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Louis Vuitton's Latest Collection Is Quite Literally Art

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Update: Good news: If you didn’t get your hands on the debut collection of handbags Louis Vuitton created with artist Jeff Koons, consider this your second chance. On Thursday, the French fashion house announced the collaboration would be returning with a whole new set of designs: This time, Koons is tapping François Boucher, Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Nicolas Poussin, and J.m.W. Turner.
“They are part of my DNA,” Koons said in a press release of the selected artists. “When somebody walks down the street with this bag, or sits in a cafe with this bag, it’s communicating a love of humanism.” And really, who doesn't want to carry some of the world’s most recognizable art on their arm?
Ahead of its release on October 27, click on to see Chapter 2 of the Louis Vuitton Masters collection in its entirety.
This article was originally published on April 11, 2017.
The idea that fashion is art, and inversely, that art can be fashion, is a debate that feels as old as time. Of course, fashion is most certainly art: There are countless year-round exhibits dedicated to the craft. Louis Vuitton, however, is making that crystal clear with its latest collaboration. The French house is debuting a line of bags designed with Jeff Koons that will make it possible to quite literally carry some of the art world's most recognizable works with you wherever you go. Calling all fans of the Mona Lisa, this is your moment.
For its Masters. collection, Vuitton collaborated with Jeff Koons to create a line of leather goods inspired by his Gazing Ball paintings, which features imagery from works by Da Vinci, Titian, Rubens, and Fragonard. As for why the works were chosen? By placing them on iconic handbags like the Speedy, the Keepall, and Neverfull, the artist and Vuitton invite customers to take another look at the legendary artworks and consider them anew, "opening the museum to the world" and encouraging onlookers to "experience the Old Masters in novel ways," according to its official press release.
In addition to the bags themselves, the collaboration features scarves and bunny keychains, which see another of Koons' recognizable artworks, the Inflatable Bunny, come to life, as well as a rendition of his own initials in the style of Louis Vuitton's monogram, which the house has never allowed before. As for just how much one of the bags will cost you has yet to be revealed, but original versions of the brand's aforementioned styles can run you anywhere between the hundreds to the thousands. Koons and Vuitton's collaboration is the first of several, which will be available on April 28 at select Louis Vuitton stores, as well as a dedicated pop-up at 655 Madison Avenue in New York City. Click through the slideshow ahead to predict which bag we'll spot on Rihanna first.
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