A Louis Vuitton Exhibition Of 200 Trunks Has Opened In Singapore
A "trunk show" of Louis Vuitton's celebrity 200.
By Gordon Ng,
From April 4 to April 27, Singapore will be the first stop of Louis Vuitton’s global travelling show – 200 Trunks, 200 Visionaries: The Exhibition – which is open to all at the Marina Bay Sands Event Plaza. Part of the brand’s celebration of its founder’s 200th birthday, the project gets a panoply of names from across creative industries to each put their spin on the label’s steamer trunk (the Maison – and monsieur Vuitton’s – first product).
Among them: former creative directors Marc Jacobs and Kim Jones – both of whom have roped in game-changing collaborators from their time at Vuitton; streetwear bigwigs like Nigo (who's also the present day Kenzo artistic director) and Samuel Ross of A-Cold-Wall; and even celebrity ambassadors BTS.
Here, a preview of some of the creations you can expect at this “trunk show” and the personalities behind them.
Who: K-pop juggernaut group and Louis Vuitton ambassadors BTS
What: Hand-drawn doodles by each member of the group, dotted with Easter eggs like "LV" reinterpreted in Hangul, a whale motif from one of their tracks and even a Vuitton bag that one of the members had carried before
Who: Chinese photographer Feng Li, who's also collaborated with Louis Vuitton on a travel photography book
What: A personal ode to parrots, which have featured in the photographer's personal life for several years
Who: A-Cold-Wall founder Samuel Ross
What: An abstract, engineered metal skeleton of a trunk
Who: Louis Vuitton's Asnieres Maison de Famille workshop
What: A mosaic photo collage of the house's artisans at work, recreating the image of the historic Vuitton family house and workshop
Who: Rockstar architect and designer Peter Marino, who's collaborated with Louis Vuitton for over 20 years and designed countless international flagship boutiques for the house
What: A leather-strapped 'Houdini Trunk' secure enough to rival and beat the illusionist Harry Houdini's escape attempts
Who: British contemporary artist Antony Micallef
What: A playful vision of organic, sprawling creativity
Who: American journalist and feminist activist Gloria Steinem
What: Travel notes as a nod at the origins and history of Louis Vuitton as a maker of trunks for the jet set
Who: The boundary-pushing stylist of the moment Ibrahim Kamara
What: A black base to embody the stylist's experimental ideas, adorned by a flock of birds that look like they are returning to their nest
Who: Starchitect Frank Gehry, a long-standing Louis Vuitton collaborator who designed the house's Fondation Louis Vuitton museum and its Seoul flagship boutique
What: A wild, celebratory tea party scene
Who: Former Louis Vuitton women's artistic director Marc Jacobs, and the artist and fashion designer Stephen Sprouse
What: A redux of the pioneering 2001 collaboration between Vuitton and Sprouse, an art-fashion tie up that spawned super collectible and desirable limited edition designs that would open the floodgates for the rest of the industry
Who: Award-winning French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani
What: A 3D-printed "beehive" made of biodegradable plastics in shapes inspired by the quatrefoil flowers of Louis Vuitton's monogram
Who: Shayne Oliver, founder of fashion label Hood By Air and creative studio Anonymous Club
What: A concealed music box that pays homage to the Caribbean sound systems that Oliver grew up with
Who: Italian design house Fornasetti, which collaborated with Louis Vuitton on its Fall/Winter 2021 women's collection
What: Signature neo-classical Fornasetti motifs like keys and faces hinting at mysteries to be unlocked
Who: Iconic toy brand Lego
What: A birthday cake made out of 31,700 bricks and created in collaboration with seven children to celebrate the creativity of young minds
Who: Streetwear OG and Kenzo artistic director Nigo
What: A khaki-coloured cover to lend the Vuitton steamer a military-tinged anonymity
Who: Photographer Francesca Sorrenti
What: A colourful and vibrant collage celebrating the French art de vivre, with nods to the culture's lifestyle, art, history and travel
Who: Fashion historian, curator and author Pamela Golbin
What: An imagined scene of Louis and Madame Vuitton in their Asnieres atelier. They are dressed in modern day Louis Vuitton ready-to-wear, from collections designed by Virgil Abloh and Nicolas Ghesquiere
Who: Former artistic director of menswear Kim Jones and streetwear collaborator Supreme
What: A throwback to the game-changing 2017 collaboration between the French house and Supreme, which set the stage for luxury fashion and streetwear collaborations of the future