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Artist Alex Israel Brings California Cool to Louis Vuitton’s New Perfume Playset
Five years of collaboration is marked with a glamorous new sculpture to house L.A.-inspired perfumes.
Five years of collaboration is marked with a glamorous new sculpture to house L.A.-inspired perfumes.
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Louis Vuitton and Los Angeles-based artist Alex Israel are celebrating five years of fragrance collaborations with a sprawling new sculpture. On July 31, the French fashion house dropped “Ocean BLVD x Alex Israel,” riffing off Israel’s sculpture Sunset Coast Drive (2022), which depicts a miniature, imagined boulevard lined with iconic L.A. architecture. Twenty artisans toiled for over 500 hours on the new perfume playset. Measuring over 6.5 feet long, “Ocean BLVD” reduxes Sunset Coast Drive with brighter colors and more details than the original, along with alcoves to display each of the five corresponding fragrances that the glamorous establishments along “Ocean BLVD” all honor. Louis Vuitton calls the collectible “a scent journey along the California coast, with its lights, extravagances, and softness.”
Louis Vuitton only reopened its scent division in 2016, after a nine-decade hiatus. Under the leadership of storied perfumer Jacques Cavalier Belletrud, the house asked Israel to design the packaging and accessories for its inaugural trio of unisex colognes—including “Afternoon Swim”—in the spring of 2019. The following spring, Israel designed a case to accommodate the fragrance line’s new addition, “California Dream,” whose bottle echoes Israel’s cotton candy-colored “Sky Backdrop” series. The artist then created packaging and a limited edition surfboard to celebrate the arrival of “On The Beach” in July 2021. He also painted new canvases that inspired the aesthetics for the evening scent “City of Stars” in April 2022, and the wellness-inspired “Pacific Chill” in May 2023.
“Ocean BLVD” culminates this half-decade collaboration with a keepsake unlike any it’s yielded yet. “Crafted in France,” Louis Vuitton notes, “every detail of this imaginary mini city is meticulously crafted and incorporates the Maison’s historical expertise as a trunk maker.” It’s made from coveted materials like Taurillon and Taiga leathers.
A stroll down “Ocean BLVD” corresponds to the itinerary of Israel’s ideal L.A. day, starting with treatments at the “Pacific Chill” spa, crafted from white cowhide embossed with Louis Vuitton’s iconic Monogram pattern, followed by a stop at the sherbet-tinged “On The Beach” surf shop, accented with golden brass Louis Vuitton rivets. The jaunt continues on to the 1950s-era “City of Stars” cinema, cloaked in sunset hues from the Hollywood Hills scene that Israel painted for the fragrance’s release—with Vuitton’s Monogram adorning both sides of the sculpture’s central bottle, standing proud beneath the theater’s marquee atop a star-worthy red carpet.
The “California Dream” restaurant serves dinner next door beneath a pink cowhide roof. Shrubs sprouting Monogram leaves flank the fragrance, positioned under its welcome awning. The outing concludes with a final plunge into L.A.’s eternal summer at the street’s last stop, a lifeguard station of blue Taiga cowhide, crowned with a flag bearing the LV logo. The whole scene is situated on sand made of embossed beige leather.
Altogether, “Ocean BLVD” is even more beautiful than Israel’s comparatively staid original. Devoted fans of his olfactory endeavors can score this display on special order, for an unnamed but most likely very sumptuous price, provided upon request.