Paying tribute to a legend

Paris, 2022: To celebrate the 200th birthday of Louis Vuitton, Bompas & Parr created two celebratory artworks using the studio’s favourite creative mediums – jelly and fireworks – as part of the maison's LV200 programme.

M. Vuitton was considered a pioneer for his innovative spirit, creating light waterproof luggage that was stackable at a time when trunks had rounded tops and were made of leather. He became known for designing and packing in the most exquisite way.

We created a birthday cake inspired by the iconic Louis Vuitton checkerboard motif – the checkered jelly was prolific during 1821, the year of Louis’ birth. Perfected by 18th-century innovator Elizabeth Raffald, who supplied such jellies for ‘cold entertainment’, the checkerboard jelly was also an experimental art of 'the father of French cooking', Marie-Antoine Carême. We captured its wobbly magnificence using a cutting-edge Phantom slow-motion camera, capable of capturing 303,460 frames per second.

With cake on the table, we turned our attention to entertainment, with a fireworks chamber full of fizzing festivity, featuring a canapé of (birthday) cakes, roman candles and cherry bombs, lit and captured using the same ultra-slow-motion technology.

The artworks can be seen in Louis Vuitton windows across the world and on the Louis Vuitton website.