ART MAJOR

Louis Vuitton collaborates with six artists to reimagine its latest Capucines bag

BEATRIZ MILHAZES

Known for her vibrant, abstract paintings that brim with details, the Rio de Janeiro-based artist conceived a new artwork specially for this project, which she meticulously brings to life on the Artycapucines with 18 different types of leather of the same thickness. Harnessing innovative marquetry techniques that required months of research and development at Louis Vuitton’s ateliers, the leathers are inlaid onto the lambskin base. The result is a kaleidoscopic variety of different textures including gold leaf, an inlaid bas-relief peace sign and the LV logo

featuring enamel marquetry.

LIU WEI

Characterised by his provocative work in a varied range of media, the Beijingbased artist allows the subject to define the choice of medium. His spin of the Artycapucines draws reference from his 2019 Venice Biennale installation,

Microworld. The sculpture’s aluminium petals are reinterpreted with five types of silver-coloured leather, meticulously thermo-moulded into the bag’s exact shapes and angles. Three of these petals are attached using Louis Vuitton-engraved rivets, just like the ones used on the house’s iconic trunks.

HENRY TAYLOR (below)

It took a combination of the latest cutting-edge laser printing and traditional marquetry to reproduce the Californian artist’s 2017 painting, A Young Master, on this Artycapucines on leather. The portrait of the late Noah Davis, the black American artist and founder of LA’S Underground Museum, aptly encapsulates Taylor’s esteemed visual representations of his community. To match the bag’s colours and varied textures to the original artwork precisely, Louis Vuitton pulled out all the stops, employing more than 100 experiments to test different 2D and 3D printing methods.