10 of the Most Kawaii Bags from Louis Vuitton Cruise 2018

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At present, not many are familiar with the name Kansai Yamamoto, but he is the man responsible for some of the most iconic looks of the seventies. Kansai is a designer who pioneered bringing Japanese fashion to western consumers, long before the conception of Comme des Garçons. He showed his first collection in 1971 in London and made his American debut soon after.

Kansai’s designs were novel at the time and quickly propelled him to fame. He worked with David Bowie to make all of the costumes for the late singer’s Ziggy Stardust alter-ego and for his 1973 Aladdin Sane Tour. The most recognizable Kansai creation might be the massive black jumpsuit that the Starman wore in the early ’70s, but the designer had a hand in most of Bowie looks from that era.

Kansai has been missing from fashion’s radar for decades; he has been mostly inactive since the late nineties when he choose to focus on event design. Last night, however, he made a major comeback via the form of a collaboration with Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton Cruise 2018. Kansai sat front row at the show, wearing a bright red suit, and beaming. The 2018 collection was a tribute to Vuitton’s longtime affiliation with Japan and it made its debut on a runway that jutted out of a cliff at Kyoto’s I.M. Pei-designed, Miho Museum.

There were other references in the collection itself to the country’s most iconic films, but the standout looks were those emblazoned with Kansai’s signature graphics, which are representations of Samurai and motifs drawn from Kabuki Theater. When he first entered the world of fashion, the designer would also often use red in his collections, which can be seen frequently in his Vuitton collaboration. Red has deep significance in Japan, symbolizing vitality, power, and the life-force energy that in the west is commonly called the ‘soul’.

Some of our favorite moments in the collection were the super Kawaii (meaning “cute’ in Japanese) bags, bearing imagery designed by Kansai, which we have a hunch will be as coveted as those from previous LV collaborations with Japanese artists Murakami and Kusama.

Scroll through to see ten moments Kansai’s designs made an appearance at Louis Vuitton Cruise 2018 below:

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