TORONTO (djc) – Eyeballs and smiling cherry blossoms adorn the most sought-after handbags of 2003 — handbags that are adorning the arms of Hollywood and the financially elite. If you sign up now you could have one in 18 months. It’s been rumoured that even Jennifer Lopez, Louis Vuitton’s new model was on a waiting list. Elizabeth Hurley and Victoria Beckham each own one. They are Louis Vuitton’s “Monogram Multicolore,” “Eye Love” and “Cherry Blossom” monogram bags and accessories created by designer Marc Jacobs (now at the helm of the famed fashion house) with Japanese artist and animator Takashi Murakami.
This vibrantly coloured, very young, pop-art-inspired collection is just one of this year’s examples of collectible fashion. The Murakami bags are also a reflection of high fashion taking on the “poku” movement — which mixes Pop (po) and otaku (ku), the animé-driven Japanese youth culture.
And while fashion will always be part of pop-culture, this kind of blatant mixing of pop-culture icons with highly respected mediums like fine art and fashion couture hasn’t been seen since the 1960s. So it’s quite fitting that Murakami is being referred to as Japan’s version of Andy Warhol.
As Warhol came to be known as the pioneer of American pop art, Murakami has become synonymous with the “poku” movement. Where Murakami juxtaposes a “kawaii” (meaning cute in Japanese) comic-book style with bizarre almost grotesque images of many-eyed toadstools and other psychedelic creatures to create fashion, art and film, Warhol took everyday icons of middle America — objects like Coca-cola, soup cans and Brillo boxes — and made them fine art. Both artists have taken generic, everyday images or styles (for Murakami the familiar style of comic books or animé) and made them into something to be admired and coveted.
Andrew Sardone, designer behind a line of couture handbags called MYOLDPANTS, sees Jacobs’s collaboration with Murakami as the peak of fashion’s obsession with Japanimation. “This is the moment when the aesthetic is arriving at the point furthest away from its beginning—from underground Japanimation to $2000 handbags bought by blue-haired bougie women in the conservative style capitals of the west,” he says.
Charise Mariel Garcia, Assistant Fashion Editor at Fashion Magazine in Toronto says that high fashion is becoming about collector’s items. US Magazine, the entertainment mag turned Hollywood gossip mag, read by everyone too embarrassed to pick up the National Enquirer, put the Murakami bag at the top of a list of purses you must have.
Also, this summer, Reebok took two very recognized elements: their classic sneaker and commercial art, and combined them to create something to be coveted. Producing only 300 pairs of each of six sneaker designs guarantees collectibility. The company collaborated with three artists, a British graphic artist and two artists from Tokyo, one who practices the traditional art of paper cutting and another who specializes in Japanimation.
For Spring/Summer 2003, design duo Richie Rich & Traver Rains, the minds behind label Heatherette collaborated with Japanese company Sanrio to create “Hello Kitty Couture.” Hello Kitty’s popularity with those over 10 years old seems to have been on the rise since Super Model Naomi Campbell began carrying a beaded evening bag in the shape of the chic kitty’s face a couple of years ago. Sanrio has expanded from its meager beginnings as a stationary creator to embellishing t-shirts, alarm clocks and even microwaves with its characters.
And while Hello Kitty has been a household name for years, it wasn’t until about 1996 when Japanimation flooded Saturday morning and weekday afternoon television, with shows like Sailor Moon, that North America became Asia-obsessed. The trend moved from kids and grown-ups in the know and slowly became a part of our vocabulary. Adults really only became interested when it was reported that a Japanimé cartoon show gave kids seizures. The parents, however don’t seem to matter so much these days. Garcia points out that as pop stars and celebrities get younger, so does fashion. “Market-wise, young people have been an untapped resource,” she says. And with celebrities like 17-year-old millionaire sisters the Olsen Twins attending the Oscars and wearing runway rags, high fashion is hitting an all-time low, age-wise.
At the American Idol concert in Toronto this summer, a venue filled with suburban teen girls and their moms, small shoulder bags were everywhere. Worn with jeans and t-shirts that screamed, “I love Clay Aiken,” many of the bags featured colourful LV monograms. Some may have been real but many were probably fake — the colours just a bit off, or the workmanship not nearly up to par. While the money-makers at large firms like Vuitton probably aren’t pleased with accessibility of knock-offs, Murakami has obviously made a huge impression on the international fashion community and beyond. Warhol would be proud.
For more designer clothes and accessories, Louis Vuitton will be opening a new store in Toronto by the end of September this year.
