“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” Thus wrote Jack Kerouac in “On the Road”, the novel that defined a generation at the end of the 50s. This generation included Cassius Clay, aka Muhammad Ali, who was 15 when the book was first released.
Louis Vuitton was right on target in asking the ex heavy-weight champion to be the muse for their new Core Values campaign. In his own way, Ali is the embodiment of “the road”, living it out as intensely as Kerouac between boxing rings and political debates.
Through the lens of photographer Annie Leibovitz, Vuitton’s luggage is represented by the emblematic Keepall bag. The choice of Muhammad Ali after a long line of past Vuitton muses (including Buzz Aldrin, French soccer star Zinedine Zidane, Mikhail Gorbachev, Angelina Jolie, and Sean Connery) is about choosing a man, a story, his scars, and his values. It’s about the fundamental thirst for the infinite elsewhere, for the creation of a personal legend, for taking the reigns of destiny, and for passing it all on to future generations. It’s about all of the above with a Vuitton travel bag in hand. Tried and true. The stuff dreams are made of.
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