While everyone is still talking about The Louis, a cruise ship-shaped Louis Vuitton flagship in Shanghai, the French luxury brand has already launched a follow-up. Expanding on the concept, Louis Vuitton presented a video and photo travel campaign that explores China travel. The campaign, titled the “L’Âme du Voyage” (旅行的真谛, lit. the spirit of travel), launched in China in early July and will see a global rollout starting 24 July.
The campaign is in collaboration with American photographer Alec Soth. It brings Soth and LV’s travel collection to three of China’s top destinations: the Li River of Guilin, Guangxi, the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park of Hunan and the Hanging Temple of Datong, Shanxi. The Maison takes advantage of Soth’s poetic yet realistic style to blend its luggage into the beautiful natural sights and cultural sites of China.
The luxury luggage pieces, including the Monogram Horizon rolling suitcase, Soft Keepall bags, and the Alzer and Coffret series, are placed in unexpected locations, such as on the back of bicycles on a footbridge over the river, or on top of a cormorant fishing raft with birds. The almost surreal compositions elevate the campaign into the realm of contemporary art. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “L’Âme du Voyage” (#旅行的真谛#) earned 63.47 million views.
Although some question the “realism” of the campaign and feel the luxury luggage was shoehorned in, Louis Vuitton’s intention was to spark conversation around the “spirit” of travel. With travel in China continuing to grow this year, partly thanks to visa waivers, the Louis Vuitton campaign might just be tapping into the zeitgeist of appreciating the country’s sights.