Sandra‘s Closet

The GO-14 bag is unique in Louis Vuitton’s history of leather goods. It is the nexus of entwined passions: a designer’s inspiration, a trunk-maker’s secrets, an artisan’s ingenuity… The GO-14 is both a commencement and a culmination.

The GO-14 is an initiatory bag, one of Nicolas Ghesquière’s first designs – hence its coded name: Ghesquière October 2014, the date it first appeared on the runway for the debut of the Women’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton. It is re-emerging in 2023 in full spirit with a unique characteristic: malletage.

The malletage brings in the spirit of historical trunk-making. This refined crisscrossing pattern pads the insides of trunks. The galon trim was a simple ingenuity that kept documents in their place regardless of the twists and turns of travelling.

Nicolas Ghesquière rediscovered this Louis Vuitton innovation and featured it in his first collection, reawakening and revealing this invisible luxury: «There are some universal codes that exist solely in Louis Vuitton. It was about reappropriating and transposing them into a new setting.» Nicolas Ghesquière turned it into a striking signature, a graphic design language for clothes and accessories. A narrative thread.

Today, the GO-14 is a generous, sensual padded lambskin bag. It is covered in this bouncy, infinitely soft malletage with overstitching highlighting the design’s curves and cushiony feel. It comes in every shade, from the starkest black and white to the diluted, nuanced, toasted shades that reveal the subtleties of its texture.

The GO-14 is a versatile bag that can be worn in many different ways to match every woman’s mood: on or over the shoulder with its new jewel chain as supple as a gold necklace; on the arm or handheld, as the chain can also be doubled thanks to a brand new groove system – like two precious commas. Finally, a handle reaffirms the bag’s position as a classic. The GO-14 exudes sophistication at all times.

The GO-14 is a feat of skill and the epitome of thriving heritage. The malletage that pads the bag – ever-evolving since the earliest trunks in a quest for enhancement and ultimate elegance – is a real challenge for artisans. The creative process requires more than 20 different steps, including the utmost meticulousness on the patina to ensure a satin or toasted finish and to perfect the colour’s subtle gradations.

A highly precise technique for depositing the 17-metre-long trim is also needed for the rounded malletage of each GO-14. A more complex savoir- faire than for traditional quilting is also paramount. GO-14’s perfect harmonies resonate with all the expertise of Louis Vuitton’s ateliers. Available from August 25, 2023.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton
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Ten years after its global collaboration, Louis Vuitton launches chapter two of its partnership with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, hitting stores worldwide in January 2023.

Since the creation of Louis Vuitton in 1854, the Maison has nurtured strong ties with the art world, collaborating with a series of artists who have brought their unique vision to Louis Vuitton. These close relationships have produced often radical reworkings of the Maison’s most iconic creations, in the process rewriting the rules of creative collaborations between luxury brands and artists. Yayoi Kusama’s collaboration in 2012 (Part one in July 2012 –  Part two in October 2012) flourished through various universes of the Maison, from exhibitions, products and a series of unique window installations, which included a startingly life-like mannequin modelled after the artist herself.

Finale at the Louis Vuitton Cruise 2023 show in San Diego and some detail shots:

Yayoi Kusama, born in March 1929, is an avant-garde artist whose perspective is expressed through myriad techniques from sculpture, painting, installation, filmmaking, photography, and happening, to writing in a variety of styles. She is regarded as a precursor to Pop and Minimal art, yet her diverse art practices resist any singular classification. Yayoi Kusama’s artworks originated from hallucinations such as where the red flower patterns on a dining table’s tablecloth started to spread across the walls, floor, and even across herself…She has been battling her inner fears and obsessions and pursuing the mysteries of life by depicting the hallucinations she has experienced since her childhood. Please click here for a post about her retrospective in Berlin last year.

Look 51 Louis Vuitton Cruise 2023

As a celebration of the Maison’s relationship with the artist and to mark the 10-year anniversary of the first collaboration, a handful of leather goods were premiered during Artistic Director of Women’s Collections Nicolas Ghesquière’s Cruise 2023 fashion show at the Salk Institute in San Diego. These exclusive bags feature a reinterpretation of the artist’s obsessive dots across Louis Vuitton signature shapes as well as on new models. A true first taste of a transversal collaboration that, come January 2023, will radiate through all Maison categories.

More information will be disclosed at a later date.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton
DISCLOSURE: We may earn commission from links on this page, but I only recommend products I love. Promise.

On the heels of the grand-ball-inspired S/S 2022 collection by Nicolas Ghesquière, this season’s footwear embodies the encounter between avant-garde and the unique heritage of a Maison that transcends the ages. A new emblematic style, the Moonlight is a modern ankle boot that blends comfort with design.The model experiments with a combination of materials, from bright satin to luxurious patent leather. Whether textured black, emerald green, royal blue or graphic polka-dot print, the colours compliment any daring style or look.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton
DISCLOSURE: We may earn commission from links on this page, but I only recommend products I love. Promise.

Here’s my first dose of Louis Vuitton‘s Vuittamins, photographed in Paris during Fashion Week. For Pre-fall 2021, Nicolas Ghesquière created an upbeat and optimistic collection in my favorite color-saturated hues of pink and purple that I couldn’t resist. More to come…

My Look: Vuittamins two-colored sweater, Vuittamins pencil skirt in jacquard Monogram, and Vuittamins utility crossbody bag, all by Louis Vuitton (Pre-fall 2021), lace-up booties with logo buckle, and choker, both by CHANEL (F/W 2021).

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht / Nadia Krawiecka
DISCLOSURE: We may earn commission from links on this page, but I only recommend products I love. Promise.

With several high-end audio products already under its belt, Louis Vuitton now adds a portable speaker to its range of connected products. Seamlessly combining tradition and innovation, the Louis Vuitton Horizon Light Up speaker is an example of unique design and genuine craftsmanship.

Through superior sound quality and cutting-edge technology, it really comes into its own through the Maison’s unconventional approach to creating beauty in an everyday object. Not only does the speaker provide the ultimate audio-visual experience, it also represents the House’s skill in turning a utilitarian item into a work of art. With creativity running through every strand of Louis Vuitton, the Horizon Light Up speaker is no exception. Challenging perceptions of how objects should look and feel, as well as what is possible in terms of design, the speaker takes on a form that is unique in the audio market with inspiration coming from the Toupie (‘Spinning Top’) handbag, designed by the brand’s Artistic Director of Women’s collections Nicolas Ghesquière. Just as the Toupie rewrote the rule book for evening bags, the Louis Vuitton Horizon Light Up speaker aims to reinvent the world of portable speakers.

Bound in noble leather and with metal components, the speaker boasts the House’s emblematic signatures. Only when the device is switched on does its purpose become obvious in an explosion of sound, light and movement. As the covered woofer vibrates like a heartbeat, a dynamic light show synchronises to the beat with a colourful digital interpretation of Louis Vuitton’s iconic Monogram flower. A top ring with LED backlighting provides three different animations in seven carefully selected, graduated colourways. A concave, steel middle band features the cut-out letters ‘L-O-U-I-S-V-U-I-T-T-O-N’ that glow in colours to match the dancing top ring.

Elegant and discreet, the speaker can be used inside and out, and is equally at home in the living room, office or garden, on a country retreat, a city break, or at a beach club party. The unconventional shape offers myriad acoustic benefits. When sitting on its dock, the sound is played at 360 degrees, but by placing the speaker on its side, music can be sent in a specific direction. At the top of the speaker, a leather strap is attached, a unique element that is as fashionable as it is freeing. Beautiful and compact enough to be carried as an accessory, either with or without its protective pouch, the speaker is truly portable, a perfect representation of Louis Vuitton’s Spirit of Travel.

The Louis Vuitton Horizon Light Up speaker weighs approximately 1kg and measures a mere 18cm in diameter – a remarkable feat of engineering that involved housing the highest quality acoustic components in a diminutive and complex case to deliver a unique audio experience.

With all the convenience of wireless connectivity through Bluetooth®, the speaker is also compatible with Apple AirPlay® 2, and Qplay via Wi-Fi. It can be charged via USB-C (through the speaker or dock), with a full charge providing up to 15 hours of playtime. Depending on the occasion, it can also be paired or grouped in larger numbers to accommodate bigger spaces and multiple rooms.

A dedicated Louis Vuitton Connect app controls all of the speaker’s functions including colour combinations, animation sequences and mono or multiroom set-up to be operated via a smartphone.

Living up to all of the House’s promises, the beautiful, practical and covetable Louis Vuitton Horizon Light Up speaker will be a welcome addition to any lifestyle occasion. Fated to be a future icon, it is sure to become the ultimate accessory for those who appreciate high-quality acoustics and ultimate craftsmanship, as well as for the contemporary traveller.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton
The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. AirPlay is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

This week, Nicolas Ghesquière sent the models mingling with ancient Roman, Greek, and Etruscan sculptures to the tunes of Daft Punk’s mega-hit «Around the World» down the Louvre’s Denon wing for his Louis Vuitton F/W 2021 show without an audience due to the current pandemic.

The press release stated: «There’s no need to venture far to create the impression of traveling. It’s enough to reach far back… to the Golden Age, or Age of Enlightenment, eras that forged the essence of our civilization. Everything is expressed so purely in Greco-Roman antiquity, the acme of an aesthetic whose primacy is uncontested. More than a journey, Louis Vuitton embarks on an odyssey with a F/W 2021 collection that incorporates fabulous drawings by Fornasetti, the delicate, fanciful engravings of an enduring era. His imaginative strokes explore, illustrate and impart style. It’s also a story of conquest — of body, heart and mind — in which humankind takes centre stage, in all its functional elegance, intellectual dominance, and earthly seduction. The astonishment of age-old principles endures and continues to guide us, such as contrapposto, a stance that first appeared in the 6th century BC and lent statues a dynamic allure, which countless couture poses have reprised since and still denotes a certain stylistic tension in fashion.»

I absolutely loved how Louis Vuitton’s Artistic Director of Women’s collections Nicolas Ghesquière has explored the unique creative world of renowned Italian artistic design atelier Fornasetti for the Maison’s F/W 2021 collection. The multifaceted collection showcases Fornasetti’s iconic hand-drawn imagery that has enchanted art and design lovers since Piero founded his atelier in 1940.

The collaboration begins with Nicolas Ghesquière’s F/W 2021 collection which integrates Fornasetti’s distinct visual universe into multiple designs. Unveiled in the spectacular setting of the Michelangelo and Daru Galleries in the Louvre, the collection with its Fornasetti images of antiquity builds a time-travelling aesthetic and creative dialogue with the museum’s remarkable array of Greek, Etruscan and Roman sculpture.

The collaborative designs in the F/W 2021 collection feature specific Fornasetti themes and artworks, selected by Nicolas Ghesquière in dialogue with Barnaba Fornasetti, the Artistic Director of the Fornasetti atelier, and their teams, from the 13,000-piece Fornasetti archive in Milan. These clothes and accessories use a rich combination of colours, textures and traditional, cutting-edge techniques including jacquard, embroidery and laser printing, intertwining Fornasetti’s exquisitely illustrated world with Nicolas Ghesquière’s strikingly contemporary design.

Highlights include velvet dresses, shiny printed jersey tops upon which Fornasetti drawings of ancient statues are overlaid on high-tech thermal-camera imagery, as well as fleece hooded jackets and tailoring pieces. Oversize outerwear pieces feature Fornasetti print both in a stamp inspired coloured version and, in a gold, coated version.

The show collection will be followed by a wider Louis Vuitton-Fornasetti capsule collection to be launched at a later date featuring a broader selection of Louis Vuitton products that draw on Fornasetti motifs, such as buildings, locks, keys and portraits. These include a captivating version of the Cannes bag in transformed leather, beautifully embellished with a Fornasetti black-and-white architectural drawing and reminiscent of the Renaissance-era Baptistery in Florence, and a reworked Petite Malle that seems to have been inflated and covered with a dome printed metallic leather, creating a striking optical illusion.

«With this collaboration, I wanted to use the pieces to evoke the continuing modernity of Fornasetti’s artistic world,» says Nicolas Ghesquière. «Fornasetti’s enduring body of work is the realisation of a remarkable hand-drawn technique and magical take on the world, and I am particularly drawn to the way Fornasetti re-explored and reworked the heritage of classicism and ancient Rome, adding new references to historical imagery. As a designer who has always loved fashion’s ability to evoke the past, present and future simultaneously, I wanted to add new layers to this creative palimpsest. Exploring the Fornasetti archives had the excitement of an archaeological dig, searching for and finding drawings from the past to give them a new life for Louis Vuitton – for now and the future.»

«My father was an innovator who believed in the handmade, just like Louis Vuitton,» says Barnaba Fornasetti, son of Piero Fornasetti, and the brand’s artistic director. «Our vision has always been to bring Fornasetti’s unique artistic imagination to people through beautifully crafted objects, and this rewarding collaboration represents a new opportunity to expand and explore its visual creativity.»

In all its facets, the Louis Vuitton-Fornasetti collaboration embodies the two Houses’ shared sense of experimental traditionalism: an effective blend of Louis Vuitton’s forward-looking creativity and craft and Fornasetti’s magical and visionary depiction of the world.

Personally speaking, I absolutely love it! Finally, a collection with creativity behind it. Something that has been missing lately…

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton
DISCLOSURE: This post is NOT sponsored. I am just loving it!

The aptly named Coussin is the latest addition to Louis Vuitton’s S/S 2021 collection, a bag born of Artistic Director of Women’s collections Nicolas Ghesquière’s reflections on the stylistic space between the feminine and the masculine – a sensitive zone that erases gender.

What could be called neutrality or gender fluidity evokes a whole arena of expression, creating its own character. The Coussin alternates between several feelings and attitudes. A comfortable and supple bag in the softest of lambskins, the Coussin has the familiar feel of a good friend with its multiple quilted compartments protecting one’s most precious belongings. Its ambiguity lies in its incisive colours, ranging from metallic tones to radical shades, along with its removable chain with its strong, geometric design.

The Coussin effortlessly combines elegance and personality, whether worn crossbody, over the shoulder or in the crook of one’s arm, taking stylistic freedom to new heights.

Personally speaking, I truly like it, especially in green and silver. It is impressive how Bottega Veneta’s chain designs for bags have inspired so many other collections…

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton

On December 2nd, I was invited by Net-à-Porter to join a live event hosted by Alison Loehnis, President of NET-A-PORTER and MR PORTER and Natacha Ramsay-Levi, Creative Director of Chloé to discuss the S/S 2021 collection. I was so keen on it and hoped to make it on time as the moving company was still unloading my boxes. However, all of a sudden I received a message in the morning of the 2nd that due to Natacha Ramsay-Levi being unwell, Net-à-Porter was regrettably cancelling the event with Chloé. Today, I found out why Natacha was not feeling well.

She is stepping down from her role at the Parisian luxury leather goods and apparel brand owned by Richemont after only 4 years. A new creative director was not named yet.

«Over the last months of health, social and economic turmoil, I have thought about the changes I want to see in our industry and how to better align them with my own creative, intellectual and emotional values,» Ms. Ramsay-Levi said in her statement. «It is this reflection that makes me consider my future differently and desire to pursue new opportunities.»

Me wearing some of Natacha’s key looks for Chloé

Personally speaking, I truly liked Natacha’s vision, who worked as a key deputy of Nicolas Ghesquière during his time at Balenciaga and during his early seasons at Louis Vuitton, as it was a less commercial take on the house’s bohemian and very feminine codes. However, what had been driving the most sales at Chloé previously, were all the It-bags under previous designers like Clare Waight Keller and Hannah MacGibbon, that have been lacking recently. Even that the collections were broadly well received by fashion lovers, they were ultimately lacking in strong-selling items unfortunately. Sometimes, it drives me nuts that people don’t understand the greatness of some pieces and that they opt for mainstream.

TO SHOP THE CHLOÉ F/W 2020 COLLECTION, CLICK HERE PLEASE.

LoL, Sandra

Chloé F/W 2020 finale

Photos: © Chloé and © Sandra Bauknecht
DISCLOSURE: We may earn commission from links on this page, but I only recommend products I love. Promise.

Fashion is a game. Presented during Louis Vuitton’s Cruise 2021 Collection by Artistic Director of Women’s Collections Nicolas Ghesquière, Game On sees creative freedom playing with canvas and lines mingling between the Monogram flowers and four suits of a card deck. French actor and Louis Vuitton ambassador Léa Seydoux embodies this new collection and jumps into a fantasy illusion where clubs bloom, spades pierce, diamonds sparkle, and the almighty heart reigns. Through a transversal collection, Game On plays its ace on the House’s most iconic pieces including leather goods, ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories.

Game On Canvas sees the Monogram reinterpreted on a black or white background with contrasting colours of bright blue and poppy red – a tiny heart replaces the House’s signature blossom. Here, the Petite Malle and Vanity PM in black and white make for an eye-catching statement. The geometric Square bag in white leather with a golden chain ups the ante.

The Dauphine, Speedy, Neverfull, and Keepall in Game On Monogram are adorned with enlarged suits of cards, giant hearts and blossoms in vivid red, blue, pink and purple, paired with golden hardware. A pair of Archlight trainers in white with leather trimmings sport a bright red heart, perfect to pair with the Paname bags duo. The queen of hearts, the Monogram Heart bag, stands true to its name as the first ever heart shaped bag. Raising the stakes, Capucines BB in white Taurillon leather and the Twist in white Epi leather complete this game of illusion.

My three favorites: Dauphine, Speedy and the Archlight trainers.

A royal flush, the collection expresses a particular art of living that keeps the trunk-making heritage alive. It’s the symbolism of a deck of cards, the traveller’s loyal companion, endless entertainment that cultivates togetherness. Game On is a lighthearted adventure in which all of the House’s spheres of expertise play a role, driven by passionate craftsmanship, their winning hand.

Already available in selected Louis Vuitton stores worldwide.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton reveals its F/W 2020 campaign directed and photographed by Nicolas Ghesquière, Artistic Director of Women’s Collections and I am loving the pieces.
Representing total creative investment in a very personal collection, the campaign expresses contemporary freedom and the pure pleasure of clothing that is open to all manner of audacity.

To photograph this campaign, Nicolas Ghesquière invited Louis Vuitton’s friends and family to his photography studio, a creative laboratory on the Quai Voltaire in Paris: among them were close friends whose personality inspires him, kindred spirits, and favourite faces. Celebrity friends, beloved models, astonishing artists and athletes include Léa Seydoux, Marina Foïs, Noémie Merlant, Akon Changkou, Stacy Martin, Dina Asher-Smith, Lous and the Yakuza and Sora Choi. In all, 20 personalities he wished to represent in their essence. The same holds true of the House’s iconic bags that accompany this stylistic exercise — the Capucines, the Twist, the Pont 9 and the Dauphine.

With the same candor, Nicolas Ghesquière incorporates the new line «SINCE 1854.»
A precious jacquard inscribed with a fundamental date, 1854, sprinkled among Monogram flowers in a nod to the year the House was created. Already iconic, this Monogram distills the Louis Vuitton spirit on timeless pieces such as the Dauphine, the Neverfull and the Petit Noé. The signature «SINCE 1854» also figures on a wardrobe of essentials and accessories.

Says Nicolas Ghesquière of the campaign, «I thought it would be interesting to extend my work to photography, to follow through to the end of the creative process and give the collection its final punctuation. In this portrait gallery, everyone is there for my own personal reasons, and I liked discovering new connections with people I knew already. I also wanted to bring unity to different aspects of the House, a circular vision of what happens here. To give a timeless aspect to creations that are very anchored in the season. For me, moving into photography came from a desire to reflect the feeling we share when we’re working on a collection.»

The campaign will be unveiled in September 2020 publications worldwide.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Louis Vuitton