Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami Collaboration: 2025 Re-edition & Extra

Lengthy earlier than designer collaborations had been the norm, Louis Vuitton‘s then-creative director Marc Jacobs teamed up with Takashi Murakami to debut a line of purses that might go down in trend historical past. After discovering Murakami’s paintings at an exhibit on the Fondation Cartier in 2002, Jacobs approached the Japanese pop artist to reimagine Vuitton’s iconic monogram.

The label’s signature serif lettering dates again to 1896, when Georges Vuitton, son of founder Louis Vuitton, created the sample with the intention of keeping off counterfeiters. This didn’t precisely go in accordance with plan: at present, Vuitton purses are nonetheless among the commonest fakes, and naturally, Murakami’s designs had been knocked off far and broad.

In any case, his Multicolore monogram and anime prints had been touted by the likes of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and even Regina George in “Imply Ladies,” making the artist’s Louis Vuitton line an “It” woman staple. Murakami and Jacobs even parodied the counterfeit idea in 2008, staging Canal Avenue-inspired stalls — full of solely genuine merchandise — exterior the Brooklyn Museum.

In honor of 2025’s Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami re-edition, which formally launches on Jan. 1, a glance again at their legendary collaboration.

2002

Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami made its runway debut in the course of the model’s spring 2003 trend present. Fashions carried Vuitton classics (the Papillon, the Speedy and the Keepall) that includes Murakami’s cartoonish Cherry Blossom print and Multicolore monogram, which consists of 33 colours emblazoned on white or black coated canvas. Variations of the sample included the artist’s “Eye Love” design.

Jacobs and Murakami put a twist on Vuitton’s staple purses, giving them bow accents, brass studs and ft, in addition to further pockets. In addition they launched a brand new limited-edition purse mannequin, the Sac Retro PM.

2003

Following the discharge of the Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami assortment, the collaboration generated over $300 million in a single 12 months.

“Once we noticed the primary prototypes, we had been all very excited,” Jacobs advised WWD in 2003. “However the attain of it, we had no concept. I really like that we’re concerned within the creation of one thing that just about appears historic.”

By the early 2000s, Jennifer Lopez had change into a family title due to her premiere album “On the 6,” that iconic Versace gown and appearances in hit rom-coms like “The Marriage ceremony Planner” and “Maid in Manhattan.”

Her relationship with actor Ben Affleck was additionally the speak of the tabloids, and in 2003, Lopez was tapped because the face of Louis Vuitton’s fall marketing campaign. Lensed by acclaimed photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Lopez brandishes Murakami’s black Multicolore Dalmatian Sac Rabat — one other one-of-a-kind Vuitton silhouette.

“I believe she seems to be extremely stunning and complex,” Jacobs mentioned in a WWD interview. “After her hair and make-up, she simply grew to become that supermodel. It was a right away swap into the position she was forged for.”

2004

In 2004, Murakami and Jacobs revealed their newest Vuitton drop. The artist’s vibrant anime Panda print appeared on a variety of equipment together with the Pochette, the Troutter and the Vavin PM.

That 12 months, Naomi Campbell, an in depth pal of Jacobs, fronted one other Mert and Marcus-photographed marketing campaign that includes Murakami’s Multicolore. The supermodel lounged upon a white canvas trunk and carried an identical Theda bag in the home’s summer season adverts.

“Imply Ladies” grew to become a popular culture phenomenon upon its launch in 2004. The movie’s titular clique, The Plastics, had been North Shore Excessive’s “trend dictators,” per costume designer Mary Jane Fort, setting developments for the remainder of their schoolmates.

Queen Bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams) carries a Louis Vuitton x Murakami Cherry Blossom purse within the movie’s first mall scene, with Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) finally following swimsuit: she touts a Multicolore Pochette after finishing her Plastics transformation.

Louis Vuitton’s spring 2005 runway noticed the discharge of a brand new Murakami print: Cerises. Translating to “cherries” in English, the artist’s anthropomorphic fruits embellished a number of purses, together with the Speedy, Pochette, Keepall and Petit Bucket. Restricted-edition designs, such because the Neo Deauville and Sac Fermoir, additionally featured lizard pores and skin accents.

2005-2006

Jacobs and Murakami experimented with the Multicolore print even additional in 2005, debuting new Speedy fashions that includes a rainbow of suede fringe, glass beads and crystallized pendants within the form of Vuitton’s signature monogram stars and flowers — lengthy earlier than the bag attraction development took maintain.

For the label’s fall 2006 assortment, Jacobs launched a Multicolore fur muff that doubled as a fanny pack. That includes silver python zipper trim, the ultra-rare piece has been worn by Amber Rose and Kim Kardashian.

Following his appointment as artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear, Virgil Abloh reinterpreted this idea in 2021, dropping a white mink zip-up printed with a multicolored monogram: notably, this wasn’t part of the Murakami collaboration, and thus doesn’t bear the Multicolore title.

2007

The Museum of Up to date Artwork in Los Angeles staged a profession retrospective of Murakami’s work in 2007, which included a number of the artist’s Louis Vuitton designs. Luggage had been displayed in glass circumstances in entrance of coordinating Multicolore canvases, and a pop-up Vuitton boutique was put in within the gallery, a novelty for the French trend home.

The totally useful retailer echoed Murakami’s high-low exploration of artwork’s relationship to consumerism, a theme constant all through his work. Though controversial inside the artwork world, the notion of in-gallery buying was seemingly prophesied by the daddy of pop artwork, Andy Warhol — a formative affect on Murakami — who as soon as mentioned that “all malls would change into museums and all museums would change into malls.”

Unique Murakami x Vuitton designs had been launched in honor of the exhibition, additional blurring the traces between trend and artwork. Titled Moca Palms, the limited-edition print depicted the model’s LV initials in colourful camouflage, appended with smiling daisies and cartoon gloves. The emblem was inscribed on monogrammed Neverfull totes and handheld trunks, with resale costs instantly hovering to a 50 p.c premium.

2008

In April 2008, Murakami’s retrospective landed on the Brooklyn Museum. Akin to MOMA’s exhibition, it featured a Louis Vuitton boutique inside, although its New York gala opening included a very tongue-in-cheek twist: in step with the model’s mission to take down counterfeiters, Vuitton poked enjoyable at Canal Avenue distributors by putting in its personal fake storefronts exterior the museum — these stalls, nonetheless, had been solely stocked with genuine merchandise.

“We talked about what New York is legendary or notorious for,” mentioned Brooklyn Museum director Arnold Lehman in a WWD interview. “When each residents and guests consider purchases right here, there may be a lot at present on the road in so many components of the town, it’s change into virtually in a approach identifiable with New York. It’s additionally such a visible manifestation of the [counterfeit] concern that Vuitton thought that this was an fascinating strategy to characterize the issue.”

Following the Brooklyn Museum opening, a brand new line of Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami merchandise was launched. As its title implies, the Monogramouflage assortment of baggage, purses and different equipment noticed Vuitton’s trademark lettering printed on a camo backdrop.

Louis Vuitton closed out one other Murakami-fueled banner 12 months by wrapping the facade of its New York flagship in his Multicolore monogram print. The vacation show included the addition of a Peter Marino-designed “Bag Bar” contained in the boutique, which was the one certainly one of its type to characteristic transferring components.

“We wished to do one thing that was festive and distinctive, however on the similar time true to the model,” Daniel Lalonde, president and chief government officer of Louis Vuitton North America, advised WWD on the time. “All through the previous 12 months we’ve collaborated with Takashi Murakami on a wide range of initiatives and thought his Multicolore print, displaying the Louis Vuitton monogram in 33 cheerful colours, could be an ideal mixture of custom and pleasure.”

2015

Louis Vuitton formally discontinued its collaboration with Murakami in 2015. Following Jacobs’ departure from the label in 2014, he was succeeded by artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière. On the time, Vuitton representatives advised WWD that they declined to touch upon the gathering’s termination, noting that the model prefers to “look ahead.”

2025

Up to now, Murakami is Louis Vuitton’s longest-standing collaborator, a convention that can proceed in 2025. The French trend home introduced the upcoming assortment, which formally launches on Jan. 1, earlier this month.

Items from the Louis Vuitton x Murakami re-edition embody new iterations of their bestselling Multicolore monogram purses, in addition to equipment like scarves, belts, headbands and skateboards. The Multicolore monogram additionally decorates newer Vuitton purse fashions, the Capucines and the Coussin.

Different fan favourite prints will likely be revived in extra drops of the Louis Vuitton x Murakami re-edition, together with the artist’s kawaii Panda, Cerises and Cherry Blossom patterns.