Louis Vuitton relaunches anniversary Murakami collab, campaign stars Zendaya

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
December 27, 2024

Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with Takashi Murakami made a major impact 20 years ago and the star LVMH brand is celebrating the anniversary with a relaunch fronted by someone who was only eight when the collection originally debuted.

Zendaya stars in the campaign for Louis Vuitton x Murakami, an “extensive re-edition” of the earlier collab with the Japanese contemporary artist.

And ‘extensive’ isn’t an exaggeration with the new offer featuring over 200 pieces from bags to footwear, fragrances and sunglasses.

We’re told it “reunites Louis Vuitton’s unrelenting commitment to creativity, innovation and savoir-faire with Takashi Murakami’s supremely imaginative and colourful artistic universe”.

Meanwhile Zendaya is featured in a series of “exuberant and audacious images created by renowned Dutch photographers, Inez and Vinoodh. The perfect embodiment of the collaboration’s modern energy and creative spirit, Zendaya wears pieces from the collection, while playfully interacting with Takashi Murakami’s fun and fantastical artworks created exclusively for the Louis Vuitton × Murakami re-edition – all framed within a series of epic and evocative cityscapes”.

In the multi-layered collages, Murakami’s Superflat Garden floral motifs, as well as his whimsical Superflat and Superflat Panda characters, “jubilantly spring up in spectacular locations, joining Zendaya on city skylines, amusement-park rollercoasters, historic city bridges, and in lush urban parks. To further express the playful energy of the campaign, the Superflat Garden flowers spill out of the picture frame, while Superflat and Superflat Panda mischievously displace the opening letters of the signature Louis Vuitton logo, the first time the House’s name has ever been physically altered in a campaign”.

Also launching are two short films. This first is a teaser that sees Takashi Murakami send an early 2000s-era, flip-top mobile phone from his hometown in Tokyo to New York, where, as Zendaya flips it open, “the re-edition characters joyfully burst out from the phone’s screen”.

The second is a “vibrant, light-hearted campaign video featuring Zendaya playing and dancing with Superflat Garden flowers, Superflat, and Superflat Panda in the same locations as the print images”.

She wears a range of designs from the collection, including re-edited versions of classic Louis Vuitton bags such as the All In BB, Speedy 25, OnTheGo, Keepall, and Capucines Mini. She’s also seen wearing “kittenish” Monogram Mules, Bandeau silk scarves and brightly coloured belts in Louis Vuitton leather.

The company said the “first chapter” of the Louis Vuitton × Murakami re-edition collection will be available worldwide from 1 January.