ENDING THE YEAR ON A HIGH NOTE, LOUIS VUITTON AND TAKASHI MURAKAMI UNVEIL A LIMITED-EDITION, INSTANTLY ICONIC BAG, WHERE POP SURREALISM MEETS MASTERFUL CRAFTSMANSHIP IN EVERY MIRRORED, RESIN-STUDDED DETAIL
BY ARCHANA AITHAL ROSE PHOTO BY RODRIGO CARMUEGA
When artist Takashi Murakami first splashed onto the global art scene, he floated the term Superflat, his manifesto and movement that collapsed the boundaries between high art and consumer culture. Rooted in Japan’s postwar anime and otaku aesthetics, Superflat trans formed cuteness into commentary, elevating pop imagery into a fine-art language all its own. Think Hello Kitty, but as culturally resonant as Pokémon worldwide. Two decades after turning Louis Vuitton’s monogram into a candy-colored fever dream under Marc Jacobs, Murakami returns for Artycapucines VII a museum-worthy reunion in pure technicolor.
Unveiled at Art Basel Paris, Murakami’s 2025 edition turns the maison’s iconic bag into a hallucinatory playground. At the center of the chaos is Mr. DOB, Murakami’s mischievous mascot, part Mickey Mouse, part manga, all pop art trouble, who resurfaces as a kaleidoscopic octopus on the Mini Tentacle. The mirrored Mini Mushroom sprouts over a hundred resin fungi, while hyper-saturated motifs collide, with rainbow flowers, pandas, dragons, and mushrooms all at once. Standouts like the mink furred Rainbow Flower Capucine, the porcelain-like Dragon in Clouds Indigo Blue, and the strass-studded Panda Clutch push luxury into pure surrealism, and the Capubloom Clutch doubles as a gallery-ready sculpture. In Murakami’s universe, Louis Vuitton is not just luxury, it is whimsical, trippy, and gloriously off kilter.
LV x Murakami
