Louis Vuitton Handbags and Purses

For some reason, Louis Vuitton hits it out of the park for Valentine’s Day better than any other brand this side of Cartier. (Not that Cartier does anything in particular for the holiday, but, you know, DIAMONDS.) Vuitton always has a few heart-shaped small leather goods on hand at this time of year for the occasion, and this year’s V-Day vernis is striped in red and pink (it also comes in a darker jewel-toned version). If you think the lady on your list has enough key holders, wallets and bag charms to last a lifetime, Vuitton also has a couple jewelry options. We’ve picked a few of the best after the jump, and many of the options are $500 or less. The entire range can be found at LouisVuitton.com, and remember, the big day is only a week away.

It’s my most favorite Man Bag Monday of the season, you guys! As far as big handbag brands go, Louis Vuitton is without question the line that gives the most amount of love to its male customers instead of just focusing on us ladies. Not only does Vuitton do a full runway show of menswear in Paris during Men’s Fashion Week every season, but the clothes area always accompanies by a litany of utterly gorgeous manbags.

Some seasons the designs skew more feminine than others and seem as though they might actually be intended to be carried by women and they gay men who are seriously jealous of our accessories. Louis Vuitton Fall 2012, on the other hand, was full of bags that almost anyone could appreciate – gay men both feminine and masculine, straight dudes, ladies. The color palette was one of neutral tans and greyed-out navys, with hardware and embellishment kept to a minimum. Something tells me this collection is going to sell quite briskly once it hits stores in late summer. Check out more pictures after the jump.

Image via Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton’s Spring 2012 runway show was a joy to behold for a variety of reasons: the enormous carousel set piece bearing dozens of the world’s best models, girlish clothes in the most powdery and feminine of pastels, luxury in every detail. The entire collection felt fresh, light and joyful. Personally, though, I was distracted by one thing and one thing only, which was trying to guess how much the littany of crocodile pieces, from bags to jackets, would cost once they hit retail. Not only is crocodile astronomically expensive all on its own, but Vuitton tends to charge a premium for all of its products, above and beyond most another brands.

For the handbag star of the collection, the Louis Vuitton Crocodile Old Speedy Flap, we now have an answer, but go ahead and try to guess before you peek.

When you’re a brand with a rabid, slavish following like French leathergoods giant Hermes, it’s important to think outside the box in order to both maximize profits and cater to your very particular customer’s every need. With quarterly growth in the double digits since time immemorial, Hermes has taken a page out of the Louis Vuitton book and now brands everything under the sun, including the simplest of writing implements: the pencil.

Fancy-pants pens have long been a hallmark of the luxury industry, but the leather-wrapped Hermes Arlequin H Pencil is something different entirely. Pens can be refilled with fine ink and passed down from generation to generation; pencils, on the other hand, are meant to be used up in short order by virtue of their very construction.

Usually, Louis Vuitton artist collaborations are easy to describe. The French brand tends to err on the side of big, bold, graphic visuals, and subtlety usually isn’t a common trait among its collections with the likes of Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami. To say that the twee, low-fi animation of the brand’s recent video, The Great Journey of Little Bagcharms, is unexpected would be an understatement. It’s a good kind of unexpected, though.

Vuitton teamed up with artist Christian Borstlap to animate this short film to fete the launch of the new Louis Vuitton Montgolfiere Bag Charm, a hot air balloon carrying a classic trunk. Even if you have little interest in the charm itself, the video’s old school line drawings and the sweet song that accompanies them are a nice little respite from your lunchtime food coma. Check out a larger picture of the charm and pricing information after the jump.

Images via Louis Vuitton

As I’ve mentioned previously this week, the non-season seasons really irk me, as an accessories lover. Even Louis Vuitton, a company that knows where its bread is buttered (the brand didn’t even start making ready-to-wear until Marc Jacobs’ advent in the 90s), doesn’t release handbag shots with its standard lookbook for pre-season collections. C’mon, Vuitton, throw us a bone!

Because we have so many LV addicts in our audience, though, I thought I’d publish the lookbook itself, which includes several peeks at what this line will have to offer, purse-wise. There’s a little fur, a little matte leather and a little bit of saturated color. In short, most of these bags are a whole lot of wearable. I’ll take the emerald green duffel right now, thank you. Full photos after the jump – the immaculately detailed, incredibly luxurious clothes are worth a look as well.

Many brands have tried out the designer-artists collaboration, but only Louis Vuitton has it down to a science (and an extremely profitable one at that). Even casual fashion watchers know the names of the artists that Vuitton has brought on – Stephen Sprouse, anyone? Takashi Murakami, does that ring a bell? Vuitton announced earlier this week that it’s about to make another artist a household fashion name – Yayoi Kusama, an 82-year-old Japanese visual artist known for her love of dots.

Kusama is well known in the contemporary art world, but her name may be new to accessories lovers. Fret not, we’ve assembled a few samples of her work after the jump, and her bold, graphic aesthetic seems perfect for a Vuitton collaboration. Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton will include ready-to-wear, handbags, accessories, shoes, watches and jewelry, and it will bow with special fancy-pants window displays in early July.