NEW YORK, Jan 14, 2011 / FW/ — With the mystery of the Orient and a futuristic “bad girls” element as imagined by the brand’s Artistic Director Marc Jacobs, the Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2011 advertising campaign projects a decadent glamour of a non-apocalyptic future.

Describing the process that led to the Spring / Summer 2011 ad campaign, Marc Jacobs relates, “We started from the very beginning this season talking about glamour and something very stylized, very glossy; we arrived at something which I would compare to the Eiffel Tower lighting up every hour on the hour – something of artifice that is just so gorgeous, and glamorous, and beautiful, that you are completely mesmerized by it.”

Shot in a New York studio by photographer Steven Meisel, the new campaign stars Freja Beha Erichsen and Kristen McMenamy, whose body was famously painted with zebra stripes for the finale – alongside a flame-haired Raquel Zimmermann.

The dazzling colors and shimmering textures of the clothes, the glossy hair and makeup, and the sparkling Seventies-influenced décor combine to create a spectacular set of images, with the models striking louche poses in color-blocked lurex, silk cheongsams and lush iris prints.

The mood, reflecting the deliberate artificiality of Marc Jacobs’ Orient-inspired vision, is vastly different from that of the previous season – indeed these three “bad girls”, with their long tasseled earrings, Monogram lace fans and two-tone leather or python-trimmed jacquard bags, seem to deliver a riposte to the three “good girls” of the demure Fall/Winter 2010 campaign.

The Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2011 advertising campaign will break in the February 2011 issues of magazines worldwide.

[MARI DAVIS]
Photos courtesy of Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton Spring/ Summer 2011 Advertising Campaign