QUICK LOOK INTO THE HISTORY OF LOUIS VUITTON AND ITS NEWEST CAMPAIGN



Lately i started to look for new ways to study Danish other than going to the language school. To do this I got a subscription for the Danish magazine Costume. In the december issue they were celebrating the 160th anniversary of the introduction of the Louis Vuitton brand (six pages in one magazine makes a good foundation). The company associated with luxurious goods went a long way from designing travelling bags, through periods when Marc Jacobs collaborated with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami, and Yayoi Kusama to give the company colourful breeze and to the 70's flare served by current creative director of LV, Nicolas Ghesquière. I have noticed something very interesting about the photos from the SS15 campaign. But first of all, let's make a little summary of the brand and its founder, Louis Vuitton.


So imagine this 13 year old boy who decides to go to Paris. The problem is that he has to travel 500 km from the place he lives and can only go there by foot. If you think of a person travelling such a distance, you can easily say that he had a lot of time to think…

At the age 16, Louis starts working for Monsieur Marechal where he learns how to create travel suitcases. Young Louis meets customers who appreciate his craftsmanship and attention to detail. After being employed for years, he opens the first shop under his own name in 1854 at 4 Rue Neuve-des-Capucines, where he specialises in creating traveling bags for clothes. This is where the story begins.

Louis Vuitton adds a twist to the commonly produced travelling bags. In that period, people used bags that had a dome shape. They were useful during rainy days since the form made the raindrops slide off easily. On the other hand, the dome shaped bags were not comfortable to carry or travel with. Louis changed the shape of the bags to look more like cuboids. This allowed to save space by placing the bags on top of each other. He also used waterproof materials instead of heavy leather.

Louis's son, Georges comes up with the LV monogram with quatrefoils and flowers to avoid problem with competitors copying their products. Those symbols are celebrated by the company and frequently used in their products. The LV monogram is patented worldwide and what is interesting is that LV also has patents for two spring locks which were created in 1886 but still being used.

The company is known from their quality and attention to detail in creating luxury goods. It all started from travelling bags, but now in their offer you can find clothing, jewelry, fragrance, and of course bags. Currently 460 shops in 50 countries sell products for about 7-8 billion dollars yearly. The LV brand belongs to the LVMH Group, which also owns other high end brands such as Kenzo, Givenchy, Sephora, etc. The revenue across the products sold by the group make up for approximately 30 billion dollars yearly.

The current creative director of the Women's collection for LV is Nicolas Ghesquière, who joins the company in November 2013. Nicolas presented his first collection for LV in March 2014.

The campaign 'SERIES 2' includes photos from three photographers Annie Leibovitz, Jürgen Teller, and Bruce Weber shooting the models and actress Freja Beha Erichsen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jean Campbell, and Liya Kebede. Can you tell who created which photos without googling?

The 'SERIES 2' is a continuation of 'SERIES 1' in which Nicolas asked the previously mentioned photographers to tell their stories through photos about the collection. It was an interesting experiment seeing the same collection presented by different photographers through their individual visions. When looking at those photos from the 'SERIES 2' I also see three different types of women represented by the models. This rises the question whether this was also a part of the strategy for the campaigns or not…


 Source: Louis Vuitton


 Source: Louis Vuitton


 Source: Louis Vuitton


 Source: Louis Vuitton


 Source: Louis Vuitton


 Source: Louis Vuitton


 Source: Louis Vuitton


 Source: Louis Vuitton

Saturday 10 January 2015

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