Frank Gehry’s Louis Vuitton handbags see fashion meet architecture
Frank Gehry and Louis Vuitton’s limited-edition sculptural bags tell a tale of sharp design and precise craftsmanship. Here, the architect tells the story behind the project
![Louis Vuitton Frank Gehry Limited-Edition Architecture Bags](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DGXRLEqjBd6jLYfdMyeqUf-415-80.jpeg)
When Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, was searching for an architect to create a building to house his vast private art collection, he remembered being struck by the fluid forms of Frank Gehry’s 1997 Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. In 2001, the pair met and, by 2006, the plans for Fondation Louis Vuitton – named for the Parisian fashion house at the centre of the LVMH empire – were announced, marking the first collaboration between Arnault and the Canadian-American architect.
Eight years later, in 2014, the Fondation Louis Vuitton opened its doors in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, a historic amusement park in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne. A spectacle in scale and form, the 126,000 sq m gallery was described by LVMH as a ‘transparent cloud’, its shimmering, overlapping ‘sails’ appearing as if preserved in perpetual movement.
Frank Gehry’s architecture-inspired handbags for Louis Vuitton
The ‘Capucines Mini Blossom’ bag is a tribute to the Les Extraits Murano glass perfume bottles that Gehry designed for Louis Vuitton in 2021. The bottle’s floral stoppers are here reworked as majestic scaled-up petals in glass-like resin, delicately positioned on the front of the bag
A decade on, Gehry remembers walking through the Jardin d’Acclimatation with Arnault with ‘tears running down my face’. ‘The site was so filled with history, and the project was so modern,’ he says. ‘I felt incredibly honoured that Bernard Arnault would trust me with such a rare project.’
He is speaking on the occasion of a new collaboration with Louis Vuitton, which sees the architect design a limited-edition collection of handbags for the house. Smaller in scale but no less architectural in scope, the 11-piece collection draws inspiration from some of Gehry’s most notable designs while building on the architect’s initial handbag for the maison’s 2014 ‘Celebrating Monogram’ project. Called ‘Twisted Box’, its hard shell twisted in the architect’s unorthodox style, the bag is now available in embossed leather rather than the original canvas.
‘You have to work within the materials’ limits, but Louis Vuitton was able to produce things that were beyond my wildest dreams’
Frank Gehry
The new collection also features more architectural styles, like the angular ‘Capucines MM Concrete Pockets’, which recalls the concrete exteriors of Gehry’s most memorable buildings, or a shell-like iridescent Plexiglas model that evokes the façade of Gehry’s distinctive Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. Other creations feature fish and crocodile motifs in an echo of interior fixtures Gehry has created for various buildings (the crocodile appears in London’s Sexy Fish restaurant; the fish nods to lamps at Fondation Louis Vuitton), or reference the glass toppers Gehry created for Louis Vuitton’s Les Extraits perfumes.
‘It’s not so much about making sure that the original vision is translated,’ says Gehry. ‘Rather, it’s about working with the team to create the object of desire together. The craftspeople working on the bags have constraints in what the leather or materials can do. You have to work with those limits and pick and choose where to push the boundaries… [but] they were able to produce things that were beyond my wildest dreams.’
The ‘Capucines MM Concrete Pockets’ bag features a calfskin exterior that faithfully recreates the concrete textures and tones of Gehry’s buildings, thanks to a cutting-edge 3D screenprinting treatment
The project also saw the architect work with his daughter-in-law, Joyce Shin Gehry, who is also a colleague at Gehry Partners. ‘Joyce is very talented and has a great eye,’ he says. ‘She started making all sorts of bags – playing with different themes and shapes. Working inside the “Capucines” shape [one of Louis Vuitton’s most enduring handbag styles] meant that we started exploring texture, colour and graphics more than we might have if we were starting from scratch.’
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
The idea, says Gehry, was that each handbag had a unique story to tell. ‘What Louis Vuitton brings to the table is a deep respect for the artistic process,’ he says. ‘We try things, we see what works and what doesn’t.’ As for the exactitudes of each bag’s construction, unlike the painstaking process of creating the Fondation Louis Vuitton – which involved the placing of 3,600 panels of curved glass – Gehry largely left it to the expertise of the Louis Vuitton atelier. ‘They made everything look effortless to me.’
A version of this article appears in the April 2024 issue of Wallpaper* available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.
Set design: Thomas Conant. Photography assistant: Matt Bramston.
Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Colourful luggage to brighten up your summer
Eschew grey, navy and black for vibrantly hued luggage that will stand out on the airport belt and add colour to summertime escapes
By Jack Moss Published
-
‘Things are not what they seem’: Unpacking the S/S 2025 menswear shows
Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss explores the trends and takeaways from this season’s menswear shows, from an embrace of ‘irrational clothing’ to couture-level craft and eclectic new takes on tailoring
By Jack Moss Published
-
Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025: Loewe to Dries Van Noten
Wallpaper* picks the best moments of Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025, from ‘hypnotic precision’ at Loewe to Dries Van Noten’s final show, as well as the latest outings from Pharrell Williams, Kim Jones and Grace Wales Bonner
By Jack Moss Last updated
-
How to wear black in summer
Wallpaper* journeys to Morocco’s Aman resort to make a case for wearing black this summer with S/S 2024’s most darkly dramatic looks
By Jack Moss Published
-
Highlights from the jet-setting Cruise 2025 shows
Our pick of the globe-trotting Cruise 2025 shows, from Dior’s takeover of Drummond Castle, Scotland to Max Mara’s season finale in Venice
By Jack Moss Last updated
-
The moments fashion met art at the 60th Venice Biennale
The best fashion moments at the 2024 Venice Biennale, with happenings from Dior, Golden Goose, Balenciaga, Burberry and more
By Jack Moss Published
-
Extraordinary runway sets from the A/W 2024 shows
12 scene-stealing runway sets and show spaces from A/W 2024 fashion month, featuring Murano-glass cacti, rubber armchairs, flashing orbs and more
By Jack Moss Published
-
Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2024: Loewe to Hermès
The best of Paris Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2024 in our ongoing report, from Jonathan Anderson’s church of masculinity at Loewe to a consideration of pleasure from Véronique Nichanian at Hermès
By Jack Moss Last updated