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
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.
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.”
