I was watching Felix the Cat the other day and I noticed that the bag he carries has a pattern reminiscent of the Louis Vuitton pattern. Or, rather, Louis Vuitton has a pattern similar to Felix the Cat's bag. I tried to find the actual pattern of the Bag of Tricks but they ones I found were pretty blocky whereas the one in the cartoon is more intricate. I started playing around in Illustrator and made my own pattern more similar to the original than what is out there (even on official merchandise). I took a few artistic liberties, however, to embellished it just a bit.
I was thinking that yesterday!!!!!!!! OMG that's crazy , I was watching the cartoon and I thought "wooow that looks a lot like the louis vuitton pattern "
ReplyDeletein fact, both "ripped off" or found inspiration in the icons of the japanese edo period (1600 - 1868). and specifically the sakura (or cherry blossom) symbols used by shoguns as identity symbols.
ReplyDeleteand those symbols might have been chosen for perverted reasons. cherry blossoms are considered to be like prostitutes: the pink ones are fresh new prostitutes; white ones are common of the shelf prostitutes.
japan closed its borders during the edo period to foreign trade and had a long period of self reflection. during this period, japan abandoned the western christian tradition of representation (trying to 'look like' reality) in favor of abstraction (a thing prized on its own, not for looking like something else).
louis vuitton founded around the end of the edo period, would have seen this very graphical form when japan opened up its borders to foreign trade.
the highly graphical blue/white or black/white symbols is now a look of its own. it would not be too difficult to argue that most modern iconography is now trying to 'look like' this 1600's form. or influenced by it.
peace.
FYI, the 1959/1960 series that introduced the bag had that flowery wallpaper pattern, and a few iterations had the bag red with white dots, etc., before the 80s/90s made the simplified, blocky X's and dots pattern.
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