History Forum / General / British History / July 2007

Hilarious!

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas
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Front Row
Gorbachev Made Me Buy It

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26ROW.html?ex=1343102400&en=a9089f23b7
5d1f63&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss>

Louis Vuitton

BAGGAGE Annie Leibovitz’s portrait, part of a new advertising campaign.

By ERIC WILSON
Published: July 26, 2007

SO many fashion ads feature celebrities now that it isn’t even faintly
jarring to flip through the August issue of Vogue and see Scarlett Johansson
lying on her belly with a Louis Vuitton bag over her shoulder and 10 pages
later find her flat on her back, her cascading blond hair spread to promote
L’Oréal Superior Preference shade No. 10NB.

That said, what is a reader to make of a Vuitton ad, coming in the big
September books, that stars Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last president of the
Soviet Union?

A decade ago, Mr. Gorbachev’s appearance in a Pizza Hut
commercial was generally greeted as a low point in his career.

Hilarious! -- DSH

The Vuitton ad, however, is part of a campaign to emphasize the company’s
heritage in luggage and travel accessories. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz,
the ads include other celebrities using Vuitton bags: Andre Agassi and
Steffi Graf cuddling in a hotel room, their bags not yet unpacked; Catherine
Deneuve resting on a trunk in front of a steaming locomotive; and Mr.
Gorbachev in the back of a car with a duffel bag on the seat next to him. Of
the group, Mr. Gorbachev appears the least comfortable. He is holding on to
a door handle, as if the bag contained polonium 210.

Hilarious! -- DSH

It seems unlikely he will be approached by L’Oréal.

THE August issue of Harper’s Bazaar, meanwhile, includes fashion
illustrations by Julius Preite of “The Simpsons,” with a cartoon version of
Glenda Bailey, the editor, in place of her usual portrait. And now on
Style.com, it is Candy Pratts Price, the site’s executive fashion director,
who appears more animated than usual.

In a feature called “CandyCast,” Ms. Price will dispense thoughts on fashion
in the form of an avatar, illustrated by Bruno Frisoni, the creative
director of Roger Vivier. She looks skinnier than a paper clip.

“Take a look at gray!” she says in the first installment, which sounds a tad
like a spoof of Diana Vreeland. “Always chic, always right, and always,
always mandatory!”

Ms. Price said she hopes to convey a lighter tone in the future.

“It will definitely be related to fashion, because that is what I do for a
living,” she said. “I am not a doctor.”