After last year’s first collection of six Capucines bags created by contemporary artists, Louis Vuitton unveiled a new edition of its Artycapucines project.

Beatriz Milhazes, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Josh Smith, Henry Taylor, Liu Wei and Zhao Zhao have all created beautifully imagined and stunningly worked versions of the iconic Capucines bag.

From the 30th October, each bag in the Artycapucines collection will be released in a limited edition of 200 in selected stores worldwide. Price per bag: CHF 7900.

Louis Vuitton Capucines by Beatriz Milhazes
Based upon a new work created by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes for the Artycapucines project, Milhazes’ bag is a technical and artisanal achievement. 18 different types of leather are worked to the same thickness and then inlaid onto the bag’s lambskin base using innovative and novel marquetry techniques. To complete the kaleidoscopic variety of the different textures and aspects, the bag also has two areas of gold leaf and an inlaid, injected silicone gel peace sign. The LV logo uses enamel marquetry and gel to match the exact colours of the design over which it is placed.

Louis Vuitton Capucines by Jean-Michel Othoniel
Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Artycapucines is a graceful and joyous object. The bag’s main body is intricately hand-woven in raffia, while along the top edge of the bag is a hand-embroidered trim that uses a type of black satin silk more generally used in haute couture. The bag’s handle is made of large black resin beads that echo the French artist’s best-known large-scale works, such as his Le Kiosque des Noctambules Palais Royal Métro entrance in Paris. The bag is completed by a striking charm whose three resin beads act as an exclusive and portable Othoniel sculpture.

Louis Vuitton Capucines by Josh Smith
New York-based artist Josh Smith’s design is based upon one of his signature «name» paintings. To recreate the work, the bag’s cotton canvas exterior is first embroidered with white-coloured stitches to replicate brushstrokes, creating a sensation of depth. The fabric and stitches are then painstakingly printed, before the letters of Smith’s name are embroidered across the entire bag. The LV signature is in metal inlaid with wood, while the handle is made of pure pear wood. Its silk inner lining is printed with Palm #3, another of Smith’s striking and brightly coloured paintings.

Louis Vuitton Capucines by Henry Taylor
Henry Taylor’s Artycapucines brings together the Californian artist’s striking and expressive 2017 portrait A young master – a portrait of the late Noah Davis, the Black American artist and founder of LA’s Underground Museum – with the latest cutting-edge laser printing and traditional marquetry. Reproducing the painting on leather to replicate its original brushstrokes and varied textures required over 100 experiments to test different methods of 2D and 3D printing. The bag’s taupe Taurillon leather background was then used as a «blank canvas» into which this tactile portrait on leather was inserted using precise and demanding marquetry techniques. The result is a portrait that is also a remarkable sculptural bas-relief.

Louis Vuitton Capucines by Liu Wei
Beijing-based artist Liu Wei is renowned for provocative, unclassifiable work that jumps between media. His Artycapucines is based upon Microworld, a large-scale sculptural installation shown at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Variously sized aluminium petals from this sculpture are recreated for the bag using five different types of silver-coloured leather that are meticulously thermo-moulded and inserted directly into the bag’s exterior or attached using Louis Vuitton-engraved rivets. The bag’s handle is made in black Plexiglas, which brings a retro-futuristic touch, and is held in place by rings covered in metal spheres, each individually attached and with a different finish to match those in the original artwork.

Louis Vuitton Capucines by Zhao Zhao
Chinese artist Zhao Zhao’s Artycapucines is based on his 2018 sculpture, In Extremis No.3. For his bag, the artwork’s metal components are transformed into 353 individual laser-cut patches made of 5 different types of leather, which are either hand-embroidered, machine-embroidered, printed – with seven different patterns – or worked into relief. They are then assembled and meticulously sewn together into a single panel that follows the precise design layout that Zhao created. The resulting pattern covers the entire surface of the finished bag to create the impression that the original work has been moulded to fit precisely around the Capucines.

Aren’t they all very special! I love when fashion meets art…

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton