A highly controversial Louis Vuitton spot, produced by the U.K.’s Love Magazine and directed by James Lima, sheds some light at the life of ladies of the evening as they are waiting for their clients in the dark streets of Paris at night. Of course, the video serves not as a documentary but as an artistic approach to publicize the fashion giant’s latest collection. The film stars top models and includes footage from the brand’s Paris Fashion Week show.
The cast of the 3’30’’ video includes Cara Delevingne, Georgia May Jagger, Isabeli Fontana and Edie Campbell to name but a few. The clip tells a story of girls who have to sell their perfect bodies for a living. But there’re no violent elements or dirty scenes—to some extent, the video even glamorizes prostitution. The models, starring as women of the street, are wearing wigs, beautiful lingerie and fashionable clothing from the latest LV collection. The clip also features some scenes from the actual show, including the appearance of designer Marc Jacobs. In these “catwalk” parts, the ladies have a more decent look while demonstrating the couture clothing.
The clip has been highly criticized by human rights activists all across the globe. For instance, Dominique Attias, a lawyer, notes that the film is “an extremely shocking representation of women,” adding that it “portrayed women’s bodies as an object and prostitution as something that is playful and enjoyable. This is very damaging because we are trying to fight the idea, to which some young women in France subscribe, that prostitution is banal and just a way of getting money to buy clothes.” Together with the Scelles Foundation Against Sexual Exploitation, Chantal Jouanno, a former centre-right minister and Laurence Rossignol, a Socialist senator, Dominique signed a letter to the daily newspaper Liberation, accusing Louis Vuitton of “assimilating luxury with the world’s second most profitable criminal activity after drug trafficking.”
Louis Vuitton hasn’t officially apologized for the clip. When contacted, the fashion giant stated that “this video was created and broadcast by Love,” Telegraph reports.