Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Louis Vuitton Goes a Bit Dotty with Japanese Icon Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama Retrospective@ Whitney Museum of American Art
Louis Vuitton has gained recognition as a watch company to be reckoned with, rather than just another fashion house dabbling in fashion watches. Its parent group LMVH is the owner of  Zenith, Tag Heuer, and Hublot.

 Its latest ladies line of watches -  Louis Vuitton Tambour Yayoi Kusama watch collection - features the work of iconic 88 year old Japanese artist  and writer Yayoi Kusama.  Yayoi Kusama is best known for her dazzling "dotwork".  Her dots have donned the surfaces of clothing, stones, walls, furniture,  books ... actually everything ,including vague sort of shapes, that can be dotty. Yayoi Kusama often becomes artist and art submersing  herself within the image.

Louis Vuitton Yayoi Kusama
  Louis Vuitton is a huge fan of Yayoi Kusama. In fact Louis Vuitton was the principle supporter of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Tate Modern.  Louis Vuitton admiration for Yayoi Kusama has become a collaboration. Dots now appear on a line of clothing, bags and other dotty accessories including the highly popular Tambour wristwatch. The steel 28 mm Tambour wristwatch  features a jolly red face featuring frolicking white dots.  Round diamonds on the inner wall of the elevated bezel surround the dotty goings on and lend an hourly indication of the time.   The crown is capped with a round red  cabochon. The watch is powered by a quartz movement (most of Louis Vuitton Ladies watches are quartz movements).  The band ,as you can see, sports dots of its own upon a perfectly matching red patent leather and embossed by the Louis Vuitton logo.  The case back is engraved with  its own steely dots and the signature of Yayoi Kusama.
The watches are limited to a mere 188 pieces and destined to become collectors items. 

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