With a legacy spanning over 170 years, Louis Vuitton’s handbags remain the most successful line of fashion accessories in history. This photographic tribute features City Bags of the last thirty years, which became immeasurably popular under designers Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Kim Jones, Virgil Abloh, and Pharrell.

At the heart of Louis Vuitton are its City Bags, a range of handbags that date back to the turn of the twentieth century. Featuring the trademark monograms of the house, these bags have formally diversified into a dizzying array of handbags for every conceivable function demanded by the modern woman (and man). Profoundly influential, City Bags are now known to millions by their descriptive names (Keepall, Papillon, Alma, Locket, Noé, Speedy) and are still evolving into more fantastical forms.

Louis Vuitton’s ready-to-wear collections, debuting in 1997 under Marc Jacobs, have become the principal creative engine for this proliferation of bag types. Now in its third decade, and hand in hand with a highly visible program of artistic patronage that saw Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, and many others collaborate on the design of handbags, the images taken of these objects—by some of the most important fashion photographers working today—have become icons in their own right. 

With the handbags often front and center, the editorial photography collected here is drawn from some of the most important magazines and periodicals (and quite a few campaigns). Taken by industry giants such as Juergen Teller, Annie Leibovitz, Mert Alas and Marcus Pigott, Steven Meisel, Kourtney Roy, Collier Schorr, Jean Larivière, and many others, this curated archive of images testifies to the unique, persuasive power of the photographic image and its continuing role in the storytelling (and mythmaking) of Louis Vuitton.

Like Rizzoli’s very successful Louis Vuitton City Bags: A Natural History, the book also serves as an indispensable “field guide” to all the iconic bags of the brand.

About The Author

Patrick Remy is a Paris-based author and editor, who most recently edited Guy Bourdin for Charles Jourdan for Rizzoli. Ian Luna is based in New York and is the author and coauthor of a number of books on Louis Vuitton, including Louis Vuitton City Bags: A Natural History with Florence Müller.