The Longchamp x Toiletpaper collab is supercharged with tongue-in-cheek campness
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LONGCHAMP
WORDS BY MAGGIE ZHOU
“We try to invent, to make life not boring.”
For a second there, fashion got a little too serious. With the rise of ‘quiet luxury’ and the saturation of beige basics à la The Row, it seemed minimalism once again had its hold over fashion. But with the release of LONGCHAMP’s newest collection, faith has been restored.
The capsule collection of 11 inspiringly outlandish pieces injects humour and fun into the luxury landscape. Made in collaboration with the Italian art publication Toiletpaper, the accessories are the ultimate definition of a statement bag.
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LONGCHAMP, the luxury French label dating back to 1948, decided to work alongside the biannual publication founded in 2010 for this limited release. Founders and artists Maurizio and Pierpaolo put their spin on LONGCHAMP’s cult favourite Le Pliage bag, taking iconic French imagery and amping up the playfulness.
“We try to invent, to make life not boring,” Maurizio says. Pierpaolo adds: “We try to use the codes of the contemporary moment, which helps us to surprise people… For this collaboration with LONGCHAMP, we wanted to play with the codes of French icons and of the Maison so that they became alive again. Each image can be seen from multiple different points of view – there isn’t just one message.”
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The hypersaturated collection borrows bold icons such as the baguette, the French bulldog, and LONGCHAMP’s signature sprinting horse and pipe imagery. As is the Toiletpaper way, these motifs have been amplified by tongue-in-cheek design choices, such as a skull where two baguettes form the crossbones, a French bulldog ‘smoking’ a pipe, and two tongues licking an unripened banana.
“At LONGCHAMP, we are always inspired by the intersection of fashion and art,” says Sophie Delafontaine, the label’s Creative Director. “We were really enthused by Toiletpaper’s unique way of combining art, fashion and pop-culture references with a dose of humour. We felt their bold aesthetic and lighthearted approach to life tallied with LONGCHAMP’s colourful vision of optimistic luxury.”
What you see is what you get with this collaboration. The Toiletpaper duo pride themselves on creating hyperreal imagery (Pierpaolo is a photographer himself). The pair say that the five exclusive images created for the LONGCHAMP collaboration were mostly created on set in Milan back in March of this year.
“Me and Maurizio like to be on set because we have the most fun taking real photographs,” Pierpaolo says. “We use post-production every now and again, but mostly what you see is what we shoot.” Yes, that means that a little Frenchie was indeed in their studio, with a pipe in its mouth.
Rest assured, the dog wasn’t harmed (nor did it pick up a nicotine addiction) but Creative Director Sophie received a small surprise when her leather pipes were returned to her after the shoot. The prop, which actually belonged to her grandfather who was the founder of LONGCHAMP, Jean Cassegrain, was now covered in bite marks. “Now, they are works of art,” she laughs.
Explore the collaboration here.
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