Every summer, we get a little something different from Louis Vuitton. There is technically no “summer” season in fashion, but often brands (and especially big brands with rabid, never-satiated audiences will release a little something fun, separate from the formal Spring 2018 collection, so entice shoppers about to set off on vacation or other fun warm-weather activities. In the case of LV, that’s usually a capsule collection of fun takes on the brand’s most classic bags, often with a new print layered over some of the brand’s iconic canvases. And that’s exactly what Vuitton has on deck for Summer 2018: illustrations of tromp l’oeil trunk details on bags like the Neverfull, Speedy, Pochette Metis and Neonoe.
The series of bags comes in both Monogram and Damier Canvas options, with the colors of the illustrations differing depending on the bag’s background color. As you might expect, the bags are also more expensive than their illustration-free counterparts; a Neonoe, for example, will normally cost you $1,590, but the illustrated version is $1,950.
For shoppers who miss the Marc Jacobs era at Vuitton, this bags will likely be a welcome addition to the canon. When I first saw photos of the Neverfull, my initial reaction was confusion that I had somehow missed ever seeing these bags in the past. When I got to the Neonoe and Pochette Metis, though, I realized they had to be new. I’m still a bit surprised these are of the Nicolas Ghesquiere era—his work tends to have a particular futurism to it, and this collection is instead a winking nod to the past, which is more Jacobs’s style. And, to be honest, they mostly don’t work for me, despite being kind of fun. The designs feel a little too busy.
Check out all the bags and wallets from the new collection below, at least as far as we could find—the collection doesn’t have a name that can be searched at Louis Vuitton’s website, and there’s no landing page for it that features all the bags.