MR. BAGS X LONGCHAMP Celebrates The Year of The Pig

To mark the Chinese New Year 2019 Year of the Pig – Longchamp is renewing its collaboration with Tao Liang, aka Mr. Bags. One of China’s most influential fashion bloggers, his passion for – and encyclopaedic knowledge of – luxury handbags have made him a social media phenomenon followed by millions of “bagfans” on Weibo and WeChat.

For last year’s hugely successful debut, Mr. Bags revisited Longchamp’s iconic Le Pliage® Cuir, which is his personal bag of choice for travelling the world. This year, he returns to the theme with a wonderfully witty interpretation for the Year of the Pig – an animal which, for the Chinese, is an age-old symbol of wealth and abundance.

Longchamp’s Le Pliage® Cuir top handle bag in lambskin leather, in black, and in metis leather, in pink, is the backdrop on which Mr. Bags conjures a pig in a series of bold white lines: on the front, a curly tail; on the back, a pair of pointed ears and two dots for eyes; and hidden under the familiar flap, so only the bag’s owner knows it’s there – a tiny fart!

Available in black or pastel pink, the top handle bag is joined by the Le Pliage® Cuir travel bag in black lambskin leather, whose zipped outside pocket for a passport and tickets – a detail insisted upon by the much-travelled Mr. Bags is cleverly integrated into the drawing.

The collaboration extends to two further designs: a pouch with a zipped front pocket shaped like a pig’s snout, in black lambskin leather or pastel-pink metis leather; and a tote in transparent PVC with a pink, snout-shaped coin purse. For this, Mr. Bags was inspired by one of Longchamp Creative Director Sophie Delafontaine’s early reinterpretations of the House icon: Le Pliage® Aquarium, launched in 1998, which was memorably pictured with a fish swimming around inside it!

Following the demand for last year’s collection, the bags will be available in more stores and more countries worldwide, with personal appearances by Mr. Bags to follow in Los Angeles and Paris. The first stage of the roll-out will include all the leather bags, with the transparent top handle bag to launch by early February. Capturing the playful spirit of the collaboration, an animated film will launch on social media featuring the cute Mr. Bags character created by Tao Liang himself.

Reminiscent of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince – appropriately for the prince of handbags – the cartoon hero is seen chasing madly after a pig. He slips, jumps and bounces from one Longchamp bag to another, until he finally finds his own bag and gives it a big hug. Celebrate the Year of the Pig in style with Longchamp and Mr. Bags.