The Le Pliage Bags From Longchamp's Collab With Toiletpaper Will Make Your Eyes Pop
The Parisian house of Longchamp has been on a collaboration-heavy streak in recent years, and its latest tie-up – called 'Pop Revolution’ – might just be its most visually audacious to date: a capsule of Le Pliage totes and travel accessories sporting imagery by the brazenly irreverent, pop culture-influenced art publication/agency Toiletpaper.
For the uninitiated, Toiletpaper was founded in 2010 by the Italian duo comprising the surrealist artist Maurizio Cattelan (he’s behind the banana-taped-on-a-wall installation that went viral at Art Basel Miami Beach four years ago) and the fashion/portrait photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. Originally meant to be a picture-based, advertising-free magazine that pokes fun at the worlds of art and fashion, it’s since become one of the most in-demand imagemakers with its colour-rich, hyperreal and often provocative photos produced by the fun-loving pair (and usually with minimal post-production, according to Ferrari).
“We try to invent – to make life not boring,” says Cattelan. This lighthearted outlook, combined with their bold aesthetic, is what drew Longchamp to sign Toiletpaper up as its latest collaborator. “What they do tallies with Longchamp’s colourful vision of optimistic luxury,” says the label’s creative director Sophie Delafontaine.
Longchamp's creative director Sophie Delafontaine (middle) with her fashion/art collaborators, Toiletpaper's Maurizio Cattelan (left) and Pierpaolo Ferrari (right).
In stores July 18, the Longchamp X Toiletpaper collaboration makes the French fashion house’s signature Le Pliage tote even more covetable. Expect four styles of the famous foldable bag – the travel bag, the handbag, the tote and the pouch – printed with one of five original visuals conceptualised and shot by Toiletpaper. Playing with the iconic codes of Longchamp as well as Parisian culture, the images include that of a majestic black horse galloping against a graphic blue sky (cue Longchamp’s equestrian-inspired logo); a French bulldog smoking a pipe (the company pioneered leather-sheathed tobacco pipes); and a skull with baguettes forming a cross pattern behind it ala a pirate symbol.
True to the Toiletpaper brand, the colour palette is unapologetically vibrant – think candy pink and yellow with black polka dots. Accompanying the bags is a series of cowhide leather keychains and a silk ribbon branded – wait for it – TOILETCHAMPLONGPAPER.
Ahead, a close-up look at the witty visuals created for this outing.
This article is adapted from a story that first appeared in the July 2023 Graphic Design Edition of FEMALE