Artycapucines reaches its third edition and unveils the new protagonists of the most beloved timeless icon of the Vuitton house, the Capucines. Artycapucines is in fact the collection dedicated to the Maison’s bag, which mixes creativity of art and timeless know-how, inviting six internationally renowned contemporary artists to redesign the Capucines bag, providing new and unprecedented interpretations each time.
The Capucines, like a true icon, is reinvented from time to time, taking on new shapes and colors without ever losing its timeless charm. The six new models perfectly combine the aesthetic sensibility of the artists who interpreted it with the savoir-faire and ingenuity of the Louis Vuitton master craftsmen.
But what are the Artycapucines that will make us lose our heads this year?
Gregor Hildebrandt Capucines
Gregor Hildebrandt’s Capucines elevates the artist’s love for vinyl records and his rip-off technique to an accessory. In fact, in his artistic creations Hildebrandt uses the magnetic powder of the recording tape to create striking black and white images. The result is meticulously screen-printed on the white leather of the bag in a black and white “positive” version on the front and the “negative” image on the back. The LV signature in gunmetal black is inlaid with real vinyl records, while the base of the bag and thin strap are crafted from textured patent leather reminiscent of the dark sheen of VHS tape that Hildebrandt often uses in his works. To complete the whole, the metal rings and their studs, as well as the hooks of the strap, strictly in gunmetal color.
Donna Huanca Capucines
Donna Huanca’s Capucines is inspired by Cara de Fuego and MuyalJol, two paintings that carry on the artist’s research on the interaction of painting with the female body. The two artworks and their paint-based tactile effects are painstakingly 3D printed onto the bag’s white leather, along with three different embroidery techniques, including the densely filled dot loop, which are employed to intensify specific sections of the design. . The layering of the paint strokes together with the piercing-shaped metal circles define its new and unconventional character.
Paola Pivi Capucines
Paola Pivi’s Capucines plays with reality, altering dimensions and positions, using objects in new and unprecedented ways. The artist challenges the public to see and consider the world in a new way by placing an investigation of animals and their representation at the center of this sometimes disorienting and often playful reworking. For Artycapucines, Paola Pivi is inspired by her 2007 work One Cup of Cappuccino Then I Go. create a fur-like appearance. Each remaining part of the image was then expertly inserted separately into the leather structure of the bag, including the more than 30 porcelain-effect paint cups and saucers and the frothy tops of the cappuccinos, made of delicate gold-colored lambskin made with real gold leaf. ‘gold. The Pivi design also includes two comfortable safari-inspired pockets on the front, a first for the Capucines bag, with shiny metal snaps engraved with the Louis Vuitton name. The metal rings attached to the smooth white leather handle have white lacquered inserts that act as a frame to show the sheer majesty of the leopard.
Zeng Fanzhi Capucines
Zeng Fanzhi’s Capucines is based on a dramatic reinterpretation of a self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh that he originally created in 2017. The complex process of transferring this vivid and highly painterly image onto the surface of the bag’s leather began by creating a pattern that has it required the meticulous work of 3 highly skilled craftsmen and 10 days for its completion, so that a wide variety of embroidery techniques could be employed, including tufting of chenille yarns. The tactile and tactile 3D surface faithfully reproduces Zeng’s dense and sophisticated brushstrokes and the exuberant layering of the paint in threads of 42 different colors and over 700,000 embroidery stitches.
Huang Yuxing Capucines
Huang Yuxing’s Capucines is based on a specially reworked version of his 2019 painting The Colossus Hidden Deep in the Hills. The stylized landscape outline of this new image, including the oval shape which is a signature of Huang, is first printed on gray-white leather and then embroidered with gray thread to add a sense of perspective. The rainbow-like mountains that cross the foreground are created using different depths of quilted embroidery to give texture and a tangible sense of movement to the design. The accidental drips of paint, another characteristic element of Huang’s images, are reproduced and enhanced through the thickly filled metallic thread bouclette stitch embroidery, which is woven into the tufting. The smaller sized Capucines BB, fitting the exuberant palette of his work, features a handcrafted metal LV signature, inlaid with brightly colored enamel and delicately rounded mirroring the flowing rainbow of the embroidery.
Vik Muniz Capucines
Inspired by his 2019 series Almost Everything, delicate arrangements of small and fragile cut-out paper objects, Vik Muniz’s Capucines size BB captivates with its playful appearance, wonderful structural layering and exuberant trompe l’oeil effects. The 154 fun and bright icons that characterize each bag, from a teapot to pineapple, to an elephant and finally to the Louis Vuitton Monogram flower, are randomly placed on the white leather. Some are added using embossed inkjet printing, while others are embroidered using inlay techniques and made with Heritage leather reclaimed from the Louis Vuitton workshops, an approach in line with Muniz’s ecologically responsible artistic practice.