Collaboration Is Cool

LV + Koons Masters Collection Da Vinci Mona Lisa Shawl, complete with dualing LV JK monograms and Konns's signature across the middle

LV + Koons Masters Collection Da Vinci Mona Lisa Shawl, complete with dualing LV JK monograms and Konns’s signature across the middle

Yesterday, I stopped by the Louis Vuitton store for an early morning presentation (in association with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston) of the new Masters collection, a collaboration with Jeff Koons. The latest in a string of LV collaborations, beginning with Stephen Sprouse and including Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Yayoi Kusama, Cindy Sherman and The Chapman Brothers among others, this collection is a extension of Koons’s “Gazing Ball” series. Bags and accessories are printed with old Masters paintings, including Titian’s Mars, Venus, and Cupid and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. This collaboration, like those that came before, burnishes the LV brand by association with in demand artists, generates a ton of press and presumably sells product – the ultimate goal.