Coinciding with the inauguration of Louis Vuitton‘s renewed flagship store in Tokyo‘s Ginza shopping district, an event we talked about in a previous post, the luxury brand has brought along an elaborate brand exhibition, held across town at the jing event space in Harajuku. The show, simply entitled LOUIS VUITTON &, explores the luxury brand’s 160-plus-year history of creative exchanges and artistic collaborations, but especially the ties with visionary Japanese artists, such as Kansai Yamamoto, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Yayoi Kusama and Nigo. One of the main themes is to put these artists in the spotlight and presents their respective collaborations with Louis Vuitton in one place. The showcase features ten immersive rooms with specially designed scenographies, and starts with an introduction to in the form of a multimedia installation by acclaimed Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda, symbolising creativity and honouring artistic collaboration. Called Critical, the installation is presented in a space which is separated by a mirrored floor and a suspended LED screen, creating ultimate visual drama. Alongside a selection of iconic trunks and luggage pieces, early artistic collaborations in two main categories are also shown.
The first is visual merchandising in collaboration with graphic artists such as Pierre Legrain, a well-known French designer from the Art Deco era, and secondly, a collaboration with contemporary artists, such as Suzanne Ozaneaux who designed perfume bottles and cosmetics, Camille Cress-Brotier and Alex Israel, and Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo. Here, the works are paired with carefully selected items from Louis Vuitton‘s Objet Nomades collection. Another section is dedicated to textile art as the luxury brand started to collaborate with renowned artists using fabric, silk scarves to be precise, in the late 1980s. The lengthy list includes creatives such as Takashi Kurakami, Os Gêmeos, André Saraiva, Kenny Scharf and eL Seed. The collaborations with Comme des Garçons creative director Rei Kawakubo have a dedicated room. The relationship started in 2008 with a capsule collection of innovative party bags, followed six years later with another bag, called Bag with holes, and this bag has inspired the setting of the room. As previously mentioned, Takashi Kurakami was one of the brand’s collaborators, and arguably contributed to one of the most popular collab product ranges. Along with Murakami’s manga-like characters, the spray-painted graffiti-style lettering by Stephen Sprouse and Jeff Koons‘ smile of Mona Lisa, many others have reinterpreted and transformed Louis Vuitton‘s classical motifs for more than 25 years.
All of the items on display in this room are bags and luggage that have been transformed into works of art that can be carried around on a daily basis as a result of being provided to artists as a new canvas for expressing individuality. And let’s not forget Yayoi Kusama. With dots as her signature style, the artist started her collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2012 with a Monogram bag, yes indeed, in her iconic dots, and on display is a variety of items depicting this repetitive motif. Needless to say, plenty of men’s and women’s apparel designs also gain the limelight at the exhibition, most notably Nicolas Ghesquière‘s creations for the brand’s 2018 Cruise Collection which was also presented in Japan. Also presented are men’s apparel designs created in collaboration with Japanese designers, including an item of Hiroshi Fujiwara and Kim Jones, and a mountain aviator blouson designed by Nigo with a Mount Fuji motif for the Louis Vuitton LV Squared Collection (on through May 16). The exhibition also features a gift shop designed by lauded architect Daisuke Sugawara and brimming with trophies. The tightly curated merchandise collection includes Louis Vuitton accessories, textiles, fashion items, home and sports accessories, in addition fragrances and books. Exclusively available at this venue is the Petula Mini, a small decorative leather item. Trophy hunters can also make use of a stamping service for small leather goods.
LOUIS VUITTON &
jing, 6-35-6 Jingumae (Harajuku)
Tokyo 150-0001
Telephone: +81 3 35150855
Daily 10-6 (last admission 7.30)
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
