Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami Nano Speedy

The first time anyone changed the monogram

Louis Vuitton's Monogram canvas dates to 1896, when Georges Vuitton designed it in tribute to his father. For more than a century the house kept its colors. In 2002 Marc Jacobs, then the house's creative director, invited the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami to rework it. One account says Jacobs approached Murakami after seeing his work at an exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in Paris that year.

The result, Monogram Multicolore, took the familiar LV initials and flowers and printed them in 33 colors on a white or black coated canvas. It debuted at the Spring/Summer 2003 show, alongside a Cherry Blossom print, on Vuitton classics such as the Papillon, the Speedy and the Keepall. A handbag publication covering the 2024 re-edition called it the first time in history that the Louis Vuitton monogram pattern had been reworked.

The collection was a commercial phenomenon. A trade-press retrospective reports it generated over $300 million in one year. Jacobs called it a 'monumental marriage between art and business', according to one history of the line.

Takashi Murakami

Murakami was born in Tokyo on February 1, 1962. He grew up a fan of anime and manga and studied at Tokyo University of the Arts hoping to become an animator, but majored instead in Nihonga, the traditional style of Japanese painting. He earned a master's degree in 1988 and a Ph.D. in 1993.

In 2000 he published his 'Superflat' theory in the catalog of a group exhibition he curated for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The idea was that a flat, two-dimensional tradition runs from Japanese art history through manga and anime, and his practice repackaged 'low' subcultural imagery for the art market and then turned his art back into merchandise. In 2001 he incorporated his studio as Kaikai Kiki.

The Louis Vuitton work made him widely known for blurring the line between high art and commerce and made him a celebrity in Japan. Murakami later recalled that he and Jacobs worked by email: he sent 70 or 80 images, and Jacobs chose one or two. In 2008 he was named to Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people, the only visual artist included.

The It bag of the 2000s

Multicolore became shorthand for the era. One 2015 report lists Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and Nicole Richie among its carriers. Jennifer Lopez fronted Louis Vuitton's fall 2003 campaign, and in 2004 Naomi Campbell posed with Multicolore on a white canvas trunk. In the 2004 film Mean Girls, Regina George carries a Cherry Blossom bag and Cady Heron a Multicolore pochette.

Murakami kept adding prints: Panda in 2004, Cerises in 2005, the MOCA Hands print in 2007, Monogramouflage in 2008 and Cosmic Blossom in 2010. When his retrospective opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2007, it included a working Louis Vuitton boutique inside the gallery. At the Brooklyn Museum opening in April 2008, the house set up mock street stalls outside, a joke about counterfeit sellers, stocked only with authentic goods.

Then tastes turned. One history describes a shift toward minimal, logo-free bags between 2009 and 2015. Jacobs left Louis Vuitton in 2014 and Nicolas Ghesquiere succeeded him. In July 2015 reports said the house was discontinuing the Multicolore line; its representatives declined to comment on the decision, saying the brand prefers to 'look forward'. It had been the house's longest artist collaboration.

How to identify a 2004 White Multicolore Nano Speedy

The example sold in London in 2024 was catalogued as a White Multicolore Monogram Nano Speedy dated 2004: white multicolor monogram canvas with vachetta handles and trims and gold hardware, 16.5 cm wide and 10 cm high with a 7.5 cm handle drop, graded B+ for condition and offered with its padlock, keys and dust bag.

Pre-owned listings sometimes call the same small format a 'mini Speedy'. One current listing for a white Multicolore 'mini Speedy' from the 2000s gives 16 x 10 x 7 cm, a 55 cm detachable strap, vachetta trim, two rolled top handles, a top zip, microfiber lining and gold-tone hardware, made in France. The near-identical measurements suggest the same model, though the names differ.

The re-edition bags are easy to separate from originals: the 2025 Nano Speedy comes with an exclusive LV x TM key bell and a textile lining, and Louis Vuitton's page lists it at 6.3 x 3.9 x 3 inches.

Sales and the 2025 return

On February 28, 2024, a 2004 White Multicolore Nano Speedy with padlock, keys and dust bag sold at auction in London for 960 pounds including buyer's premium. The sale gave no US dollar figure. On October 1, 2026, a pre-owned white Multicolore bag of the same size, listed as a 2000s mini Speedy in good condition, was offered for $3,069.

In December 2024 Louis Vuitton announced Louis Vuitton x Murakami, a re-edition of more than 200 items; Chapter One, built around Multicolore, launched January 1, 2025. The new Nano Speedy came in white with gold hardware and black with silver hardware and was priced at $2,270 at launch, according to a handbag publication. Louis Vuitton's US site listed the LV x TM Nano Speedy (M13391) at $2,390 on October 1, 2026, with a 'Notify Me' button. The re-edition is a separate product, and its prices do not describe the 2004 bag.

Art, commerce and a small bag

Accounts of the collaboration describe it as blurring the line between fashion and art, and between high art and commerce. Louis Vuitton's own history credits Jacobs with collaborations with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, and lists Murakami among the artists who shaped its collaboration program.

The Nano Speedy carries the whole story in miniature: a Speedy, the bag Gaston-Louis Vuitton designed in the 1930s as the Express and that became a Monogram handbag in 1959, wearing the pattern Murakami recolored in 2003. When Louis Vuitton revived the collaboration twenty years later, a handbag publication called the new Nano Speedy one of the most sought-after bags of the first release.

The numbers

Dimensions

About 16.5 cm wide, 10 cm high, 7.5 cm handle drop (2004 example); a similar listing gives 16 x 10 x 7 cm

Material

White Monogram Multicolore coated canvas, 33 colors; vachetta leather handles and trim

Hardware

Gold-tone, with padlock and keys

Strap

Detachable, 55 cm, per a resale listing

Production quantity

Not published

Timeline

1. 1896

   Georges Vuitton designs the Monogram canvas.

2. 1959

   The Speedy, created in the 1930s as the Express, is reimagined in Monogram canvas as a handbag.

3. Feb 1, 1962

   Takashi Murakami is born in Tokyo.

4. 2000

   Murakami publishes his Superflat theory.

5. 2002

   Marc Jacobs invites Murakami to rework the Louis Vuitton monogram.

6. 2003

   Monogram Multicolore debuts with the Spring/Summer 2003 collection; it generates over $300 million in a year.

7. 2004

   Year of the White Multicolore Nano Speedy in this entry; the Panda print is released.

8. 2007

   The ©Murakami retrospective opens at MOCA Los Angeles with a Louis Vuitton boutique inside.

9. Apr 2008

   The retrospective opens at the Brooklyn Museum, with mock street stalls selling only authentic goods.

10. 2014

    Marc Jacobs leaves Louis Vuitton; Nicolas Ghesquiere succeeds him.

11. Jul 2015

    Louis Vuitton discontinues the Monogram Multicolore line.

12. Feb 28, 2024

    A 2004 White Multicolore Nano Speedy with padlock, keys and dust bag sells at auction in London for 960 pounds.

13. Dec 2024

    Louis Vuitton announces the Louis Vuitton x Murakami re-edition of more than 200 items.

14. Jan 1, 2025

    Chapter One of the re-edition launches, including a new Nano Speedy at $2,270.

15. Oct 1, 2026

    A pre-owned white Multicolore 2000s mini Speedy is listed at $3,069; the re-edition Nano Speedy lists at $2,390.

The world in 2004

• Jan 25, 2004

  NASA's Opportunity rover lands on Mars.

• Apr 1, 2004

  Google launches Gmail.

• May 1, 2004

  The European Union expands by ten member states.

• May 5, 2004

  Picasso's Garcon a la pipe sells for $104.2 million, then a record for a work of art at auction.

• Aug 13, 2004

  The Summer Olympics open in Athens.

• Aug 19, 2004

  Google makes its initial public offering.

• Aug 22, 2004

  Armed robbers steal Munch's The Scream from the Munch Museum in Oslo.

Price record

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 x Takashi Murakami Nano Speedy is number 58 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 (49 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Monogram Multicolore uses 33 colors, on either a white or a black background.
• Murakami said he sent Marc Jacobs 70 or 80 images by email, and Jacobs chose one or two.
• At the 2008 Brooklyn Museum opening, Louis Vuitton set up fake street stalls that sold only authentic goods, a joke about counterfeiters.
• In Mean Girls (2004), Regina George carries a Murakami Cherry Blossom bag.
• The Murakami partnership was Louis Vuitton's longest artist collaboration when it ended in 2015.
• The 2025 re-edition Nano Speedy came in white with gold hardware or black with silver hardware.