Sandra‘s Closet

For its upcoming highly anticipated ‘fashion meets art’ collaboration, Louis Vuitton has teamed up with avantgarde painter, pop art artist, fashion designer, sculptor, street performer and poet, Yayoi Kusama. At the age of 82, she is an artist of many talents.

The preview is not even on the official website, the Louis Vuitton press offices keep everything secret. But thanks to WWD and Stylerumour, the first photos have emerged.

Here is your very exclusive and so exciting preview of what the Japanese dot-enthusiast and Marc Jacobs have come up with. Personally speaking, I am crazy for those polka dots, especially the red and white ones that remind me so much of Minnie Mouse. Also included in the collection are wave prints. The colours are yellow, red, black and white.

The collection will be unveiled Mid July 2012 in Louis Vuitton stores around the globe, with a second wave of goods arriving in October.

Ladies, get yourselves on the wait lists now!

LoL, Sandra

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Pump Monogram Nylon Dots Infinity black

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Monogram Shawl Dots Infinity black

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Sunglasses Waves Rond White

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Pareo Monogram Waves white

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Lockit GM Monogram Nylon Dots Infinity yellow

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Cuff Dots Infinity yellow

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Lockit MM Monogram Vernis Dots Infinity yellow

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Pump Monogram Vernis Dots Infinity yellow

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Pochette Accessoires Monogram Vernis Dots Infinity red

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Ballerina Monogram Nylon Dots Infinity red

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Montre Tambour Dots Infinity 28 mm

Yayoi Kusama Louis Vuitton Bangle GM Dots Infinity red

Photos: Via Stylerumour and Franck Mura via WWD

Here is your sneak preview of the Louis Vuitton advertising campaign for S/S 2012 that captures the essence of this amazing collection perfectly and that is definitely among my favourites. It was shot by Steven Meisel who did also the Prada S/S 2012 campaign.

“The spirit of our S/S 2012 collection is reflected beautifully in this new ad campaign,” says Louis Vuitton Artistic Director Marc Jacobs. “All the tone and texture of the collection – the lightness, the prettiness, the broderie anglaise, the millefeuille layers of organza – are recreated in these wonderful images by Steven Meisel. It is all very soft and very sweet, yet at the same time very bold and very graphic.”

In an intriguing echo of the previous season, the Louis Vuitton S/S 2012 advertising campaign once again takes up the narrative of the fashion show, continuing it from the point where the woman steps daintily off the pure white fairground carrousel and into the pastel pink paradise of a nearby ice cream parlor.

Up-and-coming models Daria Strokous and Kati Nescher are the lucky pair chosen to sample the parlor’s assorted delights while wearing some of the season’s standout looks, including romantic broderie anglaise dresses, ladylike shifts embellished with strass, studs and 3D flowers, and sorbetcoloured suits with white lace collars. Accessories, too, feature prominently in the nine visuals, foremost among them the Lockit bag in sheer nylon voile that opened the runway show, the Speedy in powdered, whitewashed crocodile, and the pointed-toe mules in pastel shades with metal toe caps, dainty laces or rows of tiny buttons.

“The whole ambiance is very pretty, very special and very magical,” says Marc Jacobs, “and I’m sure it will look just delicious and fresh come the spring.”

The Louis Vuitton S/S 2012 advertising campaign will break in the February 2012 issues of magazines worldwide.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of Louis Vuitton

Last week, I was invited by Louis Vuitton to explore their F/W 2011 collection very closely. The event took place in Milan and because of  the beautiful sunshine the day started already wonderfully with a pittoresque flight over the Alps.

With his F/W 2011 collection for Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs explored the mysterious allure of fashion and fetish. „Fetish,“ said the designer, „has a positive side. It’s an inexplicable sort of concentration on or obsessing with something. I think that also means commitment and discipline.“

The result was a powerful collection that walked the fine line between modesty and provocation, reason and irrationality – an ambiguity evidenced by the juxtaposition of tightness of focus with richness of detail. For my show report, please click here.

First some looks from the runway. Strict silhouettes suggestive of corsets, mannish, military-style jackets and coats softened by ample drop shoulders and the main focus on tthe waist, reminiscent of Belle de Jour. Marc Jacobs toyed with the idea of French maids and their bourgeois mistresses.

Very importantly, the detail – evidence of an artisanal devotion to craft which, in the words of the show notes, is „the apotheosis of fetish“.

Those mask, shoe and glove motifs, for instance, were not printed, but painstakingly sewn in intricately cut sequins.

The collection’s ultimate and not-so-obscure object of desire was the iconic Lockit bag, created in 1958 and reinterpreted in a myriad guises: in shiny Monogram canvas or total-look shearling, in rubberized leather accented with glossy tape, in jewel shades of patent Monogram bouclette, and in nylon with resin handels.

The Lockit clutch comes with a handcuff which can make it literally inseparable from its weare and symbolizes a women’s attachment to her bag. Might be a good idea to secure your object of desire….

 

The show’s accessories had fun with the fetish theme. Standouts included officer’s caps in fluffy shearling and masks worn in the hair as neo-tiaras.

Shoes played with the girly charm of round-toe pumps accentuated by delicate bow straps and the fetish appeal of daring bondage straps on the collection’s leg-hugging boots. The shiny rubber boots will definitely be among my must-haves.

 

Louis Vuitton’s fashion jewelry offers beautiful pieces to finish off your winter looks perfectly. I am in love with the stingray embellished earrings.

 

Personalised items are bestsellers for Louis Vuitton so that it seems all natural to expand the possibilties.

For Louis Vuitton’s F/W 2011 men’s collection, the studio director Paul Helbers, under the artistic direction of Marc Jacobs, has explored the ultra simplified elegance of Amish style and instilled it with a hint of strangeness, inspired by David Lynch.

The predominantly black tone of this collection is lit with flashes of Motel red. The Amish mix and match tradition shows in details like detachable vests or jackets patched in stripes.

 

In case that you are wondering what to do with your older Louis Vuitton bags, why not put them together as an art and craft. The artist Billie Achilleos came up with some pretty amazing ideas.

 

If I have whetted your appetite, please take a look at those beautiful pieces that belong to the Pre-fall 2011 collection and will be in stores starting next month.
The new colours for the leo scarfs are so beautiful and those biker boots are my must-haves.

What an amazing collection, W.O.W.!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht

 

Louis Vuitton’s F/W 2011 show had already the best invitation with a gorgeous tassel hanging from it. Marc Jacobs also touched the Parisian World War II-era like Miu Miu did but he added a fetish vibe which is said to be a metaphore for women’s obsession with bags. Talking about the power of a handbag which brand could be better than Louis Vuitton.

The show’s decor was absolutely amazing. Four elevators transported the models on stage. Porters for each opened the lift doors like in a luxury hotel.

The looks were all about peaked caps, sculpted jackets, jodhpur pants, tiny little briefs and below-the-knee pencil skirts.

Later on, French maids in plasticized lace and embellishments in the shape of masks and handcuffs started to exalt the imagination.

Kate Moss presented the last look waving a cigarette and looked smoking hot in both senses. If you are interested, you can watch the show by clicking here.

The must-have Louis Vuitton bag for F/W 2011 will be the reinterpreted 1958 top-handle Lockit bag. For the show, some versions had a diamond encrusted handcuff attached to it.
What can you say… such a Louis Vuitton handbag is for life.

Below you can see which celebrities were spotted at the show. I hope that you will like it.

LoL, Sandra