Louis Vuitton X Jeff Koons: My thoughts
I was left speechless when I woke up last month to see the latest Collaboration to hit the fashion world, that of Louis Vuitton and Jeff Koons. My immediate reaction was that of utter horror, because I think it looks well...ugly and unnecessarily fussy, however my opinion was somewhat shifted when the products began circulating on social media, because i could see the craftsman ship, but I'm still not a fan. Essentially Koons has put old works of art on some iconic Vuitton bags in a way that "encourages new interpretations".Um right okay...
I'm disappointed because, just before the release, Louis Vuitton created a lot of hype on their social media (naturally) and I was expecting something better, especially after the disappointing previous Supreme collaboration last year (see my other blogpost). To make things worse, adding ugly embellishments to the bags makes them look like tacky souveners bought from venders outside of art galleries, not something a creation of high fashion.
Its funny, even though I'm currently pastiching the same Rubens painting used on the bags, I still don't like the bags, even though I appreciate their artistic value and style. I feel the creative value was lost by simply copying the paintings and sticking them to bags. Artists copied include Titan, Rubens, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, and Fragonard, some of the worlds greatest painters who now get associated with the fashion Collaboration of the year (For negative reasons).
I think the collaboration could have been much more simple, and not embellished with the artist's names and "LV" initials because that is where the 'ugliness' comes from, and therefore if that was taken away, the paintings would be the main attraction and the creative vision would have clarity.
I also would have liked to see some Monogram canvas print on the bags to give them a uniformity.
Regardless, here are the bags below,
(Pictures from the Louis Vuitton website)
I grew up with the Flemish and Dutch masters. I approve of any method to share with the younger generation.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who adores the work of the Flemish and Dutch masters, I agree and think that the younger generation need to be exposed to actin any way possible, however I think the collection only encourages viewers to look at the art, and not to understand the wider social and historical circumstances that the art is surrounded by.
Delete