Louis Vuitton Les Extraits

The limited-edition and numbered Louis Vuitton Les Extraits Murano Art Edition elevates fragrance to art.

Each bottle showcases Frank Gehry’s spectacular transformation of his own design for the iconic Les Extraits cap. Magnificently hand-crafted by Murano glass Master Simone Cenedese, each cap becomes a unique, colourful and virtuoso objet d’art.

Created to mark the first anniversary of the landmark Louis Vuitton Les Extraits – a fragrance collection blended by the House’s Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, which daringly reinvented the notion of the extrait de parfum, the purest and most precious form in perfumery – the new Murano Art Edition showcases one single Extrait, the radiant and immersive Symphony.

To complement the fragrance’s curving and graceful bottle, which also bears his meticulously engraved signature, legendary architect Frank Gehry has transfigured his original bottle cap into a remarkable new creation. Designed specifically to be modelled by hand in Murano glass, each of these limited-edition and numbered caps is as unique as nature itself. Resembling a kaleidoscopic imaginary flower blooming from the bottle or a collection of vivid petals caught in a breeze, the cap poetically embodies Gehry’s trademark free-flowing, yet sculptural forms.

“When we first designed the perfume bottle for Louis Vuitton Les Extraits Collection,” recalls Frank Gehry, “I had a dream of making the tops in vivid colours. Now, in collaboration with Simone Cenedese and his glass artisans, we have finally been able to realize that vision. The colours that the team has created are beautiful and ever-changing.”

The top was brought to life in Murano, the heart of traditional Venetian glassmaking, in a balletic process of constant movement between furnace and work bench that demanded all the long-honed artisanal expertise of Simone Cenedese and his three skilled assistants. For each top, the third-generation glassmaking Master blew and then sculpted black, red, blue and transparent glass. The result is a landmark feat of creativity and craftsmanship, and, ultimately, a remarkable work of art.

“Bringing Frank’s exquisite ‘flower petal’ design to life could only really be achieved by human hand,” says Simone Cenedese, “because nothing can match the artisan’s touch. As challenging as the blown-glass technique can be, I realized after much experimentation that it was the only way to truly represent something as naturally graceful and fluid as Frank’s audacious design.”

The collaboration at the heart of the Les Extraits Murano Art Edition is composed of three virtuosos of material invention, each pushing the boundaries of their creativity to the limits. It brings together the culture, history and physicality of Grasse, in the south of France, where Jacques Cavallier Belletrud explores perfume’s possibilities; of Los Angeles, long-time home and inspiration to Frank Gehry; and of the Venetian lagoon that surrounds Simone Cenedese’s atelier and animates his artistry. A creative symphony, Les Extraits Murano Art Edition with its three universes and languages embodies the harmonious movement of Louis Vuitton’s Art of Travel, the olfactory journey in every drop of Les Extraits, and the redesigned cap’s boldly expressive fluidity.

“I worked on this Les Extraits Collection through revolutionising the architecture of classic perfumes, highlighting the raw beauty of the greatest natural resources and revealing new olfactory forms like an augmented reality; all exalted by the genius of Frank Gehry, combined with the talent of the master of glass and colours, Simone Cenedese.” explains Jacques Cavallier Belletrud.

In addition to the Murano Art Edition, an extremely rare limited-edition Les Extraits Murano Art Edition Bouquet Masterpiece – designed by Frank Gehry – presents all five Extraits fragrances exhibited on a beautifully sleek glass pedestal. The bottles each have their own differently coloured and unique hand-crafted glass caps, which, when assembled together in this rich composition, resemble a bouquet of rare and ethereal flowers in a sculptural and spectacular work of glass and perfume art.

Les Extraits Murano Art Edition is available in selected Louis Vuitton stores and online, limited to 40 units.