The Art of Luxury Handbags

For the Spring 2001 Runway show, designer Marc Jacobs enlisted artist Stephen Sprouse to create a limited-edition line of the iconic Louis Vuitton monogrammed canvas bags,  boldly reinterpreting them in a graffiti style. In an interview, Jacobs revealed that his inspiration arose from the audacity of Marcel Duchamp, who once added a moustache and goatee to a reproduction of the Mona Lisa. The triumph of this collaboration paved the way for Jacobs’ artistic liberty at Louis Vuitton, setting the stage for an array of future artist collaborations by the brand and beyond.

The bags featured Louis Vuitton’s instantly recognisable designs and logo, but featured Sprouse’s characteristic bold writing over them. The result was traditional bags infused with new energy that appealed to the brand’s younger customers. The collaboration was revived in 2008, following Sprouse’s death, and remains revered by fashion lovers today.

Stephen Sprouse’s collection’s success was just the beginning for Louis Vuitton. Since then, they began a long history of collaboration with artists – most notable of which is Takashi Murakami. His first collection in 2003 was one of the most emblematic of the early 2000s, and its designs are now some of the most coveted in the vintage market.

In Multicolore, Murakami reimagined Louis Vuitton’s iconic logo with his distinctive colourful palette, quickly gaining a cult following among celebrities and enthusiasts alike. He then collaborated other times with the brand, including creating the Cherry Blossom and Monogramouflage collections. Some of his designs featured his manga-inspired cartoon characters dotted alongside the brand’s classic monogram, a perfect representation of the artist’s penchant for mixing high art and pop culture.

This collaboration was yet another successful attempt at revamping Louis Vuitton’s image and appealing to a younger audience. The partnership was so effective that the collection remained in stores until the summer of 2015, having outlived almost all other artists’ collaborations with the brand.

When French-brand Longchamp wished to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their Le Pliage bag, they called artist Tracey Emin to create a limited-edition supply of bags. In crafting the Longchamp line, Emin incorporated some of her signature techniques, such as deconstructing and reconstructing textiles, patchwork, embroidery and painting to produce a truly recognisable collection.

Together, they created “International Woman”, a collection of 200 unique suitcases that told the story of a woman falling in love all over the world. Each suitcase carried a rosette upon which Emin drew the Longchamp logo alongside the handwritten name of a street, city or hotel that reminded the artist of a romantic moment or encounter from her own life. She also created 200 of her own reiterations of the Le Pliage handbag, which came in two different colour wheels – pink and blue – and included one of her confessional slogans written in the back: “Always Me.”

In 2012 Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the elusive fashion icons behind fashion brand The Row, collaborated with Damien Hirst to create an exclusive capsule collection of backpacks that were only offered on the platform Just One Eye. The collection had 12 different designs by Hirst, all crafted in the brand’s signature Nile crocodile leather, and featured many of his recurring motifs such as polka dots and pill capsules. The collection aimed to be a study in contrasts, between the luxurious material and the artist’s rebellious aesthetic. It is said that the backpacks, each of which was signed by Hirst, retailed for over £40,000 and is said to have raised proceeds for UNICEF.

Despite their hefty price tag, it is said that the bags sold quickly, although the donation to UNICEF was apparently done at the artist’s discretion and was not publicly announced. It is said that this was the first of a series of curated artistic partnerships by the LA-based concept store Just One Eye.

In 2012, reclusive Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama collaborated with then-Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs to create a series of bags, clothes and accessories featuring her signature polka dots and colourful aesthetic. The Dots Infinity collection was Louis Vuitton’s most extensive collaboration with an artist up to that point, and the fashion house also sponsored the artist’s retrospective show at the Whitney that same year.

This was far from Kusama’s first foray into making apparel, although it was her most high-profile collaboration yet. Kusama had previously owned her own fashion boutique in the 1960s, a brand named Kusama Fashion Company, which sold her dresses and textiles in boutiques. She even had her own store in New York City where, for a time, Bloomingdales had a complete Kusama Corner, with all of her dresses decorated in her usual motifs.

After his not-so-accessible collaboration with The Row, Damien Hirst joined forces with fashion giant Miuccia Prada to create 20 copies of five insect-studded handbags, which were sold at silent auction with proceeds benefiting the non-profit organisation Reach Out To Asia. The handbags were also a landmark to celebrate Hirst’s retrospective exhibition in Qatar that same year, and followed Hirst’s philosophy of using real preserved animals in his art. These were covered in plexiglass and spread alongside delicately embroidered versions of insects, creating a fascinating contrast between real and fake. At the time of their release, the bags were priced at around £20,000, and in 2020 one of the copies made a public appearance at the V&A’s exhibition “Bags: Inside Out.”

The partnership was a success, with the bags selling fast despite the fact that Miuccia had just the year before declared herself against collaborating with high art, claiming that “art is for expressing ideas and for expressing a vision [while] my job is to sell.” Perhaps this declaration is the best proof that artists and designers work best when complementing each other’s talents.

In 2014, Jeff Koons proved himself once more to be attuned to the fine arts market by creating an installation using second hand Birkin bags. Aiming to raise funds for the art charity Project Perpetual, the artist appropriated these bags – which had been owned by high-profile figures such as Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs and Sofia Coppola – and transformed them into readymade artworks, installed on wall shelves. He also created a sculpture using the bags as a centrepiece, a piece inspired by Pablo Picasso’s La Soupe and which featured three Birkins.

Hermès Birkins have become notorious for their association with wealth and status, as well as their uncanny capacity to appreciate in value as an alternative asset. By subverting what is traditionally considered a “raw material” for an artist to work with, Koons questioned what mattered more to buyers: who had created it, who had owned it or who had signed it? The answer was, apparently, a resounding mixture of all three.

As one of the most celebrated artists of our time, it is only natural that Jeff Koons questions his place in the annals of art history at large. His collaboration with Louis Vuitton, the collection Masters, featured the reproduction of masterpieces from big names in the art world – Da Vinci, Titian, Rubens, Fragonard, Boucher and van Gogh, to name a few.

However, Koons also managed to make his mark alongside these legends: he reconfigured the brand’s monogram to bear his initials, marking the first time in the fashion house’s history that it allowed its famous logo to be reshaped. 

This distinct fusion of high art and fashion allowed for buyers to own a small instance of an Old Masters piece in their closet, and make a statement about their personal style through their choice of artist. The collaboration was widely considered a success, both critically and commercially.

Ten years after their last partnership, two of the biggest names in art and fashion decided to join forces once more. Louis Vuitton’s latest collaboration with Yayoi Kusama has provided itself just as impactful as the first one, especially as the artist’s star continues to soar to new heights. The new collection, Creating Infinity, has expanded on many of the motifs and symbols that are familiar to Kusama’s wide legion of fans: geometric patterns, polka dots and bright colours abound. The collection is extensive, featuring over 400 items and comprising several different models of bags and objects, all of which are done in various colour schemes.

However, it has also been a source of controversy, partially because of the brand’s insistence on an interactive artistic experience: a giant replica blowup of the artist hovering over the Champs-Élysées store in Paris and an animated lifelike robot in her likeness in New York City both went viral. There have been questions raised about who is benefitting from the deal, especially given Kusama’s self-imposed reclusion.

Yoshitomo Nara has joined forces twice with British designer Stella McCartney, the first time being in 2021. After their first collection sold out, the two decided to partner up for a second drop in 2023, which is a unisex capsule featuring the Japanese artist’s work. The designs aim to bring attention to meaningful issues, with the cheeky resistance and youthful rebelliousness of Nara’s illustrations uniting a new generation of changemakers around shared activism, aesthetics and a love for animals.

In accordance with Stella McCartney’s ethos, the collection is sustainable and vegan. The artist has spoken about the difference in the creative method between these two capsule collections, illustrating how distinctive the process can be each time: