#fashion district

Louis Vuitton: Celebrating the Monogram - The Icon and the Iconoclasts

I told you there was something juicy coming along for my blog, and here it is: six big names of fashion and photography have collaborated with Louis Vuitton to reinvent one of the most famous signature prints in fashion: LV monogram.

It’s something every magazine and fashion website have talked about recently, and until yesterday the exhibit of the six creations was in Milan - and I live in Milan now so you can understand, I could not miss it!

The exhibit was just in the fashion district of the city, seconds to the famous Via Montenapoleone, where many brands and designers have their flagship stores and ateliers. Palazzo Serbelloni was the background to the event, a neoclassical palace which was the perfect match to the role the monogram plays in fashion today, being one of the great classics of clothing.

The guests were immediately welcomed by a big reproduction of the brand logo just at the entrance, which strangely harmonically mixed with the extremely detailed frescos, the opulent chandeliers and the sophisticated architecture of the building.

And then, on the first floor, in very small and intimate spaces, the six creations were displayed in six different windows divided into a brief path which connected three or four of the amazingly decorated rooms of the palace.

First, you found yourself in front of Rei Kawakubo’s interpretation of the monogram, her ‘bag with holes’. And what holes! Maybe too big even to be considered vintage, but her goal was just that: creating something that is already old, used, wearied, something that has a story, just like Louis Vuitton has a long history of tradition.

Just in front of that, the ensemble created by Cindy Sherman (photo 6; she’s a photographer) captured your attention with its colour. I laughed reading what Cindy said about this collaboration: 'I just wanted to have a trunk all for me!’. You don’t say! I would like to have a Louis Vuitton trunk all for me as well, pity that no one asks me to create one :D Anyway, I just thought her idea was one of the best as it introduced colour maintaining the monogram as the outside of the box - so there’s an interesting contrast inside/outside - and its extremely functional: it’s like carrying an entire wardrobe with you!

On the other side, hidden behind a corner, the gold-studded/red decorated shopping bags by Christian Louboutin showed their awesomeness. The photos of the video created by Gordon Von Steiner for the collab (photo 7) covered the whole wall behind the window, showing how Parisian these bags feel.

Change of space this time: after a short passage, on the two sides of the room you got to, other two creations were unveiled. The first one, on the left, was definitely my favourite: the sculptural backpacks created by industrial designer (cool!) Marc Newson (photo 8) were a sudden pop of colour. But what I liked the most was how many different qualities they seemed to have: apart from the playfulness given by the popping tones, they maintained a sophisticated vibe, but they were also pretty functional: the designer thought about a bag which could be cool but at the same time had to be the perfect accessory for adventurous people, with lots of pockets and, most important of all, they are structured in a way that allows the bag to stand without falling down when someone puts it down. B R I L L I A N T!

On the other side of the room the lonely twisted box designed by Frank Gehry (photo 9) floated inside its window, dropping curved shadows under the strategic lights of the little bulbs. It kinda looked like a picture from Salvador Dalí: the whole composition had something distorted and surreal which brought your mind to a dreamy dimension.

And about dreams, who can be the best to 'design’ them, if not the amazing Karl Lagerfeld (photo 10)? Kaiser Karl was inspired by the world of boxe, which, in his opinion, 'is a sport everyone should practice’. As usual, he thought big, in every sense: he designed an entire collection of bags and accessories together with a sort of 'locker’ - covered in LV monogram, of course - which contained a punch ball - again, covered in monogram. The locked also had wheels to move it around in case you need. 

I was astounded by how far the minds of these creative characters could go, not only by thinking 'aesthetically’, but also thinking 'outside the box’ in a more practical manner, inventing things that can REALLY be used .

It was a very short trip, but wow, after that, I felt complete: that’s what happens when you love fashion and when you feel loved by fashion :)

xxx

Lots of work to do before market week but we’re very excited to start running our first showroom!