It was hard to imagine who else Louis Vuitton could "recruit" as their seasonal icons for the Core Values campaign: filling the shoes of Mikhail Gorbachev, Catherine Deneuve, Keith Richards and Sean Connery was a tough thing to do. So they decided to shoot for the moon, with the help of not one but five space travelers: Buzz Aldrin, who in the course of the historic Apollo 11 mission with Neil Armstrong on 20th and 21st July 1969, became the second man to set foot upon the Moon;  Jim Lovell, the commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970, who - as the world watched with bated breath - heroically guided his crew back to the safety of Earth;  and Sally Ride, who in 1983 became the first American woman to venture into space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger. 

The new visual, photographed once more by Annie Leibovitz, was shot on the high plateaux of the Californian desert, from where, on a clear night, the Moon takes on an almost supernatural intensity.  The three astronauts are portrayed quietly surveying the sky from the battered pickup truck in which they have undertaken this journey together, each no doubt reliving an extraordinary memory.  Beside them on the truck is Louis Vuitton’s Icare travel bag in Monogram canvas, an allusion to the mythological hero who also dreamed of flight.  The tag line, in an echo of Neil Armstrong’s famous words in 1969, states:  "Some journeys change mankind forever".

Photo credits:

Some journeys change mankind forever. Sally Ride, first American woman in space. Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11, first steps on the moon in 1969. Jim Loveli, Apollo 13, commander.

01/04/2009 © LOUIS VUITTON / ANNIE LEIBOVITZ