SS08 Louis Vuitton x Richard Prince Man Crazy Jokes Bag

Part artwork, part handbag. Louis Vuitton x Richard Prince collaboration from Spring/Summer 2008, one of the most daring moments of the Marc Jacobs era.

During his sixteen years as Creative Director (1997–2013), Marc Jacobs made a habit of handing the Louis Vuitton Monogram to artists. Stephen Sprouse scrawled graffiti over it in 2001 and Takashi Murakami recoloured it in 2003. For Spring/Summer 2008 he turned to Richard Prince, the American artist known for appropriation and for rephotographing and repainting imagery taken from pop culture.

Jacobs built the whole Paris show around Prince's work. Models came out as the masked nurses from Prince's celebrated Nurse paintings, in sheer uniforms and nurse's caps, carrying bags that looked as if Prince had taken them into his studio. The canvas was washed out, over-dyed and faded into ombré gradients, the way Prince treats his paintings. Across it he printed lines from his Jokes , the deadpan one-liners he has painted since the mid-1980s.

The Man Crazy is the collection's structured doctor's-bag silhouette. This one is in the Rouge colourway: acid-washed Monogram canvas that fades from dusty rose through to deep plum-brown, with Prince's joke text printed in burgundy across the front and sides. Signature details include:

Snakeskin trim, piping and rolled top handles in mottled burgundy and black
Mismatched gold- and silver-toned handle rings, a deliberately off-kilter touch from the collection
Two zipped compartments with tan leather zip-tab belts and brass buckles
Louis Vuitton-stamped rivets and a snake zip pull
Soft sand-coloured microfibre lining with slip pockets
Made in France

Produced in limited numbers and sold out almost straight away in 2008, the Man Crazy rarely comes up for sale today. It's a real piece of fashion and art history, and a bag that looks like nothing else you'll see.