Louis Vuitton’s Master’s Collection: Art and Fashion Collide

Louis Vuitton is known for taking risks when they merge fashion and art. Under Marc Jacobs the storied fashion house teamed up with artist Takashi Murakami for the Monogram Multicolore collection and all of those smiling cherry blossoms.

Stephen Sprouse sprayed graffiti all over their leather goods and then all we saw were spots when Yayoi Kusama dotted LV with her work.

But these collaborations made sense. They joined the iconic monogram with the artist’s own ideas. Their new collection: The Masters is just…odd.

LV let pop artist Jeff Koons put some of the world’s most renowned artwork ON their leather goods. Jean-Honore Fragonard’s Girl with a Dog, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Vincent Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses and Peter Paul Ruben’s The Tiger Hunt.

Koons added the artist’s names in block gold lettering and put his initials in one corner, LV in the other.

Courtesy: Louis Vuitton

There are 51 pieces in the collection including scarves, key chains, small leather goods. handbags and larger leather pieces.

But…..why?

Why take another artist’s work, slap it on handbags and call it yours? For a company that spends millions fighting counterfeiters for doing the same thing, it just doesn’t make sense.

The pieces look like cheap fakes or a tote you’d buy at a museum store only to throw away a few years later when you realize you never used it.

Courtesy: Louis Vuitton