Louis Vuitton's Madonna overload

It’s Madonna’s second season as the image of luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton. While artistic director Marc Jacobs was keen to continue the feel for fall/winter 2009-2010, he was equally determined to produce something different.

Shot in a New York studio by Steven Meisel, Madonna stars in sophisticated portraits reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood.

Meisel was inspired by modernist photographer Man Ray, who perfected the technique of solarization.

“Solarization is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone. Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark.” (Wiki)

In the seven layouts, Madonna wears key pieces from the new collection — of ruffled silks, bold accessories and sequined Monogram bags. The whole look is balanced by an accidental accessory — the bunny ears — which were such a hit on the runway.

Marc explained the bunny ears to fabsugar.com:

“There’s a girl who works for us, Lucy, she’s on the design team, and Adrian, one of the boys, was tying a little bit of fabric around (that) reminded me of bunny. We were thinking of all these different things like can-can dancers, and I saw this piece of fabric wrapped around Lucy’s head and said, ‘Bunny ears, that’s what we need to finish this look.’ So we made all these radzimir bunny ears and that’s how it happened. I like the kind of Playboy, French coquette aspect to it.”

“After the fun we had with the spring/summer collection and the amazing reaction to it, all of us — Madonna, Steven and myself — were eager to get back together for fall/winter,” Jacobs said.

Antoine Arnault, head of communications for Louis Vuitton, comments: “This is another superb campaign, reflecting not only the close relationship between Madonna, Jacobs and Meisel, but also their immense creative talent and their consistent desire to challenge and innovate.”

Louis Vuitton’s new ad campaign appears this August in magazines worldwide.