Louis Vuitton ––– Redesigning the iconic bag with the use of sensorial design, to generate a more intimate connection with the owner.
01. THE PROBLEM
Louis Vuitton wanted the iconic and premium bags to be redesigned as special project. The brief was very open to allow freedom and unexpected outcomes.
As travel is fundamental and a defying value of Louis Vuitton Heritage, I thought that it is also, however, much more than a physical act: it’s an emotional, self discovery and challenging experience.
How the experience of traveling get fixed in our memories? And, in particular, which senses are involved in capturing these moments in our lives? Are we aware of them?
02. THE SPECIFIC SOLUTION
Sound is the most powerful sense that dominates an experience, even if we don’t realise it. The hearing sense is linked with our emotions and it has the power of determining the character of a visual impression.
Travel memories becomes very vivid when a specific sound reaches me: the sound of locking the door a couple of times before leaving the house, a train that leaves the station, the sound of a closing luggage, the metallic voice of an airport announcement…
Can a bag become an embedded sound woven in our memory?
I wanted to design bags that were beautiful in their visual development and also stimulates and connects with us through other senses: touch and sound mostly. How can I emphasise travel sound’s memories that builds our lives?
I have based my research and experimentations for this project on the sound-machine and the interesting cut out patterns that produces melodies, alongside artworks that were stimulating both the sense of touch and a sense of movement in textures and construction.
I selected thickly woven, sleek and surface rich fabrics to focus on touch’s stimulation while also designed textile manipulation that recreated the idea of movement and played with the usual logo patterns by subtracting it. For the fastening system I sourced metallic closures that recreate a distinctive sound so that they could hold presence even without clearly ‘seeing them”.
03. THE OUTCOME
A range of bags were looked at and designed for different moment and occasions: from an everyday shopping bags to bags to wear as a jewellery piece on arms. I developed more functional bags for the iconic line, studying utilitarian details to be connected with the main concept of focusing on sounds and tactility while for the premium bags I wanted to push more the idea of almost a wearable artwork. Design has the strenght to be embedded in different ways and can determine the quality of a moment and memory of it.
