Louis Vuitton and Alex Israel Condense Seven Years of California Into a Limited-Edition Woody Wagon Cologne Set

Louis Vuitton and Alex Israel have unveiled the Woody Wagon Colognes, a limited-edition sculptural gift set that packages six of the Maison’s Cologne Perfumes inside a handcrafted miniature of the wood-paneled station wagon that became synonymous with postwar California. The release marks the latest chapter in a creative dialogue between the French luxury house and the Los Angeles-based artist that stretches back to 2019, when Israel first brought his gradient-soaked vision of the West Coast to Louis Vuitton’s then-new unisex cologne line.

The partnership between Israel and Louis Vuitton Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud has grown in ambition with each installment. The collaboration launched in 2019 with three inaugural colognes, Sun Song, Cactus Garden, and Afternoon Swim, for which Israel contributed the visual identity and packaging artwork. By 2024, the scope had expanded significantly with the Ocean BLVD collection, which presented five colognes inside a hand-built, two-meter-long miniature of a fictional Los Angeles street, crafted by 20 artisans over 500 hours. The Woody Wagon represents a substantial escalation in scale: 60 artisans, over 7,000 hours, and 219 discrete elements, tripling the workforce and multiplying the production time more than tenfold. What began as a packaging collaboration has evolved into a parallel practice in which fragrance and sculptural craft operate on equal footing.

The Woody Wagon itself functions as a miniature landscape of California. The station wagon, recognizable for the wooden paneling that made the original “woodie” a fixture of mid-century American surf culture, has been reinterpreted through Louis Vuitton’s construction vocabulary. Mahogany wood forms the paneled doors, subtly engraved with the Monogram motif, while the Maison’s semi-aged natural beige leather provides the structural skin. The wheels are decorated with Monogram flowers, and every one of the 219 elements was individually conceived and assembled. The edition is capped at 66 units, a deliberate reference to Route 66, the highway that historically connected the American heartland to the Southern California coastline. Six Cologne Perfumes sit inside, though the source material only identifies three by name (Sun Song, California Dream, and Afternoon Swim, which correspond to the three travel cases released alongside the set).

Those travel cases represent a separate limited release. Crafted in translucent resin, each case is finished in a color gradient inspired by Californian light and layered with the Monogram motif across its surface. The Sun Song case shifts from bright yellow to incandescent orange, evoking midday warmth. The California Dream case moves from translucent pink to sky blue, recreating the tonal shift of a West Coast sunset. The Afternoon Swim case graduates from azure to a deep oceanic blue, capturing the crystalline depth of a Pacific dive. The transparency of the resin allows the cologne bottle inside to become part of the chromatic effect, turning the packaging itself into a visual extension of the fragrance. Each travel case is limited to 100 pieces.

Israel’s own framing of the project speaks to the continuity of the partnership’s Californian fixation, “I’m thrilled to continue exploring my favorite landscape, Los Angeles, on this road trip with Jacques Cavallier Belletrud and Louis Vuitton. The Woody Wagon has long embodied a certain Californian freedom: surfboard on the roof, family in the back, and the Pacific just over the next hill. In this case, the family is our six Cologne perfumes.”

The Woody Wagon Colognes set is available for pre-order now in a limited edition of 66 pieces, with delivery expected in late September. The three travel cases are also available now, each limited to 100 units.