Since 2019, Louis Vuitton has maintained a creative partnership with Alex Israel, the Los Angeles-based artist whose work is saturated with the light, mythology and the visual language of the West Coast. The collaboration has produced some of the more interesting objects to come out of the Parfums de Cologne line, and this year’s edition raises the ambition considerably.
The Woody Wagon Colognes gift set is exactly what it sounds like. An icon of Californian culture immediately recognisable by its wooden panelling, the Woody Wagon has been reinterpreted as a sculptural object housing all six of the collection’s colognes. It functions as a miniature landscape of California, an immersive object at the intersection of design, art and fragrance, produced in a limited edition of 66 pieces, a number chosen as a nod to the legendary Route 66.
The scale of production behind each gift set is impressive, with 60 artisans who contributed more than 7,000 hours of craftsmanship to bring the object to life. The Woody Wagon comprises 219 individual elements, each conceived and assembled with Louis Vuitton’s signature attention to detail. The wooden doors are subtly engraved with the Monogram motif while the wheels carry Monogram flowers. Materials include the Maison’s signature semi-aged leather in natural beige and mahogany woods recognisable for their rich brown tones and distinctive grain.
“The Woody Wagon has long embodied a certain Californian freedom: surfboard on the roof, family in the back, and the Pacific just over the next hill,” says Israel. “In this case, the family is our six Cologne perfumes.”
Alongside the Woody Wagon, Louis Vuitton has unveiled a series of travel cases reimagined for three of the collection’s most beloved colognes: Sun Song, California Dream and Afternoon Swim. Crafted in translucent resin with vibrant colour gradients applied across the surface, the cases function as both practical travel objects and chromatic extensions of the fragrances.
The Sun Song case moves from bright yellow to incandescent orange, capturing the quality of light on a sunny Californian afternoon. The California Dream case shifts from translucent pink to sky blue, the palette of the West Coast at sundown, while the Afternoon Swim case runs from azure to abyssal blue, an oceanic reference.
True to form, the Monogram motif runs across all three surfaces, and each version is produced in a limited edition of 100 pieces.
The travel cases are available now, while the Woody Wagon Colognes gift set is available by pre-order with delivery in late September.
