The Singapore concept store presents a collaboration between the luxury brand and Japanese artist in all its otherworldly glory. Rachel Lee-Leong reports.
August 16th, 2012
The Louis Vuitton store interior on the second floor of Takashimaya Shopping Centre that once bore only shades of cream, brown and beige is now an explosion of red polka dots and giant nerve sculptures. Not your usual luxury brand store experience, the store is disorienting and slightly disconcerting to say the least. In this, the design of the concept store is a success. This sense of displacement is, after all, what Yayoi Kusama explores in many of her artworks and tries to convey to her audience.
Kusama, one of today’s most prolific figures in modern art, paired up with Louis Vuitton for one of the most extensive collaborations the brand has had to date. It includes a full collection consisting of ready-to-wear, leather goods, accessories and book editions. The brand also worked with Kusama to create concept stores in cities like Singapore, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, London and Tokyo, as well as dress all 455 Louis Vuitton store windows globally.
Kusama lives in an otherworldly parallel universe. It’s not quite a figure of speech. As a young child, she had a hallucination where the red flower patterns on the tablecloth in the dining room spread across the entire room – walls, floor and herself included.
Though highly disturbing, that incident was crucial in making Kusama one of the world’s most prolific contemporary artists of today – never mind the fact that she is currently committed in a mental asylum but goes to her studio nearby every day to work on her art. The disorientation she felt in that episode is what she tries to convey in many of her works.
Louis Vuitton’s relationship with art is possibly one of the most closely knit in the fashion world. While its dalliance with the art world trails from over 150 years ago, it was in 1997 when Marc Jacobs came in as artistic director that modern art was put front and centre in the many of the brand’s most iconic collections through collaborations with artists like Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince.
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Channelling the enchanting ambience of the Caffè Greco in Rome, Budapest’s historic Gerbeaud, and Grossi Florentino in Melbourne, Ross Didier’s new collection evokes the designer’s affinity for café experience, while delivering refined seating for contemporary hospitality interiors.
In the pursuit of an uplifting synergy between the inner world and the surrounding environment, internationally acclaimed Interior Architect and Designer Lorena Gaxiola transform the vibration of the auspicious number ‘8’ into mesmerising artistry alongside the Feltex design team, brought to you by GH Commercial.
Savage Design’s approach to understanding the relationship between design concepts and user experience, particularly with metalwork, transcends traditional boundaries, blending timeless craftsmanship with digital innovation to create enduring elegance in objects, furnishings, and door furniture.
Award winning architect James Stockwell has been confirmed for the Rick Joy Blue Mountains Masterclass from 10-16 March 2012. Joining Rick Joy (Arizona), Peter Stutchbury, Richard Leplastrier and Lindsay Johnston will be award winning architect James Stockwell, one of the interesting mid-career practising architects booked to do the residential Master Class at Jemby Rinjah Lodge, […]
Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) is well known on the Melbourne and international architectural scene, and it was time for them to have a new home.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
From a modular armchair and statement lighting, to a table crafted from coffee waste and reissued classics, these are the best new products to launch at this year’s Milan Design Week.
An entry by MuseLAB, in The Retail Space in the 2024 INDE.Awards, takes shoppers to another planet where diamonds and great interior design make a lasting impression.