I should have been admiring the shoe.
I should have been gazing dreamily at it, fantasizing about my Cinderella moment wearing this pointy toe pump and dramatic spike heel at a high society party.
Or I should have been wondering about the number of Swarovski crystals mounted on the shoe from toe to heel.
Instead, after walking past the window display of this luxury shoe boutique, the first thought that came to mind was, "See? See? Now who said luxury brands and digital animation don't mix?!?!"
Not very ladylike, and not very luxurious-minded, I'd say.
But for good reason. :)
See, there had been this meeting last year, and during it, after the round-robin analysis of corporate videos versus digital animation, the other side came to his own absolute conclusion that luxury brands and digital animation would never mix. He was completely certain that no CEO of a luxury brand would ever think about using digital animation. Too frivolous, too playful for bespoke brands. Too childish, too immature, too much of a plaything for the serious stuff of life. Why, he was so 150% sure about it that he said he could immediately call up his contact at a luxury brand and this person would verify his perspective.
Not even a picture like this shown to him right there and then would shake him from his core belief.
Subject to copyright this picture is, I know, so thank you to LV's legal.. and thanks for letting me borrow this to make a point.
It's a d*** strong point I'm making.
The first is that there's nothing absolute and certain in this world. Sure, we know luxury brands. We know luxury boutiques. We know their work. We know their art. We know their boutiques. We enter them. We purchase them online. We fly to Paris and Italy and Spain to buy piece by piece. We purchase their work as investments.
But we are not them.
We aren't Prada or Louis Vuitton or Loewe or Coach or Bottega Venata or Hermes. We don't know their plans, or their business strategies, or which markets they wish to develop or who they want to tap on. We don't know all of that. We might know a person here, or a person there, but if you're not in the inner circle where the design team, or the upper echelons in HQ are, then we don't really know anything at all.
And so we can't be completely and absolutely certain of anything.
Which means that while Lightning from Final Fantasy posing in a Louis Vuitton ad might catch us by surprise, and we might launch into opinions and theories about the pros and cons and if it's heading in the right direction or not, we really shouldn't shut it off, nor shut it up.
Because it's taking place, and it will continue to take place through various representations.
And if it occurs to you that such unreal, unhuman "influencers" might be far from their league, or that these 'not even people' might be watering down their quality of work, then you don't know the workings of Entertainment, you don't know film, you don't know music, you don't know games and the philosophy of gameplay, you don't know what digital entertainment is all about, you don't know its valuation, you don't know what audiences it communicates to, you don't know the data it collects, you don't know the technology that goes on behind the 'for children only to play play', you don't know the seriousness that goes into it, you don't know how entertainment influences people and grabs eyeballs and modifies behavior, and you don't know the power of Licensing, Merchandise, and Merchandising.
In fact, you possibly might refute Entertainment altogether.
However, Mr. Bernard Arnault does not. Datuk Choo does not. Coach does not. Christian Louboutin does not. And neither does Burberry.
In which case, perhaps it would be wiser to not speak on their behalf, don't you think?
I should have been gazing dreamily at it, fantasizing about my Cinderella moment wearing this pointy toe pump and dramatic spike heel at a high society party.
Or I should have been wondering about the number of Swarovski crystals mounted on the shoe from toe to heel.
Instead, after walking past the window display of this luxury shoe boutique, the first thought that came to mind was, "See? See? Now who said luxury brands and digital animation don't mix?!?!"
Not very ladylike, and not very luxurious-minded, I'd say.
But for good reason. :)
See, there had been this meeting last year, and during it, after the round-robin analysis of corporate videos versus digital animation, the other side came to his own absolute conclusion that luxury brands and digital animation would never mix. He was completely certain that no CEO of a luxury brand would ever think about using digital animation. Too frivolous, too playful for bespoke brands. Too childish, too immature, too much of a plaything for the serious stuff of life. Why, he was so 150% sure about it that he said he could immediately call up his contact at a luxury brand and this person would verify his perspective.
Not even a picture like this shown to him right there and then would shake him from his core belief.
 |
| borrowed from the US Louis Vuitton website |
It's a d*** strong point I'm making.
The first is that there's nothing absolute and certain in this world. Sure, we know luxury brands. We know luxury boutiques. We know their work. We know their art. We know their boutiques. We enter them. We purchase them online. We fly to Paris and Italy and Spain to buy piece by piece. We purchase their work as investments.
But we are not them.
We aren't Prada or Louis Vuitton or Loewe or Coach or Bottega Venata or Hermes. We don't know their plans, or their business strategies, or which markets they wish to develop or who they want to tap on. We don't know all of that. We might know a person here, or a person there, but if you're not in the inner circle where the design team, or the upper echelons in HQ are, then we don't really know anything at all.
And so we can't be completely and absolutely certain of anything.
Which means that while Lightning from Final Fantasy posing in a Louis Vuitton ad might catch us by surprise, and we might launch into opinions and theories about the pros and cons and if it's heading in the right direction or not, we really shouldn't shut it off, nor shut it up.
Because it's taking place, and it will continue to take place through various representations.
And if it occurs to you that such unreal, unhuman "influencers" might be far from their league, or that these 'not even people' might be watering down their quality of work, then you don't know the workings of Entertainment, you don't know film, you don't know music, you don't know games and the philosophy of gameplay, you don't know what digital entertainment is all about, you don't know its valuation, you don't know what audiences it communicates to, you don't know the data it collects, you don't know the technology that goes on behind the 'for children only to play play', you don't know the seriousness that goes into it, you don't know how entertainment influences people and grabs eyeballs and modifies behavior, and you don't know the power of Licensing, Merchandise, and Merchandising.
In fact, you possibly might refute Entertainment altogether.
However, Mr. Bernard Arnault does not. Datuk Choo does not. Coach does not. Christian Louboutin does not. And neither does Burberry.
In which case, perhaps it would be wiser to not speak on their behalf, don't you think?