If you’re a fashion freak like Lowe and I, you know alllllll about this already so please excuse me but in the excitement of getting this blog together I forgot to post this and its way too important to not have in the archives at least!

stephen sprouse and his famed graffiti print

Remember back in early 2000 when LV popped off and was the hottest thing on the planet.  You could tell by the sheer mass of fakes allllll over the place.  I was knee deep in poli sci readers and my obsession with fashion was in its window shopping stages; I loved it, but not enough to commit to learning the history, the behind the scenes.  So here is a little history on The Stephen Sprouse Marc Jacobs colabo!

Marc Jacobs had recently been hired as Louis Vouitton’s newest Artistic director and wanted to take the line in a new fresh direction.  As fate would have it Jacobs stumbled upon an old Louis trunk that was previously owned by Serge Gainsboug which had been painted black.  Some of the paint had begun to chip off and the iconic LV monogram was showing through.  The idea of taking something classic and respected and defacing it inspired Jacobs to take the line in a new direction.

Jacobs invited Stephen Sprouse, a highly revered fashion designer and artist to Paris in 2001 to work with him for 6 months to help create the S/S collection.  The Sprouse collection sold out in weeks!  Sprouse, highly respected and well reviewed in the fashion world was never really good at the business side of fashion.  Production and management problems plagued Sprouse’s independent career but his work with Jacobs and Vuitton was magical.  This coloabo was the start of a series of celebrated partnerships that were to follow ie Takashi Murakami 2003 monogram multicolore and cherry blossoms.

jacobs got SPROUSED for Harper's Bazar

The only trouble that Jacobs and Sprouse ran into was picking what ideas to present to the world first.  In 2005 Sprouse died at the age of 50 due to heart failure.  Jacobs’ 2007 collection was a tribute to Sprouse he used the leopard print they had created together but had yet to release.  Look out for the Louis Vuitton 2009 collection where Mr Jacobs once again pays homage to his friend and fellow genius.