'Beautiful, happy, dopamine-injected.' Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami's frenzied comeback

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Louis Vuitton x Murakami Side Trunk MM, Superflat Monogram Set of Chouchous, Monogram Multicolor Chouchous.

In January, I was successful a taxi driving done London’s Soho vicinity erstwhile I looked retired the model and saw a enactment of radical stretched down an full metropolis block. It was aft dark, but folks were inactive crowded onto the sidewalk, immoderate huddled unneurotic to shield themselves from the acold and mist. Was it for a concert? A show? What was I missing? As my car turned the corner, it became clear: They were each waiting to participate the Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami pop-up.

The abstraction occupied 2 stories, with a cafe connected the top. The bottommost level was painted a agleam “Brat” green, and the precocious level a saccharine Hello Kitty-esque shadiness of pink. The windows, similar the products inside, were covered successful the brand’s signature interlocking L and V monogram. I was amazed not lone by the standard of the cognition but besides by the information that, implicit 2 decades since the archetypal collaboration, the reissue, which is twofold and volition spot the merchandise of a full of astir 200 pieces starting this year, was capable to pull specified frenzied attention.

Louis Vuitton x Murakami Speedy Bandoulière 25 (top) and Coussin PM

When manner decorator Marc Jacobs debuted his Louis Vuitton postulation with Murakami, a Japanese artist, successful the outpouring of 2003, helium called their mind-meld a “monumental matrimony betwixt creation and business.” It marked the information that, by that point, manner and popular civilization had go one, with celebrities connected the screen of Vogue mag alternatively of models, and paparazzi photos dictating sales.

A akin happening was happening successful the creation satellite too. Murakami, who is credited with founding the Superflat movement, which finds inspiration and creation humanities value successful two-dimensional imagery similar Japanese manga and anime, was making a vocation retired of combining what was past considered “highbrow” and “lowbrow.” The portion that got Jacobs’ attention, for example, was a fiberglass cartoon sculpture of a pistillate called “Hiropon,” whose super-size breasts produced a heavy watercourse of beverage that wrapped astir her similar a lasso. Jacobs, who served arsenic originative manager of Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2013, told reporters astatine the clip that “something snapped” erstwhile helium saw Murakami’s Hiropon connected the screen of a Christie’s catalog, and helium reached retired for a meeting. Murakami, meanwhile, said he’d ne'er heard of Louis Vuitton before.

Before the Vuitton x Murakami collaboration, cross-pollination of this quality was rare. “I grew up successful the creation satellite with a batch of quote-unquote ‘serious artists’ who would surely look down upon getting progressive successful a much commercialized happening similar that,” says Gabriel Held, 39, a New York-based stylist and vintage archivist. “But [Jacobs] got heavy-hitters successful the creation satellite to participate.”

Louis Vuitton x Murakami Monogram Multicolor LV Outline Headband

In 2001, Vuitton collaborated with pop-punk creator Stephen Sprouse connected a tally of handbags featuring the brand’s logo successful a graffiti-like font, and successful 2002, British creator Julie Verhoeven covered bags successful colorful graphics. Following Murakami, different big-ticket artists including Richard Prince, Yayoi Kusama, Cindy Sherman and Jeff Koons expressed their Vuitton imaginativeness arsenic well. The collaboration boosted Murakami’s illustration to caller heights, with his pop-y, rainbow aesthetic providing a caller update to the brown-on-brown monogram from 1896 that the marque was known for, yet helping it seizure the attraction of a younger audience. Fandom connected some sides for the limited-edition products created what we present commonly notation to arsenic “hype.”

“I ever picture the bags arsenic being similar beauteous achromatic jawbreakers with saccharine colors each implicit them,” says Liana Satenstein, 35, a writer who focuses connected the vintage market. The iconic “Monogram Multicolore” that Murakami introduced successful 2003 fused the “LV” monogram with tiny florals, creating a caller signifier with 33 colors that popped connected an all-white background. “A beautiful, happy, dopamine-injected piece,” successful Satenstein’s eyes. He besides introduced panda and pinkish cherry blossom motifs.

In December, erstwhile Vuitton announced that it was reissuing the Murakami collaboration with a run starring Zendaya, Satenstein covered the quality connected her Substack, “Neverworns.” She declared that the bags “defined the maximalist ’00s.” Stars of the decade, including Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian, were each photographed carrying one. In 2004, Vogue asked if Jessica Simpson’s prime of a Murakami buckle container made her “the adjacent Sarah Jessica Parker,” Satenstein pointed out.

“I worked with idiosyncratic implicit the summertime who is not truly a manner idiosyncratic but of my age, and 1 happening connected her privation database was a Murakami bag,” says Held. “Even for radical who aren’t that invested successful fashion, they person a tendency for it still. It was a pop-culture moment.”

According to Kelly McSweeney, elder merchandising manager astatine the RealReal, a vintage marketplace, hunt involvement successful the archetypal Louis Vuitton x Murakami collaboration “skyrocketed overnight” erstwhile the reissue was released connected Jan. 3, with a 463% summation successful searches day-over-day. The momentum continued into Jan. 4, climbing different 55% arsenic the buzz astir the collaboration intensified. “Reflecting this renewed excitement, resale prices for pieces from the postulation person besides soared, up 50% year-over-year,” McSweeney adds.

Louis Vuitton x Murakami Monogram Multicolor Chouchous

All of the links to vintage bags that Satenstein shared successful her newsletter person since sold. “I should person bought like, five, of them,” she says successful retrospect.

With the Y2K revival inclination seemingly astatine its peak, nostalgia for the carefree innocence of the ’00s made this infinitesimal ripe for a Murakami relaunch. In fact, it’s a wonderment Vuitton didn’t bash it sooner. Some collectors volition question retired the originals they possibly couldn’t spend astatine afloat terms successful precocious school, and others volition enactment up for a 2nd accidental astatine the caller thing. Judging by the assemblage waiting extracurricular the pop-up successful London, galore anxious customers are possibly excitedly discovering the collaboration for the archetypal time, arsenic they were astir apt successful diapers successful 2003.

Archival pieces are displayed down solid crossed 7 Louis Vuitton x Murakami pop-ups worldwide, from Milan to New York to Seoul to Shanghai to Tokyo to Singapore. But of course, the main gully is the caller accessories, which volition beryllium released successful assorted “chapters” passim 2025, according to the brand. Chapter 1 celebrated Murakami’s archetypal Multicolore monogram, portion Chapter 2, launching this month, volition diagnostic 2003’s arsenic sought-after “Cherry Blossom” signifier connected bags, shoes and trunks.

Before it closed connected Feb. 9, customers astatine the London pop-up sipped from Murakami-branded cups astatine the cafe and ate cakes and pastries disconnected Murakami-branded napkins. The unit wore kimono pajamas and sat connected smiling Murakami angiosperm pillows. The country was simultaneously futuristic and nostalgic. After making a purchase, customers were fixed a token to enactment into a peculiar vending machine, which spat retired Louis Vuitton x Murakami novelty items, including stickers and trading cards.

When I got retired of my taxi and arrived astatine my hotel, I told the person I was gathering to propulsion her archetypal Vuitton x Murakami container retired of her closet immediately. She was thrilled, but also, her curiosity was piqued. Should we get successful enactment too?