On Thursday, Louis Vuitton unveiled its second partnership with Yayoi Kusama at a pop-up shop in New York City’s Meatpacking District, directly across from the Whitney Museum.
In the interior, a sea of black dots covered the yellow walls, mirrors, and reflected spheres while uniformed men presented silver platters of champagne. More coloured spheres were embedded in a huge, upright LV sign that was shining and flashing.
These uncomplicated forms instantly reference Kusama’s body of work. Her popular “Infinity Rooms,” the first of which debuted in 1965, are referenced by the mirrors. Later ones have appeared in galleries and museums around the world, and they may be to blame for the recent flurry of “immersive experience” displays. The colorful balls, meanwhile, alludes to the 1966 Venice Biennale premiere of Narcissus Garden. The red, yellow, black, and white dots cover canvases, rooms, people, and fabric, much like in the “Infinity Rooms” or Narcissus Garden.
But the smeared and crooked spheres displayed at the Louis Vuitton store look to lack attention to detail. The majority of the items appear to be made of polyester and are imprinted with Kusama’s erratic dot and LV’s impeccable monogram. An example would be a men’s zip-up fleece made of polyester and wool that sheds on both itself and the items around it.
Many of the pieces of clothing are completely unrelated to Kusama’s work, such as a black overcoat that is styled over a white tee with ribs and is fitted at the neck with a chain that is shrink-wrapped in white plastic. There is a black polyester suit with, gasp!, polka-dot lining in it. These products appear to be uninspired on purpose, luring the coward to buy a Kusama charm necklace or a statement purse. The bags are really good. They come in a number of designs, including a black, mini-luggage-style one that is embellished with spheres and a classically modular one that is the lone nod to Louis Vuitton’s much more successful 2012 partnership with Kusama.
The 2012 collaboration’s dedication to the project is missing from this one. This is partially a result of the collection’s enormous size, which includes more than 400 items for both men and women. Pajama suits, backpacks, T-shirts, a silver leather jacket, jewelry, scarves, and even a surfboard are among the womenswear items that make up the left side of the store. They are hung from racks or the same, reoccurring white woman mannequin with a wavy bob. Meanwhile, the menswear is a mash-up of street wear, backpacks, shoes, a wonderful pair of dotted, gray-tone cargo pants, a puffer jacket, as well as thick varsity jackets, suits, and collared shirts.
Seeing the fashion industry incorporate art and artists frequently causes instinctive flinching, as if fashion is by definition commercial and art is radical and unadulterated. However, there are always better and worse approaches to accomplish goals. It just so happens to be worse this time.