Love Meets Leather: How Longchamp Paid Tribute to Robert Indiana’s Artistic Legacy
- Apr 24, 2025
- 3 min read
In 2023, Longchamp decided to pay tribute to Robert Indiana by presenting a Longchamp x Robert Indiana collaboration. The collaboration featured Indiana's LOVE artwork in their Le Pliage® bag.
For years, Longchamp has been known to blend practicality with Parisian elegance in their small designer bags and large everyday accessories. Both Robert Indiana and Longchamp value clean and bold designs, creative styles, and bright, cheerful colors.
Indiana is renowned for his iconic image "LOVE" sculpture, a symbol of love, hope, and identity portrayed in strikingly simple but powerful visuals.
Discussing the ethos of the collaboration, Longchamp's Creative Director Sophie Delafontaine said, "Love is universal, a positive message that is understood all over the world, and I liked the idea of reproducing this message on Le Pliage, a universally beloved bag".
The bag collection came out in three colorways: brooding shades of black and dark red, contrasting red and blue, and complementary blue and green. These colors were meant to transform each piece into a masterpiece, which worked.
Robert Indiana's "LOVE" Legacy
Indiana's artistic impact in the fashion industry is quite remarkable. The artist played a significant role in shaping assemblance art, hard-edge painting, and Pop Art. Essentially, his art focused on American culture, illustrating how powerful words can be.
Robert Indiana's famous "LOVE" image, presenting stacked letters and tilted "O," came into the limelight in 1964 as a card that Indiana sent to his friends. The following year, Indiana was invited to propose an artwork that would be featured on the Museum of Modern Art's annual Christmas.
Indiana is said to have drawn inspiration for the iconic "LOVE" images from the inscription in a Christian Science church in Indianapolis, "God is Love," which he reversed to "Love is God." He wanted to express his ideas about spiritual love.
The Introduction of Longchamp's Le Pliage
The story of Le Pliage bag dates back to 1993 when Philippe Cassegrain, the son of Longchamp's founder, created it on his return from travels in Japan. Le Pliage means "to fold" in French. The bag was inspired by the Japanese folding art called origami.
The ultra-light, strong, brightly-colored nylon canvas trimmed with leather bag became an instant hit and is today regarded as one of the brand's best-selling creations.
Located in the heart of Paris, Longchamp has been at the helm of a success story for four generations now. They have continued to preserve and pass on their traditional French craftsmanship and expertise by creating modern and universally appealing designs.
The Robert Indiana collaboration is one of Longchamp's commitment to uphold cultural relevance in the fashion industry. Jean Asserting, Longchamp's global chief executive officer, noted that the plans to collaborate had begun 6-7 years before the passing of Indiana. The conversation continued with the Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative, which manages his artistic estate and legacy.
A Creative Convergence
Instilled with the French spirit of the house, Longchamps's leather bag collections embody the ultimate in excellence. As stated earlier, the collaboration led to a special collection that included three colorways inspired by Indiana's original artwork, which resulted in a unique partnership to create a capsule celebrating Indiana's iconic "LOVE" artwork.
The LOVE design was emblazoned across several types of Le Pliage bags, including a travel bag, a pouch, and a shoulder bag. In addition, the capsule included two new square-shaped versions of the Le Pliage bag.
The leather part of the bag collection included a small-sized (XS) cowhide leather Le Pliage bag decorated with the LOVE design in three monochrome colorways.
They also featured the LOVE design in the cowhide leather key chain, as well as a white cotton T-shirt and grey cotton sweatshirt — both were in unisex style.
Lastly, they featured in that collection a silk scarf to honor Indiana's fascination with numerology.
Final Word
The collection not only conveys a message of love and positivity but also honors Robert Indiana's influence and contribution as an artist during the twentieth century.
As you can tell, the collaboration really tried to reflect Indiana's art styles, particularly hard-edge painting and Pop Art.
For all fashion-forward individuals, carrying a Longchamp x Robert Indiana creation means carrying a piece of history and embodiment of love — it's not just a bag.