news incoming! While tabloid headlines cashing in on the star’s latest street-style look centred around her natural hair (why this is still surprising in 2024 is beyond us), anyone with an ounce of fashion knowledge will have zeroed in immediately on Rih’s handbag. A Tippex-white beacon of style history, the graffitied version of Louis Vuitton’s signature ladylike Alma bag comes from early Noughties collaboration that ripped up the playbook around sacred house logos. Nowadays, the collab market is oversaturated as brands try to with expensive unions that hold increasingly impressive cultural caché, but back in 2001, when then-LV creative director Marc Jacobs invited artist friend Stephen Sprouse to quite literally scrawl all over Vuitton’s storied archive, it was positively thrilling.
The shock tactics paid off and marked a new dawn of luxury behemoths relaxing a little and, dare we say, having fun. It was a big call from Jacobs, who, critic , first saw Sprouse’s signature graffiti prints at his inaugural show in 1984 at the Ritz Club. “It was incredible decadence – dark, punky, edgy,” recalls Jacobs.
“The audience was downtown club kids sitting next to and fashion editors. It was the first time that had happened in New York.” Despite being crowned Best New Designer that year by the CFDA, Sprouse’s business model failed and the man who art directed all of Blondie’s early work had faded into relative obscurity by the time Jacobs took the hot seat at L.