Louis Vuitton

The Louis Vuitton Monogram, 1896 Georges Vuitton drew it four years after his father Louis died, and it had a practical job: after the striped canvas of 1872 and the Damier checkerboard of 1888, a pattern built from the founder's initials was meant to protect the house from counterfeiters. The interlaced LV sits among four-petaled flowers whose source is still debated, with church ornament and Japanese design the usual suspects. The bones have barely changed, which is why every reinterpretation reads instantly: Stephen Sprouse's graffiti in 2001, Takashi Murakami's multicolored version in 2003 and Yayoi Kusama's dots in 2012 and 2023.