Menandai datangnya tahun baru Cina pada bulan Februari 2019 mendatang, Longchamp merasa perlu untuk lebih dulu memulai kampanye ini dengan melansir koleksi khusus terbatas. Koleksi ini merupakan hasil kolaborasi dengan fashion influencer daratan Cina, Tao Liang. Tao Liang, yang juga dikenal dengan sebutan Mr. Bags, membuat sebuah koleksi kapsul dengan menggunakan bentuk babi yang melambangkan tahun Cina yang akan datang.
Tahun ini, koleksi khusus Chinese New Year ini hadir dalam bentuk tas LePliage yang direnovasi dengan material dan warna yang berbeda. Bahkan dengan tambahan potongan gambar tubuh babi.
Dalam mitos Cina, Shio Babi merupakan lambang kesuburan dan kesejahteraan. Maka dari itu pula, tas edisi ini yang hadir dalam tiga variasi warna, hitam, pink dan plastik transparan, yang mana setiap tas memiliki bentuk dan gambar potongan tubuh babi seperti ekor, hidung dan kuping.
Material yang digunakan adalah kulit namun untuk material plastik, adalah sesuatu yang baru dalam koleksi LePliage. Hadir juga dalam bentuk tas kecil seperti pouch dan tas tangan yang mudah dibawa. Koleksi ini akan hadir pertama kali di Beijing, Cina, pada 20 Desember 2018 mendatang yang kemudian diikuti oleh butik Longchamp diseluruh dunia.
Foto dok. Longchamp
To mark the Chinese New Year – which in 2019 is the Year of the Pig – Longchamp is renewing its collaboration with Tao Liang, aka Mr. Bags. One of China’s most influential fashion bloggers, his passion for – and encyclopaedic knowledge of – luxury handbags have made him a social media phenomenon followed by millions of “bagfans” on Weibo and WeChat.
For last year’s hugely successful debut, Mr. Bags revisited Longchamp’s iconic Le Pliage® Cuir, which is his personal bag of choice for travelling the world. This year, he returns to the theme with a wonderfully witty interpretation for the Year of the Pig – an animal which, for the Chinese, is an age-old symbol of wealth and abundance.
Longchamp’s Le Pliage® Cuir top handle bag in lambskin leather, in black, and in metis leather, in pink, is the backdrop on which Mr. Bags conjures a pig in a series of bold white lines: on the front, a curly tail; on the back, a pair of pointed ears and two dots for eyes; and – hidden under the familiar flap, so only the bag’s owner knows it’s there – a tiny fart! Available in black or pastel pink, the top handle bag is joined by the Le Pliage® Cuir travel bag in black lambskin leather, whose zipped outside pocket for a passport and tickets – a detail insisted upon by the much-travelled Mr. Bags – is cleverly integrated into the drawing.
The collaboration extends to two further designs: a pouch with a zipped front pocket shaped like a pig’s snout, in black lambskin leather or pastel-pink metis leather; and a top handle bag in transparent PVC with a pink, snout-shaped coin purse. For this, Mr. Bags was inspired by one of Longchamp Creative Director Sophie Delafontaine’s early reinterpretations of the House icon: Le Pliage® Aquarium, launched in 1998, which was memorably pictured with a fish swimming around inside it!
The Mr. Bags x Longchamp limited edition will debut in China on 20 December 2018 with a personal appearance by Mr. Bags at the Longchamp flagship in Shanghai. Following the demand for last year’s collection, the bags will be available in more stores and more countries worldwide, with personal appearances by Mr. Bags to follow in Los Angeles and Paris. The first stage of the roll-out will include all the leather bags, with the transparent top handle bag to launch by early February.
Capturing the playful spirit of the collaboration, an animated film will launch on social media featuring the cute Mr. Bags character created by Tao Liang himself. Reminiscent of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince – appropriately for the prince of handbags – the cartoon hero is seen chasing madly after a pig. He slips, jumps and bounces from one Longchamp bag to another, until he finally finds his own bag and gives it a big hug.
Celebrate the Year of the Pig in style with Longchamp and Mr. Bags.
