoulder). Murakami’s calling card has always been the blurring of boundaries—between art and commerce, luxury and levity, East and West. Here, that tension extends to the artist’s archive and Louis Vuitton’s as he builds upon more than 30 distinctive, previous designs by artists including Urs Fischer, Alex Israel, Park Seo-Bo, and Tschabalala Self.
In the collection’s new iteration, longtime fans and first-time buyers alike will find a wink at fashion’s frequent look inward, and a series of objets that know exactly what they are: gleaming, limited-edition, and whimsically off-kilter.
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