Louis Vuitton may have pioneered the idea, but now handbags designers collaborating with high-profile artists is all the rage. Everyone from Dior to Coach has given it a shot, and in the case of Coach, it seems as though the company has judged such collaborations to be a roaring success. Fresh off of a much-loved menswear teamup with Hugo Guinness, the American handbag company has tapped New York artist James Nares to lend his prints to a collection of totes that will debut a week from today.

Coach x James Nares will feature the artist’s signature waves, which he paints on huge canvasses while hanging from a harness above them. Coach has translated those pieces into a set of six tote bags, each of which will be made in limited editions of 175. The leather-trimmed canvas totes will retail for $798 when they hit Coach stores and Coach.com on April 20. Check with your local store to see if they’ll be receiving pieces from the collection, or better yet, sign up for notification of the bags’ arrival at Coach.com. More images of the collection after the jump. (more…)

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. (more…)

Images via WWD

Women’s Wear Daily has announced that Christian Dior will team up with Berlin contemporary art star Anselm Reyle for a line of accessories, handbags and makeup just in time for Miami’s Art Basel. I’m pretty sure that it cost me a hundred bucks just to write that sentence. In all seriousness, though, perhaps Reyle’s thoroughly modern take on these bags and small leather goods is an indication that LVMH is done being so precious with the Dior aesthetic? (more…)