OK, can't complain cause I've just gotten back from an amazing trip to Italy- through Venice & Cince Terra ... but I'm so sad I'm missing this!

The Louis Vuitton “A Passion for Creation” exhibition is now open via the Hong Kong Museum of Art.  In it you'll find works from the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création.  Of course you'll find pieces from Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse and the whole thing is wrapped in Richard Prince.

I guess it's not over yet... there's still time, if I can just get way before August 9th, 2009.  If you've been... I want to hear about it!

Picture Credits:  Oligopoly Blog

So rumors are flying that it's a wrap on the Louis Vuitton x Madonna photoshoot by Steven Meisel.  Apparently, it went down on Friday.  If you do a shoot in Argentina (like the Coppolas) it's possible to keep secrets.  But when you're shooting right here in LA, you know word's gonna get out!

As Rock the Trend pointed out- here's so much information available that you can can almost picture how it probably went down and can practically visualize the end result.

Here's what's going around the blogosphere:

• Steven Meisel took the pics, not Mert & Marcus (click here to reminise) or Alas & Piggott- as had been rumored (WWD, last time Madge & Meisel worked together, was or the cover & spread in Vanity Fair May 2008.  The picture at the top of this post is from this spread as well.  They're old friends- who can forget his pictures in Madonna's infamous Sex Book!)

• it went down on Friday at the Cafe Figaro in Los Angeles- check out its cool old bar below (Read the post & the comments on Diva Report's post.)

• Meisel likes the French look of the Figaro Bistro check out the pics he shot for the September 2007 Vogue Magazine titled Paris, Je T'aime (check out all the pics at artemislives for foto decadent)

• Garren did her hair.   You can see what it looked like in the picture below from Friday night after the shoot and a little worship at the Kabbalah Center.  According to Drowned Madonna- Garren worked on the VF May 2008 shoot too!  (More pics at Madge-Tribe)

• it was styled by Marie Amelie Sauve so you know it's gonna have a French vibe- Sauve's the fashion editor for Vogue Paris and Balenciaga consultant (stylerumor)-

It'll be really interesting to see how close the shoot is to the image I've got in my head!

Rock the Trend
Diva Report
WWD
Figaro Bistro
Style Rumor
Drowned Madonna
Madge-Tribe

Like I mentioned earlier- we just got back from our first (and for sure not our last) trip to South Africa on Saturday, and I can't get over it.  I'm in love.

So, I was thrilled to see this longer version of the Richard Prince Bread Clip charm released in tribute to South African President, Nelson Mandela for his birthday. The number 46664 (in place of the "Since 1854" on the original clips) is the number of the jail cell that Nelson Mandela called home for 27 years.

Apparently, it's a limited edition piece.  Only 466 were released, so it is numbered 1/466 or whatever on the back.  Part of the proceeds benefit the war against HIV / AIDS.

Well, we thought that this would be the perfect bag for the Queen of all Media, and our LA neighbor Perez Hilton.  So we actually emailed him and he totally wanted it.  Yada, yada, yada... his cute little mom came by the office and picked it up... but we never heard from him again, other than his email that said,

It is AMAZING!!!!!!!!  I'm drooling over it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Along with this sweet and thoughtful card,

So I'd thought about it quite a bit- and wondered if he was loving it, like I thought he would.   Well, the other day, Perez was on MTV Cribs- and I caught a glimpse of it in his "Pink Palace"- the second room that he's converted into a big pink closet, and the room from which he tapes his bits on MTV's TRL.

Can you find it?  Watch the video, and then click the link below to find a screenshot with the answer!!!

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

 Did you see it?

Right behind the boom lights.  I hope the precious baby doesn't melt!

It looks like it had a prominent position, displayed on top of the stack of shelves there, before the cameras moved in.

I'm still waiting for a pictures of Perez carrying it around!

OK, I just got back from seeing Batman, The Dark Night.  (I know, it only came out on Thursday, but I swear, I was the last person in the world to have seen it.  The girl leaving behind me was gushing that it was "soooo much better the second time around".)  But, I digress...

Christian Bale did a good job- but, WOW... Heath Ledger was so amazing (as I'd heard).  I mean, my expectations for his performance were sky high- but still, he totally stole the show IMO.

And so there I was, taking a swig of the diet A&W rootbeer that I'd snuck into the theater, when I was faced with the Joker/ nurse scene.  What can I say- it gave me major creepy Richard Prince Nurse vibes.  I mean, seriously, was there an artistic/ make-up designer/ Richard Prince fan on the job?  What do you think?

That's Richard Prince's Mancrazy Nurse up top, and his Registered Nurse below.  Here's another look at the Richard Prince for Louis Vuitton Mancrazy from the JOKES (Joker?) series:

... in the family (or so it seems from the picture).  But he also carries her purse.

How sweet.  Guy's got Madge's Louis Vuitton Richard Prince Pulp Weekender in one hand and her hand in the other.

They're out for a romantic dinner.  Just the two of them (and 1500 paparazzi trying for a pic after the divorce stories started flying last week.)

(Picture Credit: Pacific Coast News Online)

Claudia Schiffer looking hot as ever at the dinner hosted by our very own Marc J at the Serpentine Gallery for Richard Prince’s new West London exhibit: “Continuation”. I mean, isn't that what Super Model's get paid the big bucks to do? Look hot

What do you think of the Louis Vuitton Afterdark (notice all the pulp fiction paperback covers that pictured around the room behind her...) Monogram Motard Minaudière she decided to carry?

Love it! Cherie Blair, wife for former prime minister Tony Blair with her Louis Vuitton Monogram Motard Afterdark clutch under her arm.

They were there to celebrate the opening of a Richard Prince exhibit at London's Serpentine Gallery.

Hmmm, what does she think of Marc Jacob's necklace?

It seems like there is almost a movement of artists "appropriating" the Louis Vuitton logo in their work.

The thing is that IMO LVMH has two problems with the Darfur shirt:

1. Who the heck wants to be connected to Darfur? LVMH, I'm sure doesn't want any association with the atrocites going on over there.
2. The bag that she's pictured on her shirt is a fake: "confusingly similar" to a Louis Vuitton Murakami Multicolore. From the Cease and Desist letter that LVMH send Nadia Plesner:

“Although we applaud your efforts to raise awareness and funds to help Darfur, a most worthy cause, we cannot help noticing that the design of the Simple Living Products includes the reproduction of a bag infringing on Louis Vuitton’s Intellectual Property Rights, in particular the Louis Vuitton Monogram Multicolore Trademark to which it is confusingly similar. We are surprised of such a promotion of a counterfeit bag.”

(Notice the Canal Street bracelets as cuffs)

So- now we've got Peter Gronquist's blinged out, urban warfare gone Canal Street. I can't imagine that Louis Vuitton would be pleased.

(Chain Saw sold for $3250)

Gronquiest's exhibition, "The Revolution will be Fabulous- A Weapons of Mass Designer Show" opened Friday night at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles. This is I guess a commentary on not only commercialism, but the luxurization of everything. (Think Prada Phone, Chanel or Gucci Bicycle, Louis Vuitton Teddy Bear.)

He didn't leave anyone out.... you'll find rifles, artillery shells, granades, glocks, machine guns and for whatever reason- a Gazelle decked out in Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, Fendi, Coach, Prada, Versace, Dior, D&G and Burberry.

(listed at $3500)

(Notice the tell-tale striping)

Gronquist used counterfeit scarves to cover these items, as is clear from the close-ups. (Louis Vuitton never made scarves with that striped effect, but they're common in fakes.)

(Again with the striped scarf- this one sold for $3500)

(Artillery Shell- this one sold for $800)

(Blinged out Multicolore Murakami)

(No comment on the LV antlered Gazelle)

Hmmm, wonder if Louis Vuitton's gonna send Gronquist the same love letter that they sent Nadia?

So Louis Vuitton, LVMH sues artist Nadia Plesner for an image she created that includes a bag that is obviously (and potentially confusingly) similar to a Louis Vuitton Multicolore Audra.  She claims that she didn't use LV's multicolore monogram exactly, and that it was for charity.  LVMH responds, cease & desist.  And honestly, I feel for LV, because for Pete's sake, who wants to be associated with the nightmare going on in Darfur.

But, I don't want to get into the nitty gritty of the suit. Other bloggers are doing that.

I'd like to talk about this subject in light of one of Louis Vuitton's recent artistic collaborations (a collaboration with an artists who represents a genre and movement that makes this case just a smidge ironic, IMO).

First, we have LV's work with Richard Price.  Even if you know very little about the art of Richard Prince before he met Marc Jacobs, you probably know that he is one who made his mark as "The Man Who Invented Appropriation"

"What is appropriation?", you might ask. Well, that's why I'm here...

The definition of "Appropriation Art" from the ArtLex- art dictionary:

"To take possession of another's imagery (or sounds), often without permission, reusing it in a context which differs from its original context, most often in order to examine issues concerning originality or to reveal meaning not seen in the original."

MPR said in it's article "The Man Who Invented Appropriation":

"Painter and sculptor Richard Prince is famous in the art world for taking other people's work and presenting it as his own. Some people see it as theft, others see it as creating a new cultural understanding."

Richard Prince became famous taking pictures of other people's pictures. His photographs of old Marlboro Man ads have made him millions (one alone selling in 2005 for $1.2 million).

Prince said of his use of the Marlboro images,

“No one was looking. This was a famous campaign. If you’re going to steal something, you know, you go to the bank.”

You can read more about what the original photographic artist of one of these Marlboro images had to say about Princes' appropriations in this New York Times article.

Here's an example of a Richard Prince piece appropriately titled "Rolex". It's a "$40,000-$60,000" picture that he took of an old Rolex ad.

I'm just saying... I've always thought it an ironic partnership. Richard Prince, the man who took taking other people's work into the artistic mainstream and Louis Vuitton, maker of what Elle magazine calls "the most counterfeited bags in fashion history".