STEPHEN SPROUSE COLLECTION AT LOUIS VUITTON
If there’s one collection that label-lovers had been eagerly anticipating, it was this one. The collaboration between Louis Vuitton and the late Stephen Sprouse hit Vuitton stores earlier this year as a tribute to Sprouse, alongside whom Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs had already worked wih back in 2001. Now, five years after the fashion designer and artist’s untimely death, Jacobs and his design team have created a limited edition tribute collection, paying homage to the signature style of Sprouse.
The latest collection stays true to Spruse’s 1980s, Pop Art-inspired punk influences and features the trademark Day-Glo graffiti and rose prints. The Spring/Summer 2009 capsule collection consists of the Keepall, Speedy and Neverfull bags, trainers, pumps, sunglasses, wristbands, headbands, wallets and purses and also includes ready to wear pieces such as a raincoat with graffiti lining, graffiti leggings and a long sleeve neon dress featuring the rose design, amongst others. Prices range from $175 to $2,555. Agyness Deyn has already been spotted carrying the Speedy bag, which is characterised by the neon graffiti design over the famous monogram Luis Vuitton print.
The new collection is a modified version of the late works of Sprouse, and a natural progression from the sell-out 2001 collection. The idea for a Stephen Sprouse and Louis Vuitton collaboration originated nearly ten years ago, when Marc Jacobs was searching for a new apartment in Paris. He drew unlikely inspiration for the collection from a visit to an apartment owned by Charlotte Gainsbourg. In the bedroom, Jacobs spied a Louis Vuitton trunk which had been painted black. Some of the paint had come away, revealing the monogram underneath. This reminded Jacobs of Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q, a piece of Surrealist artwork centred upon the defacing of the Mona Lisa, painting on a moustache and playing with the words “Elle a chaud au cul”.
What appealed to Jacobs was the notion of taking something iconic and destroying or transforming it to make it into representative of something totally new. The way he chose to do this was by using graffiti. Sprouse was the obvious choice- he had been making a name for himself on the New York street scene by creating eye-catching statement pieces and a powerful aesthetic, as well as dressing the likes of Debbie Harry, Billy Idol and Axel Rose. The items that he produced were a strange yet effective juxtaposition of stereotypically 80s designs and futuristic styles with a punky edge, and at the same time the collection marked the difficult transition from street fashion to high fashion. These were items that were loud, proud and fearless- and designed to get the wearer noticed.
Fast-forward to 2009 and it’s evident that none of this has been lost on the new collection. All of the bold, in-your-face elements are still very present. Jacobs himself has admitted that he has tried to keep the range as close as possible to Sprouse’s original style, even describing the end result as “almost like Luis Vuitton for Sprouse.” From the photographs that have been released of the collection, it is easy to see that Sprouse would have approved of the way Jacobs has stayed true to the original vision. Jacobs himself has even posed naked for pictures shot by Terry Richardson for Harper’s Bazaar, covered in Sprouse artwork and clutching the Speedy bag.
The collection coincides with several projects celebrating the memory of Sprouse, the first of which being “Rock on Mars”, the retrospective exhibition funded by Louis Vuitton and shown in New York by Deitch Gallery at the start of the year. Shown were rarely-seen paintings, Polaroids, sketches, film material, fabric swatches and iconic pieces from his collections, including the 2009 one. This was followed by the release of Roger and Mauricio Padhila’s “The Stephen Sprouse Book”, a coffee table tome packed with pictures of his fashion and art, tributes from those who knew him and archive material. Finally, the recently-launched website www.welovesprouse.com pays tribute to the designer and has videos and information a-plenty, as well as a wall to leave your own comments.
Sprouse has often been described as an “underappreciated visionary”. Hopefully, that’s now going to change.
Words: Kay Weston Images: Louis Vuitton
