“The spirit of our Spring/Summer 2012 collection is reflected beautifully in this new ad campaign,” says Louis Vuitton Artistic Director Marc Jacobs. “All the tone and texture of the collection – the lightness, the prettiness, the broderie anglaise, the millefeuille layers of organza – are recreated in these wonderful images by Steven Meisel. It is all very soft and very sweet, yet at the same time very bold and very graphic.”

In an intriguing echo of the previous season, the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 advertising campaign once again takes up the narrative of the fashion show, continuing it from the point where the woman steps daintily off the pure white fairground carrousel and into the pastel pink paradise of a nearby ice cream parlor. Like the vintage limousines of the Fall/Winter campaign, this vastly different setting – painstakingly recreated in a New York studio, complete with a mouth-watering array of Chantilly-topped sundaes – provides the perfect showcase for the deliciously sweet, airy concoctions of Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection.

Up-and-coming models Daria Strokous and Kati Nescher are the lucky pair chosen to sample the parlor’s assorted delights while wearing some of the season’s standout looks, including romantic broderie anglaise dresses, ladylike shifts embellished with strass, studs and 3D flowers, and sorbet- colored suits with white lace collars. Accessories, too, feature prominently in the nine visuals, foremost among them the Lockit bag in sheer nylon voile that opened the runway show, the Speedy in powdered, whitewashed crocodile, and the pointed-toe mules in pastel shades with metal toe caps, dainty laces or rows of tiny buttons. “The whole ambiance is very pretty, very special and very magical,” says Marc Jacobs, “and I’m sure it will look just delicious and fresh come the spring.”

Isabelle des Garets, Advertising and Editions Director for Louis Vuitton, comments: “Once again, Marc Jacobs and Steven Meisel have created a stunning campaign that not only captures the romance and lightness of the runway show, but expresses it in an entirely fresh and playful way – and in a style that is unmistakably Louis Vuitton.”

The Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 advertising campaign will break in the February 2012 issues of magazines worldwide.

Models: Kati Nescher Daria Strokous
Stylist:
Karl Templer
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat McGrath



Video via Louis Vuitton

“A sophomore endeavor in the glare of the spotlight is never easy. Think second books, second albums, second movies. To sharpen the challenge for Kim Jones, Louis Vuitton draws one hell of a spotlight. But in his second season as director of the men’s studio for the brand, Jones aced it. The job agrees with him. He loves travel, which is Vuitton’s lifeblood. He has a connoisseur’s sensibility, again, a Vuitton signature. But Jones also has the kind of endlessly engaged, curatorial attitude to his world that can make memorably graphic connections between people, places, and times. This collection, for example, he called “a tale of two cities,” Paris and Tokyo, capitals of culture that have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship. Georges Vuitton, son of Louis himself, was inspired by Japanese floral paintings while he was developing the iconic monogram.

But Jones was also thinking about a different kind of bridge for Vuitton. He has always loved Antonio Lopez, the fashion illustrator whose visual style helped define the seventies and eighties. Lopez was, according to Jones, one of the first fashion people to ever go to Japan and use its inspiration in his work. He was also an alumnus of the High School of Art and Design in New York. So is Marc Jacobs, Vuitton’s Number One. All of which is a roundabout way of getting to the point that Vuitton’s latest menswear collection made the kind of connections Jones relishes. And that’s even before we get to the fact that Giorgio Moroder, Mister Disco himself, introduced the show, vocoder vox and all, before pressing the button on a soundtrack of his classics.

Under a giant silver globe (for some reason, it echoed Scarface, but maybe that was just because Moroder, who scored the movie, was in the house), Jones marched a consummate collection of new international style down the catwalk. The materials alone took you on a journey: a camel coat with kangaroo fur collar, a trench with crocodile patches, a coat cut from a Vuitton travel blanket, shoes of astrakhan, and, most of all, exquisite silks that had been woven outside Tokyo in a place recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The weaving process is so agonizingly ritualized by tradition that they can produce only 20 centimeters a day. And yet here were whole suits and kimono shirts cut from the stuff. The shirts were used under jackets instead of waistcoats, “a replacement of the three-piece,” said Jones. But counterpointing this traditional stuff were the most advanced techno fabrics, also from Japan. They were cut into reflective outerwear that harked back to Jones’ own collections.

There was detail in the collection that made the head spin—Antonio’s feather and arrow motifs were reproduced by couture ateliers (the feathers hand-painted in the company’s Gaston color scheme), locks on bags were covered in tiny leather sheaths modeled on the signs of the Chinese zodiac. It’s that curatorial thing again. But today it was also the genuine pleasure of an eye for detail meeting a bottomless pocket. The result was a stellar sophomore outing.” – Tim Blanks, Style.com

Gallery:
• Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2012 Menswear Collection – Fashion Show
• Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2012 Menswear Collection – Backstage
• Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2012 Menswear Collection – Celebrities

Images via Louis Vuitton / Ludwig Bonnet

The notion of the Louis Vuitton bag and luggage is a key theme throughout the entire collection and roots the overall approach to a sense of the Louis Vuitton legacy. This season sees the debut of a number of new, distinctive bag styles for men. But at the heart of this season is the new Nomade leather, softer and revisited in a rich palette of olive green, burgundy and tobacco.

Eponymous of the legendary savoir-faire of Louis Vuitton, this season its simple and classic construction in a variety of styles points to the spirit of the house and punctuates this collection throughout. It also features the most traditional and the most personal of all the logos in the classic “V”. It originally came from the steamer bag of Gaston-Louis Vuitton, one of the Maison’s very own iconic world travelers.

Nomade Leather

Nomade Cabas East-West
Colors: Tabac, Iris Noir (pictured), Acacia
Price: tba

Nomade Cabas North-South
Color: Tabac
Price: tba

Porte-Jumelles
Material/Color: Nomade/Tabac (left), Alligator/Marine (right)
Prices: tba

Nomade V Sérigraphié

Nomade Cabas V Sérigraphié
Color: Tabac
Price: tba

Monogram Kibo

Monogram Kibo Sac à Dos
Color: Écru
Price: US$10,500

Images via Louis Vuitton