FLOAT 100 · Handbags · No. 42
Louis Vuitton Coussin PM
Shown in an empty Paris department store in the middle of a pandemic, a puffy, three-pouch bag of Monogram-embossed lambskin sold out everywhere within months and became Louis Vuitton's soft-bag answer to the 2020s.
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- Maker
- Louis Vuitton
- By price in handbags
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- Louis Vuitton, designed under women's artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière
- Debut
- Spring-Summer 2021 runway, shown in Paris on October 6, 2020
- This entry
- Coussin PM in Monogram-embossed lambskin, Wine (a red colorway from the Spring 2021 collection)
- Size (PM)
- 10.2 x 7.9 x 4.7 inches (length x height x width), per the maker
- Construction
- Accordion body of three compartments, the center one with its own zip
- Hardware
- Removable chunky Monogram-engraved chain plus a removable, adjustable logo strap; gold-color on Wine
- Family
- Pochette Coussin, Coussin BB, Coussin PM and Coussin MM
- US retail, PM
- $3,550 in September 2021; $4,700 after February 16, 2022; $5,100 in October 2026
- Production quantity
- Not published
A pillow on a chain
The Coussin made its debut on Louis Vuitton's Spring 2021 ready-to-wear runway. Its form is simple to describe: a slouchy, pillow-like body of soft lambskin embossed all over with the house Monogram, built accordion-style so it reads almost as three pouches joined together, with a chunky chain and a wide strap. It was designed under Nicolas Ghesquière, artistic director of Louis Vuitton's women's collections.
The Monogram embossing recalls the house's Empreinte leather, in which the pattern is pressed into grained calfskin. The Coussin used smooth lambskin instead, which gives it its puffy, cushioned look. The chain, introduced that season and engraved with Monogram motifs, gave a soft bag a heavy, jewelry-like finish. On the runway the Coussin also appeared in croc print studded with Monogram motifs, a version that was not offered for sale when the bag first reached stores.
The bag can be worn three ways: cross-body on the strap, over the shoulder on the short chain, or tucked under the arm as a clutch. Inside, the PM has three compartments, and the center one closes with its own zipper.
Ghesquière's Vuitton
Nicolas Ghesquière was born on May 9, 1971, in Comines, in the north of France. He interned with Agnès b. at 14, assisted Jean Paul Gaultier from 1990 to 1992, and in 1997, at 25, became creative director of Balenciaga, where he spent 15 years and turned the house into one of the industry's fastest-growing brands. He left in November 2012.
On November 4, 2013, Louis Vuitton named him to succeed Marc Jacobs as creative director of its women's collections, and he showed his first collection for the house on March 5, 2014. His contract was renewed in 2018 and again in 2022.
Ghesquière has made the house's travel history a recurring theme: his first Vuitton show introduced the Petite Malle, a miniature trunk. The Coussin went the other way, toward softness, and was compared at launch to the house's toiletry pouches and to the Multi Pochette, the strapped cluster of small pouches that became popular in 2019.
Paris, October 2020
The Spring 2021 collection was shown on Tuesday, October 6, 2020, before a live audience at La Samaritaine, the department store by the Seine that had been closed since June 15, 2005, for urgent safety renovations. Its owner, LVMH, would not reopen it to the public until June 2021. For the show the interior was lined with green screens so that digital viewers could see added visual effects.
It was a fashion week in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. France's first national lockdown had run from March 17 to May 11, 2020, and a second began on October 30, three weeks after the show. In his show notes Ghesquière wrote of designing a collection that 'erases gender and promises exponential creative possibilities.'
The bag also arrived at a turn in taste. Fashion writers at the time placed it in a wave of soft, unstructured pouches with heavy chains, following Bottega Veneta's The Pouch, which had become an unlikely It bag in 2019.
Sold out, then repriced
By spring 2021 the Coussin was sold out in every size and color across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, according to fashion press at the time, and had been photographed on Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez and Laura Harrier. At launch the PM came in black, red, cream, silver and LV Motion Green; the larger MM came in black and khaki. In the United Kingdom the PM was priced at £2,430 and the MM at £2,710 in April 2021.
In the United States the PM was listed at $3,550 in a September 2021 price guide. A further increase followed in October 2021, and when Louis Vuitton raised prices again on February 16, 2022, the PM went from $3,900 to $4,700, the MM from $4,300 to $5,400 and the Pochette Coussin from $2,570 to $2,840. A company spokesperson attributed that round to production, raw-material and transport costs and inflation.
The bag has stayed in the line. In October 2026 the maker listed a Taupe Coussin PM at $5,100, described as part of the Fall-Winter 2021 collection and out of stock online. The Wine PM tracked here appears on the resale market; no verified US-dollar resale price was found for this page.
How to identify a Coussin PM
The maker gives the PM as 10.2 by 7.9 by 4.7 inches and the MM as 13.4 by 9.4 by 4.7 inches. A resale guide measures the PM at about 10.25 by 8 by 3.5 inches, so the depth differs depending on who measures and how full the bag is. A resale listing for a Wine PM measured a 10.5-inch base, an 8-inch height, a 10.25-inch chain drop and a 19-inch strap drop.
Materials on a current PM, per the maker: Monogram-embossed puffy lambskin, calfskin trim, cowhide lining, a zip closure, three inside compartments including one zipped, a removable adjustable strap with a drop of 11.8 to 19.7 inches and a removable chain with a 10.6-inch drop. The strap is lettered LOUIS VUITTON. The maker says the bag is made in France, Spain or Italy, or in the United States of imported materials.
The Wine colorway is a red Monogram-embossed lambskin from the Spring 2021 collection, fitted with the gold-color Edge Chain. Smaller siblings differ: the Pochette Coussin has two compartments and only a chain, and the BB has a leather rather than a canvas long strap.
The numbers
- Dimensions (maker)
- 10.2 x 7.9 x 4.7 inches (length x height x width)
- Dimensions (resale guide)
- About 10.25 x 8 x 3.5 inches
- Material
- Monogram-embossed puffy lambskin; calfskin trim; cowhide lining
- Hardware
- Gold-color Monogram-engraved chain (silver-color on some colors), zip closure
- Straps
- Removable adjustable strap, 11.8 to 19.7 inch drop; removable chain, 10.6 inch drop
- Interior
- Three compartments, one zipped
- Production quantity
- Not published by the maker
Timeline
Nicolas Ghesquière is born in Comines, France.
Louis Vuitton names Ghesquière creative director of its women's collections.
Ghesquière shows his first collection for Louis Vuitton.
The Coussin debuts on the Spring-Summer 2021 runway at La Samaritaine in Paris.
The Coussin is reported sold out across the US, Canada and the UK; the UK price of the PM is £2,430.
A US price guide lists the Coussin PM at $3,550.
Louis Vuitton raises prices in the US.
Another increase takes the Coussin PM from $3,900 to $4,700 and the MM to $5,400.
Ghesquière's contract with Louis Vuitton is renewed.
The maker lists a Taupe Coussin PM at $5,100, out of stock online.
The world in 2020
France begins its first national COVID-19 lockdown, lifted on May 11.
Louis Vuitton shows its Spring 2021 collection to a live audience at the still-closed La Samaritaine.
France enters a second national lockdown.
Louis Vuitton is title sponsor of the Costume Institute exhibition About Time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
France begins a third national lockdown.
La Samaritaine reopens to the public after sixteen years of closure.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2021 | $3,550 | Asking price, not a saleUS retail price of the Coussin PM, as listed in a price guide updated September 2021. |
| Feb 15, 2022 | $3,900 | Asking price, not a saleUS retail price of the Coussin PM before the February 16, 2022 increase. |
| Feb 16, 2022 | $4,700 | Asking price, not a saleUS retail price of the Coussin PM after the increase. |
| Oct 1, 2026 | $5,100 | Asking price, not a saleMaker's US retail price for a Coussin PM in Taupe, shown out of stock. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Louis Vuitton Coussin PM is number 65 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (42 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The Coussin was shown inside La Samaritaine while the store was still closed to the public; it reopened in June 2021.
- Its Monogram is pressed into smooth lambskin, unlike the grained calfskin of the house's Empreinte leather.
- The chain can be worn as a statement necklace, according to one resale guide.
- A croc-print Coussin with Monogram studs walked the runway but was not offered for sale at launch.
- The MM's US price rose by $1,100 in a single increase, from $4,300 to $5,400, in February 2022.
- The maker says a Coussin may be made in France, Spain, Italy or the United States.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026