Louis Vuitton Handbags and Purses

If you went to Google’s homepage this morning and found yourself thinking that the search giant’s new Doodle looked familiar, it might be because you have some of the artist’s work hanging in your closet. (Or maybe because you’re just a contemporary art fan in general.) The logo above, commissioned by Google to celebrate the first official day of summer, was created by famed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, he of the longstanding Louis Vuitton collaboration that all of us know and some of us love. Personally, I’d be excited to see a Louis Vuitton or Chanel Google Doodle. Maybe we can lobby to get one for the start of Paris Fashion Week?

[Image via Google]

For the past few years, Louis Vuitton has been on such a great roll with resort collections, and for good reason. The brand’s identity is built around the idea of luxury travel, so it follows naturally that it would be particularly suited to a season that came about out of the need for pre-season travel goods for those who have the money and flexibility to escape the winter weather in less exotic locales.

Vuitton, in partnership with longtime muse and current aesthetic collaborator Sophia Coppola, have dreamed up a grand Parisian adventure from the back of a scooter for Louis Vuitton Resort 2012. Because of Coppola’s involvement, the bags include several colorful versions of her popular satchel, but the real standouts were the leopard print helmets. I wonder if LV will make any bags in that pattern? A girl can home. More pictures after the jump. (Warning: Some of the images are a tad small, we did the best we could with what Vuitton released for the media.) → Read More

Angelina Jolie in Louis Vuitton’s Core Values Campaign. Click to enlarge.

The latest installment of Louis Vuitton’s Core Values Campaign features actress and UN Goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie.

Angelina agreed to be captured by famous photographer Annie Leibowitz for the campaign in Cambodia, a country which she first visited in 2000 for her role as Lara Croft and later returned on humanitarian missions, raising awareness of the dangers of landmines. She subsequently adopted her first child, Maddox, from a Cambodia orphanage.

The striking capture shows Jolie sitting in a traditional wooden boat in the province of Siem Reap, alongside her vintage Louis Vuitton Monogram Alto Holdall, a bag she has owned for many years. → Read More

Some accessories junkies look at certain handbag designs and see faces, but this exhibit by British artist Billie Achilleos takes that phenomenon to a whole new level. Louis Vuitton commissioned several animal sculptures from her made entirely out of Louis Vuitton handbags and accessories to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Louis Vuitton SLG Savoir Faire collection. What Achilleos was able to do with leather goods is amazing (not to mention amazingly adorable), and we’ve got more pictures of her creatures, plus a video of the construction process, after the jump. → Read More

The introduction of a new Louis Vuitton Speedy is always cause for celebration among handbag fiends, and we think that this particular bag will be of wide interest. The Louis Vuitton Speedy Bandoulière is similar to the monogram Speedy that we all know and love, but it brings with it the thoroughly modern addition of an integrated shoulder strap. Optional straps have long been available for purchase to clip onto the traditional Speedy’s handle attachments, but this dedicated strap brings with it a design logic that is lacking in a simple add-on.

Itching to see this Speedy in action? Of course you are, which is why Vuitton and Caroline Sieber put together a catalog of shots with the Speedy Bandoulière out and about on a sunny day in London. We have those shots, plus a price list for the new bag, after the jump. Or if you’d like to skip straight to buying, the bags are available now via Vuitton.com. → Read More

Tapping into a recent boom in tourism among affluent Chinese, Louis Vuitton has opened an epic new exhibit cataloging the art of travel at the National Museum of China in Beijing. The presentation, which opened this week, covers the brand’s iconic travel pieces and handbags as well as a historical view of travel from an artistic perspective.

Much has been made over the burgeoning luxury market in China, and this event, which runs through August 30th, is surely a bid to ingratiate Louis Vuitton to a country that has been driving a huge proportion of the industry’s growth. Say what you want about the tactic or its place in the art world, but one thing is for sure: LVMH knows how to create a spectacle. For those of us who won’t be making the trip to see the the display in person, we’ve got some great photos of the handbags and travel pieces featured as part of the exhibit, after the jump. → Read More

Every year, consulting firm Millward Brown Optimor takes stock of the global luxury industry and decides who the key players are based on revenue, profits and overall brand value. And every year, Louis Vuitton takes the top spot with a valuation even more massive than the year before. Fashionista.com reports that according to Millward Brown Optimor, Vuitton’s worth was up 23% in 2010 over 2009, a year when it was also the most powerful and wealthy luxury brand on the face of the planet.

That puts its value at over twice that of Hermes, it’s next closest competitor and also a big gainer for 2010 with a 41% jump in valuation. With those kinds of increases, it’s no wonder why it seems as though LVMH, Vuitton’s parent company, might be looking to gobble up the independent French brand. And that’s not the only place on the power list that LVMH makes it’s mark. Spirits megabrands Moet & Chandon and Hennessy, who account for the M and H in the conglomerate’s name, also appear in the top ten. Take a look at the entire list, after the jump. → Read More

It’s been a full month since all of the fashion week festivities started, and they’ve finally come to an end. Showing at the very end of the cycle can either be a blessing or a curse; if what you’ve put together is merely mediocre (or worse, if it’s flat-out bad), critics and buyers are more likely to look harshly on it because of our fatigue at four weeks worth of clothes and accessories. If the collection you’re presenting is as good as beautifully fetishistic Louis Vuitton Fall 2011, though, then you get the glorious distinction of closing out the season on a high note and having your clothes by foremost in the minds of editors.

Vuitton is not a handbag company that I normally look to for my own purchases because of my personal preference toward bags without logos, but its fall accessory offerings were easily some of the best of the entire season. The central idea of the handbag collection was a theme and variations starring the brand’s ever-popular Lockit shape, much like the Speedy iterations that we saw from Vuitton for Fall 2010. It’s an idea that worked well then and works well now, with the disciplined lines of the Lockit lending themselves seamlessly to the upscale kink of the Vuitton ready-to-wear. Let’s not talk about the fuzzy bags and pretend those never happened, ok? Everything else was too good of a distraction. → Read More