Louis Vuitton | “Creating Infinity” with Yayoi Kusama

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Louis Vuitton | “Creating Infinity” with Yayoi Kusama

Kusama's talismanic objects, motifs and imaginations of the infinite conquer the Maison and all its product categories
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Louis Vuitton presents “Creating Infinity”, the second chapter of the collection that celebrates the collaboration with Yayoi Kusama

Priestess of total, hypnotic and colorful art, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known worldwide as an avant-garde artist. She is also an emblematic figure of the hippie years. Affected by her obsessions, she applies her motifs endlessly, completely invading space.

Louis Vuitton has a long history of collaborating with artists, which can be traced back nearly a century ago, when the grandson of the namesake founder and family esthete, Gaston-Louis Vuitton, began commissioning artists to create showcases and works for the shops themselves. This momentum has spanned time and has had even more resonance in the contemporary era.

Here, Kusama’s talismanic objects, motifs and imaginations of the infinite conquer the Maison and all its product categories: from bags to menswear; from women’s clothing to sunglasses; from fragrances to shoes and jewelry to almost all Louis Vuitton universes. In turn, there is a transmutation of some of Louis Vuitton’s emblematic pieces, making them equally part of their transforming world and that of Kusama. In line with Louis Vuitton’s past artistic collaborations, the encounter between the Maison and Yayoi Kusama is rooted in sincerity, iconoclasm and, above all, a mutual appreciation of craftsmanship and excellence over the commonplace.

In 2012, Yayoi Kusama took one of the Maison’s most timeless and magical emblematic objects and made it hers: she hand-painted a Louis Vuitton trunk with her characteristic polka dots, dots which, for Kusama, represent the ‘infinite.

It is the exact replica of these points, a true representation of Kusama’s brushstroke one of the many challenges of the Maison’s savoir-faire. Each polka dot was personally approved by Kusama, as were all of the many and varied objects in the project, placed with pinpoint precision, the brushstrokes echoed in eerie detail with their texture and weight intact. It is in this quest for infinity through craftsmanship that Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama are united. It is in the creation of magical objects that transcend space and time that both are involved and through which they recognize each other. This is where both Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama want the person who owns such objects to feel the care and emotional investment required to make them; become part of their history and which, hopefully, will become part of the history of future generations, extending indefinitely.

When does fashion go beyond fashion? Maybe when it’s made with eternity and infinity in mind. The idea of repetition is central to the Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama collection. The codes and motifs of the Japanese artist contaminate the iconic pieces of the Maison and transform them, reflecting Kusama’s creative process and themes while exalting the boundaries of Louis Vuitton’s savoir-faire.

Chapter 2: Pumpkins, Flowers, Faces, Infinity Dots (2) and Infinity Net

The PUMPKINS are the undisputed protagonists of the second chapter of this collection. In the PUMPKINS collection, women’s leather accessories sometimes take on the surprising shape of a pumpkin.

Flowers
Kusama’s elegant floral motifs take shape in delicate embroideries, leather inlays and prints on clothing thanks to the excellent craftsmanship of the Maison

Faces
The psychedelic journey continues with figurative elements portraying the FACES motif depicted by Kusama. The cheerful stylized FACES of “My Eternal Soul”, a series of paintings that the famous Japanese artist began in 2009, have been selected, recomposed and modified by Kusama herself together with Louis Vuitton, to become characters with a clear identity within the collection. Present everywhere in both women’s and men’s universes, the enthusiastic creations are proposed on clothes and accessories through a combination of huge prints and intensely colored embroidery, often against a background of a bright Delphinium Blue, the new Louis Vuitton signature color that wraps around the iconic Monogram of the Maison.

Infinity dots
The second phase of the INFINITY DOTS collection once again crosses categories and genres in a dynamic and transversal way. Here further color variations include black and fuchsia, blue and white and white and red.

InfinityNet
The INFINITY NET series brought Kusama to the forefront of the New York art world in 1959: huge hypnotic paintings that invade the mind of the viewers with their haunting, rhythmic repetitive pattern. The INIFINITY NET collection celebrates the delicacy and strength of this art.

www.louisvuitton.com

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