Cabinet Of Curiosities

Louis Vuitton's leather-clad travel trunk has been reimagined as a colourful cupboard that blends modern techniques with time-tested craftsmanship.

- Words: Abigail Montanez Photography: Camilla Ferrari

LOUIS VUITTON’S OBJETS NOMADES COLLECTION has long blurred the line between furniture and art, but one of its latest creations crosses assertively into sculptural territory.

The Kaleidoscope Cabinet, designed by Brazil’s Estúdio Campana, is so intricate that only eight will be produced. This version, exhibited during Milan’s annual furniture expo Salone del Mobile, is an electric-blue monolith clad in nearly 600 individually cut leather triangles, each precisely applied to create its variegated effect.

Founded by Humberto Campana and his late brother, Fernando, in 1984, São Paulo-based Estúdio Campana has collaborated with Louis Vuitton since 2012. Yet this is its first floor-standing cabinet for the French house and one of its most technically ambitious designs to date. Campana envisioned the piece as a mandala—a circular, patterned form that symbolises the cyclical nature of life.

“It’s like ping-pong,” Campana says of the collaboration process. “I give them the poetry; they come back with the mathematics.”

Turning it into a reality required two years of development and the creation of more than 130 custom components, including gold-plated-brass hinges and leather-wrapped pulls for the interior drawers. Its yards of machine-cut, hand-stitched hide mean the piece takes over four months to complete. (Each example is priced upon request and available to order through the brand’s boutiques.)