It is not unusual to go to a runway show and get the illusion that a design on the runway comes in a particular colour or fabric, just to realise in the showroom that the lights and fast rhythms of the show may have totally deceived you.
Yet, if you thought you had seen screens perfectly integrated in a Louis Vuitton bag spotted on the Cruise 2020 runway, well, that wasn't an illusion at all. The bag - or rather its prototype - actually integrates functioning screens on its side, as shown also on the Instagram feed of Nicolas Ghesquière, artistic director of Louis Vuitton's women's collections (but last week images of the bags from the VivaTech show were a hit on Instagram).
Louis Vuitton showcased last week at VivaTechnology in Paris the "Canvas of the Future" bags: they incorporate flexible screens made with AMOLED technology (the same LED lights employed for some smartphones) and offer a 1920x1440 resolution.
Showing urban images with a futuristic flair about them reminiscent of the Blade Runner architectures, the bags seem to combine science fiction with fashion.
It took more than two years for the Louis Vuitton brand to integrate the technology of Chinese manufacturer Royole (specialized in flexible screens) into the OLED Bento and OLED Speedy bags.
Other tech novelties by the brand included the Keepall bag and LV Trainer sneakers with integrated optical fibres that allow them to change into infinite combinations of dégradé colours (seen on the menswear A/W 2019-20 runway), and the Tambour Horizon watch with new applications that allow to plan trips and even book hotels and get information about a restaurant.
Louis Vuitton also launched at VivaTech a partnership with the Snapchat network that gave visitors the chance to take away a virtual Louis Vuitton product created using a Snapcode that unlocked a digital version of the Keepall bag in augmented reality thanks to a special "Marker Technology" that transformed a 2D image into a 3D one.
Besides, during the event Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault awarded Vadim Rogovskiy, CEO of advanced body scanning technology for mobile devices 3DLook.com, the LVMH Innovation Award 2019, and the French maison also presented its AURA blockchain technology that will soon start controlling the company's supply.
In October 2007, Marc Jacobs, Vuitton's artistic director at the time, took his bow at the end of the Spring 2008 show carrying a case integrating an LED screen broadcasting SpongeBob SquarePants, while on Issey Miyake's S/S 17 runway there were bags created in collaboration with Sony integrating an electronic paper panel (interwoven with leather tape) that generated seven patterns (the same technology of e-book readers), but this is the first time flexible screens are integrated in a fashion accessory.
The themes of transformation, mutability and the future are perfectly combined in these accessories that reunite equal doses of know-how and heritage, and that seem to respond to our collective thirst for constant change.
At the same time the pieces pose some questions: the OLED bags allow indeed for infinite personalisation, as they come with versatile interfaces that interact with the rest of the world. And that's when you wonder if our bags will become advertising boards in future (will companies be able to buy ad spaces on a VIP or an influencer's bag?) or if they will integrate our Instagram feeds or maybe start casually broadcasting to the rest of the world data and images stored in our devices that should instead remain secret.
We don't know yet, but visually speaking this smartphone-bag hybrid struck a chord not just with Louis Vuitton fans, but with many tech heads out there. That said, it will be difficult for ordinary people to get one of these accessories: the first high-tech handbags to go on sale should be the optic fibres ones rather than the OLED screen bags and they will be offered to VIPs only and on order (with estimated prices going from ± €8000 for the Keepall to ± €5000 for the sneakers). So it looks like incredibly futuristic handbags will remain a distant mirage for most of us mere mortals for a long time.
Comments