The Business of Fashion

Louis Vuitton and Keith Richards | Viral marketing magic

By now, everyone has seen the striking Annie Leibovitz portrait of Keith Richards, his electric guitar, and his monogrammed Louis Vuitton guitar case. It is the fourth in a series of ads that have featured Mikhail Gorbachev, Catherine Deneuve, and tennis powercouple, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.

The ads have been in almost every respected magazine and newspaper imaginable, the Richards image is the current homepage image for the Louis Vuitton website, and the former Rolling Stone is blown up to two story proportions as the hoarding in front of the soon-to-be-expanded Louis Vuitton store on London's Bond Street.

But somehow, I did miss this YouTube video which goes behind-the-scenes to show how Leibovitz worked her photographic magic with a rock star legend.

IHT Supreme Luxury: Interviews with Ford and Arnault

We are seriously enjoying these videos from the IHT Supreme Luxury Conference being held this week in Moscow. Suzy Menkes, while not a natural television interviewer, asks all the right questions and solicits some very interesting responses from her interviewees. Today she quizzes Tom Ford on his new label and asks Bernard Arnault about the impact of the credit crunch on the luxury industry.

Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH