Image courtesy of Yayoi Kusama

Polka Dots for Louis Vuitton By Yayoi Kusama

Under Marc Jacobs’s 16-year reign, Louis Vuitton evolved beyond luxury luggage and became known for iconic clothing and accessories, with some of its most popular designs born out of artist collaborations. Beginning in 2001 when Jacobs was inspired by Stephen Sprouse’s “desire to take what he saw in the streets and elevate it,” the designer started a tradition of artist-inspired collections involving big names, from Richard Prince to Takashi Murakami to Daniel Buren. The ultimate collection came in the summer of 2012, with the launch of an extensive capsule that was a collaboration with and ultimately an homage to Yayoi Kusama.

Image courtesy of Yayoi Kusama

Following the launch, custom Kusama installations filled Louis Vuitton shop windows worldwide, while in New York she was celebrated in an exceptional retrospective at the Whitney. Marc Jacobs explained about the collection: “In the past, artists that I’ve chosen to work with were quite spontaneous decisions but they’ve all meant something to me, personally, they’ve created…a world that I relate to and work that I love and appreciate, so when we were approached with this I readily embraced it, as did my team…it is very dynamic, very animated and, like Kusama, just represents this kind of obsession with polka dots and this round shape that has no end, and therefore it’s infinite and all in all I think it has the vibrance, the energy, and it also represents I think a true collaboration because there’s very much this Vuitton monogram and the spots from Kusama and to me both of them are endless but timeless and forever.”

Image courtesy of Yayoi Kusama

And Kusama said about the designer: “Marc Jacobs’s sincere attitude towards art is the same as my own. I respect him as a wonderful designer. Louis Vuitton understands and appreciates the nature of my art. Therefore there isn’t much difference from my process of making fashion.”

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