Just when you thought Louis Vuitton had reached the pinnacle of sartorial elegance, one of haute couture’s thirstiest brands went out and made what the “Maison” is calling the Canvas of the Future. Or, more simply, a purse with some flexible screens sewn into its sides.
The bag, which made its debut at Louis Vuitton’s Cruise 2020 fashion show in New York, is described as “fusing cutting-edge technology with the Maison’s signature savoir-faire”, and includes the ability to display moving images (AKA videos) while also “taking the form of some of Louis Vuitton’s most iconic bags”.
According to its website, Louis Vuitton’s 2020 Cruise Collection “was conceived as a succession of flash round trips between New York underground fashion and French elegance”, an emotion that apparently inspired the company to host the show at the old TWA Flight Center at JFK airport.
And frankly, I can’t think of a better place to debut a wacky handbag with flexible screens than a wildly ambitious neo-futurist building that’s been largely abandoned for the better part of two decades.
Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the bag itself aside from it being available in both single and dual-screen styles, and that it boasts Louis Vuitton’s ubiquitous all-over print on the outside. Critically, LVMH has not disclosed the supplier of the flexible screens in its handbag, or if it’s subject to the same durability concerns that plagued the early Galaxy Fold review units.
Additionally, Louis Vuitton has not detailed how much room the screen’s circuity takes up, what kind of battery life its purse has, or how you’re even supposed to upload new content to those screens. Hell, we don’t even know how much the bag costs.
But if fashion brands are going to continue blurring the lines between style and tech, someone please forward them my contact info (@samrutherford on Twitter), because at least one tech blogger needs to be there to ask the really important questions.
When I polled a few other Gizmodo staffers for their feelings on Louis Vuitton’s future purse, wearable reporter Victoria Song summed it up best by saying, “As an owner of two functioning eyes, I’m mortified at the depths Louis Vuitton has sunk to in the pursuit of godawful fashion. How in the world did they think adding hideous screens to a craptastic leather bag would make it a better experience? This is not the tech bag I want.”
But what do we know? We’re just gadget nerds, and despite all of its issues, I really liked using the Samsung Galaxy Fold and its flexible display for the short time I had it.
However, if you want one of Louis Vuitton’s bendy screen bags, you better have a bunch of spare cash lying around, because a regular Louis Vuitton bag without any built-in screens starts at around $2200. Suddenly, the $US2000 ($2859) Galaxy Fold doesn’t seem that expensive.