One wouldn't think that the world of Louis Vuitton handbags would have much in common with video games, but the fashion company has taken Lightning by Tetsuya Nomura and the Visual Works of Square Enix and made this fictional character a model and mascot of their handbags. It is a clashing of two worlds that don't often combine, fashion and video games. As it turns out, it isn't that different, and something like this could happen in the future.
Louis Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere has been posting shots of the upcoming Series 4 campaign his Instagram account, which includes a video of Lightning posing with these handbags in very action poses. It is interesting, and hopefully, the audience will be willing to buy these items from Louis Vuitton's Spring-Summer 2016 collection after seeing Lightning move like...lightning.
According to The Verge, the creative director's Instagram post introduced Lightning as a "genuine heroine" for the campaign and explained how it is exciting to have "real reality" influenced by the virtual world, saying: "We're all confronted by the digital world in a good way, and we're influenced by cyber (sic), influenced by the images that make us a dream or judge."
According to Preen, Nicolas worked with Square Enix artist and designer Tetsuya Nomura to illustrate Lightning holding and wearing pieces straight from the runway show. And the designer goes on to explain, "I was thinking about this digital frontier, which I wanted to combine in harmony with the world of Louis Vuitton-the craft, the wardrobe. It's an evocation of cyber, of what comes from digital-these characters or girls that are speaking to their generation."
In case you think this is too unusual, the Final Fantasy XIII characters have been used to model Prada fashions back in 2012, according to Kotaku. Also, last October, Louis Vuitton's spring/summer 2016 had these underlying themes of manga, anime, and virtual reality. Fernanda Ly led the show, complete with pink hair, and she has a resemblance to Lightning.
This is clearly a start of a new trend, with characters from video games sporting the latest looks. Well, they might not be able to walk a real catwalk, but they can sure take command of a virtual one. I wonder what is next? Will Lara Croft be modeling? I suppose that Mario and Princess Peach could be next, but it isn't like they have realistic bodily proportions.
However, does anyone else think that it is odd that people that aren't even real are modeling clothes? I mean, it's very clear that Joe Camel can do it with cigarettes, but shouldn't real clothes be modeled by real people. It truly is a changing world.
