cool collaborations // cindy sherman x louis vuitton
louis vuitton is a parisian brand that launched in 1854 as a luggage business. at the time, the brand revolutionized luggage with stackable suitcases that had rounded tops and waterproof canvas. the classic lv pattern was eventually created by louis's son georges to commemorate his father's legacy. and to celebrate the company's recent 160 year anniversary, louis vuitton collaborated with equally iconic creatives including karl lagerfeld, rei kawakubo and cindy sherman. each icon was given the opportunity to re-appropriate the lv monogram in their own signature style. my personal favorite from the collection was cindy sherman's collaboration, which i recently saw at dover street market in new york city.
since the 1970s, cindy sherman has been pushing boundaries as an image-maker. her conceptual portraits, both in photograph and film form, continue to evolve with the times as well as explore and construct contemporary identity. in each portrait, she molds herself to fit different stereotypes of women, calling typical representations of females into question in amusing yet disturbing ways. for her louis vuitton collaboration, she created a camera messenger bag that recalls her journey as a photographer. she took inspiration from the patchwork of hotel stickers adhered to vintage louis vuitton trunks, and thus decorated the bag with embroidered patches referencing images from her work. the patches themselves look like little works of art and i'll forever dream of framing them individually and hanging them in my room or putting them on an old levi's denim jacket. the other lv design sherman fashioned is a studio in a trunk. from the outside, it looks like a classic lv trunk with monogram print plus her photographic patches. however, the interior reveals 31 drawers in bright yellow, green and blue hues of which sherman took inspiration from the colors of her pet parrot, mister frida.
louis vuitton is no stranger to the contemporary art world. the brand has collaborated with many well known artists including takashi murakami, richard prince and yayoi kusama. it also recently opened an art museum and cultural center, the foundation louis vuitton, in paris, that was designed by famous architect frank gehry.
