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Existentialism is a Louis Vuitton shirt...

I went to the Movies today, since it was my first day off in a couple of days from my mind numbing, capitalist crushing, advantage taking job of working in a Betting shop/Bookies.
Money is the root of all evil, but money is also money. I need it to replace what I've greedily spent from my overdrafts when I was working and living in NYC. So then I can re-spend all the overdraft on my next life changing trip (either round Europe or back to the US(west coast) ) before I go back to college in October.

Whatever. Anyways, I love going to movies extra early so I can catch all the commercials and future movie trailers. The adverts are all pretty much the same, but because they're in a movie theatre, they are always expensively made and awe inspiring. They do their brainwashing job very well!!!

Anyways this one really got me, if only for the quality of the advert. The cinematography direction of it, is completely GREAT. I wasn't paying too much attention to what it was actually advertising because I was too busy looking at the photography element and the editing of it. So I was trying to guess what exactly this commercial is advertising...
I instantly thought, perhaps a Car because it was going on about journeys and car adverts are some of the better commercials. Then I thought a travel company such as Expedia.com.. Or perhaps a holiday place ... or life insurance.
But I got them all wrong.
Right at the end, I realised... Fashion has gone existential for its demographic.
Which, I suppose it works because according to Maslow's Social Hierarchy of needs, each stage we complete the higher up, more expensive our wants become.
So for example, I'm way too poor to even think about buying any Louis Vuitton or anything along the lines of that. I'm too busy trying to pay my rent (which I'm struggling with), whilst daydreaming of getting away from the UK. But people who can afford Louis Vuitton clearily want to define their own existence, since with money comes power and with power comes corruptness absolutely.

Anyways, perhaps if I was that kinda girl who was into the Louis Vuitton style, scene. If that was indeed what I inspired to - Thanks to this commercial I would have run to Macy's and asked Murph for his discount and bought some right up!

But I ain't that kinda girl.
At the moment I'm aspiring to some new headphones because my new ones broke :(.

Enjoy!


On image

The Keith Richards/Annie Leibovitz spot is pretty instructive. In a minute or so you see how constructed his image is, much better than the nearly two hours of the movie "Shine a Light." And LV is mostly concerned with constructing an image though a close proximity to art. I'll have to have a look on the first floor to see if Macy's has LV. I know it has Coach but LV may be in our sister store, Bloomingdale's (both owned by Federated Department Stores, now just called Macy's).

Lacoste has a different branding strategy. The Lacoste family still owns a majority of the company and it has been repositioned as a designer brand helmed by Christopher Lemaire. Growing up in the US it was always Izod/Lacoste but Izod is now a lower-end brand completely divorced from Lacoste.

I've been puzzled by the Lacoste adverting strategy, or maybe it's just not aimed at the American market. We have new "visuals" in our shop for the fall collection with a very young, very skinny guy with bad hair modeling the clothes. He's really then, almost aenemic, but the classic Lacoste polo shirt is cut boxy to fit the physique of a Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer, which is big shouldered and square. In the ads and on the models in the store the shirts have to be pinned in the back to make them "slim fit," and that's what everyone expects.

By coincidence there is a Locoste pour homme ad that is similar to the "American Psycho" clip I posted the other day. Where in the world does this commercial air with its buck naked man playing soccer with a sofa cushion? Now if I found that particular naked man in my living room I'd probably have another heart attack:


When I worked on the Revlon account at Grey Advertising years ago they would recreate iconic photographs by Richard Avedon shot, I think, by Avedon himself. The pose would be familiar or maybe it's the aura, disproving Walter Benjamin.


I'd have a heart attack to!

I'd safely say, if I saw that guy roaming around my apartment in the commercial i'd have a heart attack too, especially if he gave me that wink and that 'look' near the end of the clip! And I'm 20. :)
Regarding the new Lacoste models, it's following that european new 'indie' look. A trip on the L train to Williamsburg, bedford ave, will make everything become clearer.
I shared an apartment with a bunch of cool kids last year in my first year of college, most of which I ended up living with in a house this year. However there was one guy inparticular who was a complete twat. He trashed the kitchen when he got angry, kicked holes in the walls and smashed my plates with pictures of New York on ( that I managed to get in a Walmart sale) because he stated that he was an 'artist' and that he "needed to express hisself."
He listened to sh__ music, had an assymetrical haircut which was messy and he always rocked a Locoste polo tee if he didn't have his checked shirt on.
He was what us Brits call 'Indie' chic, or New Rave esk. I can't stand it personally.
It's a very posey subculture, much more fake and annoying than most. It's very post-post-post punk, where the revolutionary element, and historical context behind their whole image is never ever thought about or questioned. You will also usually find it suited towards a more Middle class white kid, who is living off daddy's dollar funds. (Again, Williamsburg comes 2 mind)
and Lacoste just happens to fall into all this new phase.
I'm somewhat suprised that it's taken the USA this long to really start advertising specifically for/with this demographic.

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I got a letter from the government today, it said they were suckers.


"Where will life take you?" Extended thought

"Where will life take you? ... LUIS VUITTON "
I was thinking about this advert more at work, tostop myself from falling asleep.
I decided it's more like 'where will you take life?';
Or the analogy should depend less on journey as a journey has a starting point and destination. life has pre-birth and death but this comparisson doesn't work as these are biological phases. Whereas we speak about journy as something spiritual (not the biological changes of life).

Regardless of the discrepacies regarding the question... i doubt that my answer would ever be 'Luis Vuitton'...
But I'm still not sure what my answer would be either... And I'm not sure whether I should have some answers, regardless of whether they are right or wrong. Surely one should have something.

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I got a letter from the government today, it said they were suckers.


Louis Vuitton sponsoring Richard Prince

Can't believe Louis Vuitton is sponsoring Richard Prince's exhibition at The Serpentine gallery! I had no idea that Prince was doing a whole line of Handbangs...
What's that supposed to reveal? I thought prince's work was about unveiling, exposing the truth of American life. He was supposed 2 be showing the distance that lies between the fictional characters created by the media, which are often displayed as a representation of a brand, and that of real life??
or is that my art school education tricking me again!?

http://www.thebagforum.com/louis-vuitton-bags/4225-louis-vuitton-richard...

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2008/06/richard_princecontinuation26_j....


Richard Prince

Yes, that's your art school education tricking you again.

But this is totally within the Prince trajectory since he showed at Baskerville + Watson in the 'seventies and 'eighties. The rest of us just weren't keeping as good notes on the art media realm.

VA


I had no idea Prince was

I had no idea Prince was preparing a new line ... very mysterious, very private style, probably characteristic for our culture today. I am preparing a fashion show in Bucharest and I will be using the same philosophy for my models.