LV Art Silk Squares

An exciting new collaboration, LV Art Silk Squares sees five artists bring their unique visions to the lustrous blank canvas of the Louis Vuitton silk square – or carré, in French. The creatives – German pixel-art collective, eBoy; Franco-Japanese-Spanish design duo, Icinori; Italian artist and illustrator, Lorenzo Mattotti; French graphic novelist and illustrator, Nicolas de Crécy, and Swiss artist, Thomas Ott – have all previously collaborated with Louis Vuitton, notably on the Maison’s illustrated «Travel Book» series. For LV Art Silk Square, each explores the theme of the flower within the context of Louis Vuitton. By inventively reinterpreting the four-petal bloom that graces the Louis Vuitton Monogram, the artists bring new perspectives to the Maison’s iconic codes and rich heritage.

The artists’ stunning works are then meticulously transferred onto Louis Vuitton silk squares in Como, Italy, a world centre of silk craft and home to centuries of silk-working expertise. Thanks to a continuous dialogue between the artists, the Louis Vuitton studio in Paris, and the Italian artisans with their remarkable mastery of both traditional and cutting-edge techniques, each stunning carré faithfully recreates the original artwork, a process that often requires multiple layers of colours to be printed onto the finest white silk. The squares are then washed and dried, before their edges are hand-sewn using a time-honoured technique known as roulottage. The rich, lustrous colours of the finished silk squares – designed to be worn in versatile ways or indeed framed – are alive with creative energy, and pay testament to Louis Vuitton’s longstanding commitment to blending art and savoir-faire.

Indeed, the silk square collection is the latest in a rich history of collaborative projects that have seen celebrated artists creating work for Louis Vuitton’s silk squares. Beginning in 1987, leading artists Arman, Sandro Chia, Arata Isozaki, Sol LeWitt, and James Rosenquist were invited to express their talent on a carré for a project entitled The Silk Road. Over the following years, silk squares were designed by, among others, Andrée Putman, César Baldaccini, and Philippe Starck. A new vision for Louis Vuitton silk squares was launched in 2013 with Foulards d’Artistes, two collections of work by famous names in street art, including Os Gemeos and Retna. Today, the full collection of artist-designed silk squares from across the decades is on show in LV Dream, the exhibition at Louis Vuitton’s headquarters in Paris.

Maze of Precious by eBoy
Founded in 1997 by Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig and Svend Smital, eBoy’s pixel-art aesthetic has become instantly recognizable thanks to its widely acclaimed Pixorama cityscape series. In «Maze of Precious», its Louis Vuitton carré, an LV logo is set in the centre of a labyrinth whose borders represent different fabric weaves, from twill to satin, and which is filled with elements from the Louis Vuitton Monogram pattern, including the rounded flower and quatrefoil, as well as brightly coloured pixellated vegetation, and playful, geometric insects.

Malles Monde by Icinori
The work of Icinori’s Mayumi Otero and Raphaël Urwiller, which blends traditional artistic techniques and modern storytelling, has been published in international newspapers, including Le Monde and the New York Times, and shown in galleries and museums such as the Pompidou Centre Metz. For Louis Vuitton, the duo’s intensely coloured and visually rich «Malles Monde» silk square celebrates the Maison’s trunkmaking heritage and its Art of Travel with malles that blossom with plant life and Monogram symbols to embody the perpetual renewal and ongoing journey of life.

Iris Spring by Lorenzo Mattotti
Artist Lorenzo Mattotti uses coloured pencils and pastels to create dreamlike visions for celebrated comic books, such as Fires and Murmur, and in illustrations published by, among others, the New Yorker and Süddeutsche Zeitung. «Iris Spring», his Louis Vuitton carré, is a tribute to a flower found in the beautiful Art Nouveaustained glass at the Vuitton family’s historic home, which sits within the Maison’s Asnières ateliers. Perfectly framed by multihued trees and a waterfall, the iris’s fluid forms become the centrepiece of a stunning, kaleidoscopic fantasy.

Parfums de Méditerranée by Nicolas de Crécy
For «Parfums de Méditerranée», French graphic novelist and illustrator Nicolas de Crécy – known for his pioneering and narratively surreal works Foligatto and Salvatore – travels to the olfactory paradise of Provence. Inspired by the gardens in Grasse where Louis Vuitton scents are born and blended, his Louis Vuitton carré is an enchanting panorama in his signature whimsical style that combines majestic mountains, intricate representations of scent-filled flowers, and playful inventions based upon the Monogram pattern.

Urban Flowers by Thomas Ott
In his dark and striking graphic novels, such as The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8, Swiss artist Thomas Ott uses scratchboards to fashion stark black-and-white, purely visual narratives. «Urban Flowers», his Louis Vuitton carré, employs this labour-intensive artistic method for a delicately surreal, chiaroscuro image that illustrates nature’s ability to transform our urban existences, transfiguring flowers into symbols of the unquenchable human spirit.

Each limited-edition design from the LV Art Silk Squares collection will be available in Louis Vuitton stores and online from 30 August 2024.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton
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Foulards d’Artistes III by Louis Vuitton

Foulards d'Artistes III Louis Vuitton

FOULARDS D’ARTISTES III NEW CREATIVE COLLABORATIONS FOR S/S 2014

This summer, Louis Vuitton continues its world tour of the vibrant street art scene by inviting three new artists from three different continents to collaborate on its collections of textile. The artists of this third season are André Saraiva, famed for his jaunty ‘Mr. A’ character who inhabits the walls of Paris, American Kenny Scharf, and INTI from Chile.

Andre Saraiva

ANDRÉ SARAIVA
For André Saraiva, his studio drop cloth was the inspiration for the background of his interpretation of Louis Vuitton’s Monogram shawl. Once he had translated his paint spatters to the luxurious silk and wool wrap, it became a natural habitat for ‘Mr. A’, the artist’s signature blue figure with asymmetrical eyes.

Kenny Scharf

KENNY SCHARF
Californian Kenny Scharf, a remarkable figure in the worlds of painting, sculpture and performance, describes himself as a pop-surrealist artist whose guiding principle is to reach out beyond the elitist boundaries of fine art and to connect to popular culture. He has covered Louis Vuitton’s giant silk crepe square with a colorful collage of astronomic motifs and symbols of pop culture on a blurred psychedelic background.

INTI
INTI
True to his name, derived from the Inca sun god, INTI is inspired by ancestral Andean culture, which he transcribes in brightly colored, monumental works. He revisits the giant square with a sun motif referencing the image of ‘Wiracocha’, god of TIWANAKU culture, one of the most important Inca deities. Infused with warm shades of gold and orange, the design is bordered in red with a pattern of ancient symbols surrounding the Louis Vuitton signature.

Louis Vuitton Artists Scarfs

Alongside these artistic collaborations, Louis Vuitton introduces further new designs for S/S 2014.

Sprouse 1

Two are variations on the iconic leopard print created for Louis Vuitton by the artist Stephen Sprouse: the Leopard Spray giant silk crepe square combines leopard spots with a spray-paint motif in vibrant fuchsia or pimento,…

Etoile leopard stole

… while the Leopard Pop stole, available in coral or pimento, presents a delicate arty gradation of shades.

Bleu Jean

The Monogram Rayures shawl juxtaposes faded denim-style stripes with lines of brighter coral or pimento,…

Butterfly fuchsia

… while the Papillon silk square is woven with a subtle tone-on-tone Monogram pattern. Its generous size and array of colors, including beige, black, fuchsia, orange and violet, make it a stylish and versatile choice all year round.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of Louis Vuitton