Breaking news: Louis Vuitton has asked Karl Lagerfeld to start designing for the brand. Luckily neither creative director Nicolas Ghesquière nor the powers that be at Chanel need to panic just yet, as Delphine Arnault, executive vice-president of Louis Vuitton, daughter of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and one of the most powerful women in fashion, has a particular project in mind for this fashion legend.

Along with architect Frank Gehry, photographer Cindy Sherman, cobbler Christian Louboutin and designers Marc Newson and Rei Kawakubo, Arnault has commissioned Lagerfeld to design a limited-edition collection to celebrate the brand’s 160^th anniversary. This collaborative project is called The Icon and The Iconoclasts and is set to rock the fashion world when it is launched in New York later this year. Each of the six iconoclasts has been given carte blanche to reinterpret the signature LV monogram for a series of bags and suitcases that will be available in selected cities around the world for a limited period.

“When we talked with Nicolas Ghesquière about the extraordinary talents we would like to approach, we simply went to those who are among the best in their fields,” says Arnault. “We were interested in people who work with their minds and their hands. I thought it was so interesting – and fun! – to have all of these different points of view on the monogram. It is inspiring to see how they envision things, to see their perspectives. This is a group of geniuses.”

We travelled to Tokyo last week for a very select press preview of these celebrated bags, and although we are currently sworn to secrecy, we can say that the finished designs are truly remarkable and that anyone who gets their hands on one of these iconic pieces will be the envy of every fashionista from Asia to America.