Zaha Hadid’s Interpretation of a LV Bag

Going on a nostalgia drive, Scale remembers the Louis Vuitton bucket bag designed by Zaha Hadid.

Taking us back to a design exercise of 2006, we look at how fashion has constantly instigated the legendary Zaha Hadid to experiment. Conceptually, the studio’s reinterpretation of the iconic LV Bucket Bag began with a reflection on its essential function as a container. This gave rise to a series of physical interventions – extruding, distorting, peeling and slicing materials to create a new family of hybrid typologies, with the pochette, clutch and bucket. While bags tend to be seen in isolation, the formal language of repetition in both these new hybrid forms and the LV brand suggested a clustered arrangement. The design explores this possibility by offering interchangeable parts, which can be played with, rearranged and combined to suit different occasions.

But then as always Zaha Hadid went beyond and designed a chair to seat the bag. The Icone’s commission reinterpreted the classic collection of Louis Vuitton bags, using a combination of formal manipulations and innovative materials to create a new series of dynamic, hybrid editions. Grouping these objects within an exhibition space was an opportunity to further explore the relationship between container and contained, structure and void, to devise new seating forms. Like the bags, each sculptural Eolia seat is interchangeable within a wider composition, triggering a playful, interactive relationship with the user.

Picture Credit: Werner Huthmacher