Louis Vuitton and Campana stretch travel heritage into furniture and art

[SINGAPORE] French fashion giant Louis Vuitton began life as a luggage company – and though it has since expanded far beyond trunks and suitcases, it has never forgotten its roots in travel.

The Objets Nomades line extends that travel heritage into furniture and home objects, from chairs and lamps to hammocks and cabinets.

Among the designers who have pushed the project furthest are brothers Humberto and Fernando Campana, founders of Brazilian studio Estudio Campana.

The collaboration with Louis Vuitton has lasted almost 13 years, producing pieces such as Maracatu, a hanging cabinet, and Cocoon, a hanging chair.

“It is like ping-pong,” says Humberto Campana in a Zoom call from Brazil. “I bring them the poetry, and they bring me the mathematics.”

Campana’s work is known for improvisation, accumulation and material transformation, turning scrap wood, rope, fabric remnants and stuffed toys into expressive design objects.

With Louis Vuitton, that language is filtered through leatherwork, engineering, fine finishing and the resources of a luxury atelier.

“Every object for us starts from the material, the shape, the function,” says Campana. “Take the Cocoon, for instance. The hanging chair already existed. But we gave it a new narrative, inspired by nature, by the roots of trees and other organic forms.”

He explains that he “opened the shell with little holes, like islands” because he didn’t want anyone using the chair to “feel claustrophobic”. “The idea,” he adds, “was to create the sensation of floating in the air.” 

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The Cocoon has since become one of Objets Nomades’ recurring objects: part seat, part shelter and part private escape. The 2026 version is the one-of-a-kind Cocoon Dichroic, created with French designer Geraldine Gonzalez.

Its iridescent skin references Maison Louis Vuitton Sanlitun in Beijing, whose translucent facade was itself inspired by a Nicolas Ghesquiere dress, forming a chain of translation from fashion to architecture to furniture.

Another 2026 piece, the Kaleidoscope Exotic Leather cabinet, also began as a translation. Campana had previously created a mirror work for Design Miami; Louis Vuitton proposed turning the idea into a cabinet.

The final object is composed of 616 leather-covered facets, using exotic leather offcuts in shades of green, hand-assembled into a kaleidoscopic pattern and set on brass feet.

“The idea is always to create something precious,” says Campana. “All my work has been about transformation – turning something (seemingly ordinary) into something precious. Louis Vuitton shares that focus: the leathers, the craftsmanship, the time it takes to make an object.”

Objets Nomades is neither a conventional furniture launch nor an art commission. It occupies a hybrid category that has become increasingly popular among luxury houses: a limited-edition line that reinforces craft, rarity and cultural credibility, while expanding the brand beyond fashion and leather goods.

Campana is aware that these pieces have to operate on two levels: as functional objects, but also as collectibles.

“Whenever I design a piece, I want it to last from generation to generation,” he says. “If I am doing a chair, I ask: Why make a new chair? The world is full of chairs. It has to bring meaning.”

For him, that meaning often returns to Brazil.

“We have a lot of natural abundance in Brazil, but this abundance is being destroyed,” he says. “Working with a company like Louis Vuitton, which is present all over the world, is a way to send a message from Brazil – to protect the forest, protect the plants, protect the flowers.”

After more than a decade, the Louis Vuitton-Campana collaboration shows how far a heritage house and a design studio can stretch their respective identities – without losing sight of where they began.