Welcome to 12 Days of Artmas, our new non-denominational holiday extravaganza – an Advent calendar with gift ideas and stories for art lovers of all stripes, every day until December 24.

At the age of 13, Louis Vuitton left his village in the French Jura and went on foot to Paris, where he apprenticed with a master trunk maker and opened his eponymous Maison in 1854. His name would soon become synonymous with luxury.

This year, to honor the 200th anniversary of its founder, the fashion and leather goods house turned to the art world, calling on Beeple to create NFTs for a video game based on the life of Vuitton tout by ordering a future unveiled triptych by American artist Alex Katz. She also gave carte blanche to 200 visionary designers (including architect Peter Marino and makeup artist Pat McGrath) to reinvent her classic travel trunk for Louis Vuitton store windows, which will be auctioned off in 2022.

Of course, with Virgil Abloh as male artistic director, it didn’t take far to find inspiration. Born in Chicago to Ghanaian parents, the polymath artist, designer, DJ and creative genius passed away two weeks ago after a private battle with cancer and a long-standing unrest on the streets that saw him transform the industries of fashion and design while transforming the concept of luxury on the head. As he told Artnet News after joining Louis Vuitton in 2018, becoming the first black man to lead a department at the company, “I think the art world or fashion or whatever sort of place canonized is – or should be – a mirror of the society around him.

During his first Louis Vuitton show, for the Men’s Spring-Summer 2019 collection, Abloh presented a rigid crossbody pouch, both an 8.5 x 6.1 x 3.0 inch tribute to the travel trunk at Vuitton’s flat cover and an oversized symbol. of its own brand. The house brought it back for the season, its leather livened up with LV Pop colors, a fitting tribute to bright light that pushed boundaries while connecting worlds.

The clutch is available in a selection of Louis Vuitton boutiques. Price on request.

Previous stories in this series:

On the first day of Artmas my true love gave me… a step by step guide to gifting an NFT

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