This year marks the 20th anniversary of Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.
Over 20 years after their first collaboration turned into what would become the most coveted bags of the early 2000s, Louis Vuitton and artist Takashi Murakami have introduced their newest reedition accessory collection with a vibrant pop-up space in SoHo, New York.
The space features the first part of three capsule collections to be released over the next year, aptly called Chapter One. Inspired by the famous modular hotels in Tokyo, the pop-up has a corridor leading to various brightly coloured rooms, each for a different purpose. Immersive experiences found throughout include an accessory care station with a menu of services for bags from the original collection (replacement pieces, cleaning, and restoring hand painted motifs) and a cinema to view Murakami’s two anime films: Superflat Monogram (2003) and Superflat First Love (2009). A token for a large vending machine filled with stickers, trading cards, and Takashi Murakami Flower Go Walk portable games comes with each purchase.
Original collaborations from the early 2000s are on display, showcasing the history of Murakami’s creative reinterpretations of the French maison’s monogrammed leather goods, including the exclusive Monogram Multicolore Franges bag from the 2006 collaboration.
Open to the end of January, the spot in New York is one of seven cities with an exclusive pop-up for Chapter One, along with London, Milan, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo, with the largest in Tokyo’s Harajuku prefecture. For those visiting from January 10-12, purchases allow access to a café, adorned with cushions of Murakami’s signature flower.
Photographs by Brad Dickson, courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
January 8, 2025
