The 21st edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which took place last week, featured a special capsule collection from Frank Gehry for Louis Vuitton. The latest in a string of creative product collaborations that have to date included a special fragrance bottle design and the 2014 'Iconoclasts' series contribution offers a “reinterpretation” of the brand’s iconic Capucines bag designed to encapsulate four themes: 'Architecture and Form,' 'Material Exploration,' 'Animals,' and the 'Twisted Box.' 

“It is hard to adjust the existing Capucines shape, which is very strong. We had been working on that design graphically in 2D, and the images that we had made were compelling. I was skeptical that the architectural shape would be strong enough, though,” Gehry explained in Vogue. “The final bag not only got the sculptural feeling that I was looking for, but it also has the graphic quality that we liked.” 

The fluid fish motif Gehry has revisited time and again since the 1980s is included in one of the 'Animals' selections, while the 3D printed Capucines MM Concrete Pockets bag seen in 'Architecture and Form' evokes his design for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which received the prestigious AIA Twenty-Five Year Award earlier this year.

In all, eight handbags and a clutch are part of the capsule release. Other Gehry projects referenced include the IAC Building in New York and the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.

Gehry is also currently working on the renovation of the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Toronto’s Forma residential towers project, and the adaptive reuse design for a new Wolfgang Puck-owned restaurant in Malibu. Another project for Warners Brothers was also recently completed in Los Angeles.