Avant-garde priestess, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama returns to Louis Vuitton to deliver an array of products, activations and immersive campaigns and installations taking place throughout the first half of 2023. 10 years have passed since Louis Vuitton, headed by then-Creative Director Marc Jacobs first asked Kusama to partner up with the house creating one of fashion’s most covetable collaborations to date, profoundly desired by fashion aficionados and collectors. Now, for a second time, the house wants to rekindle with Kusama to revive the initial exchange and reawaken the dialogue between both collaborators in a new creative encounter which expands on the pioneering collection.
First revealed on the Cruise 2023 runway, the collaboration brings Kusama’s talismanic objects, signature dots and hypnotic motifs into the Maison’s own emblems. The first drop will explore four distinguished motives of Kusama’s repertoire, painted dots, metal dots, infinity dots and psychedelic flowers. She is known to apply her motifs ad infinitum, completely invading the space ad creating objects which transcend the concepts of time and space. Her signature dots take over the iconic Monogram canvas, making the final product an equal representation of Louis Vuitton and Kusama’s transformative worlds. Delphine Arnault best described the partnership as a platform where two like-minded design studios obsessed with perfection, execution and craft can explore the pursuit of the infinite. Challenging the Maison’s savoir-faire – each incarnation has been presided over by Kusama personally.
A relationship that never ended, the creative dialogue between the artist and the Maison is a tribute to infinity. Louis Vuitton has established itself as a house which has not only stood the test of time but has been able to gain further resonance in our contemporary era. Gaston-Louis Vuitton began commissioning artists to collaborate with the Maison almost a century ago. Today, the Maison has collected an extensive repertoire of artists including, Sol LeWitt, Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons who have helped translate Louis Vuitton’s emblematic pieces throughout the history of the Maison.
