These Louis Vuitton Bags Designed By Frank Gehry Will Upgrade Any Airport Outfit

08.12.2023 - 19:01 / cntraveler.com / Art Basel / Lewis Carroll / Frank Gehry / Louis Vuitton / Louis

What do some of the most iconic pieces of architecture in the world—say, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Dancing House in Prague, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao—all have in common? Two words: Frank Gehry.

Over the course of his 65-year career, the Canadian-born American architect and designer has created truly memorable buildings, immediately recognizable by his trademark swerves and curved façades. Many of his masterpieces are travel destinations in and of themselves. One such example: the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne, with its 12 glass “sails” that give the impression of a larger-than-life institution sailing into the future.

It’s only apt, then, that the fashion house recently unveiled the Louis Vuitton x Frank Gehry collection at Art Basel Miami Beach, a celebration of the architect’s enduring artistic collaboration with the label—meaning you can now carry a piece of Gehry’s craft and creativity with you wherever you go.

The instantly-recognizable Louis Vuitton Capucines bags are getting a Gehry twist, thanks to a collaboration between the fashion house and the architect.

Most of the pieces are creative twists on Vuitton’s signature Capucines bags, and all of them exude the architect’s style and playfulness. Take a striking 3D screen-printing technique, for example, that gives calfskin the look of a Gehry building’s cement exterior. Or the truly impressive marquetry that works pieces of red leather into the shape of a fish. After all, such is to be expected from the man who designed the Olympic Fish Pavilion in Barcelona and the sculpture called Fish Dance in Kobe, Japan.

Two iconic design elements—the Louis Vuitton Monogram and Gehry's signature sweeping lines—come together in this striking yet subdued handbag from the limited-edition collection.

Another standout from the collection: a pitch-black baguette rendered in a classically Gehry shape—a sort of tipsy parallelogram—sporting the Louis Vuitton Monogram, first designed in 1896 by Georges Vuitton in memory of his late father, the founder of the maison.

In addition to the presentation of the Louis Vuitton x Frank Gehry collection, the Vuitton booth at Art Basel showcases pieces Gehry created in collaboration with the label to commemorate their shared history. On display are Gehry’s preparatory sketches and architectural models, some for the Fondation Louis Vuitton; luggage trunks, among them the “A Tea Party for Louis” trunk, based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; and perfume bottles with fabulous stoppers handcrafted in Murano, an island in Venice famous for its glass-making history. It's a tribute to themes dear to both Gehry and the house of Vuitton: elegant design, good