My friend Kandice recently informed me that Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs has a Spongebob tattoo! Wow, I had no idea he loved Sponge that much?! That takes some kind of commitment. And by the looks of it, he’s very proud of his attraction to the little guy.
In the fashion industry, where image and perception is pretty much your selling feature, I’m fascinated at the bold gesture. He obviously doesn’t care – or rather doesn’t need to care about the implication of it on his designs. The LV brand is so well-established and permanent that I’m sure he could get away with publicly loving/donning any cartoon without it affecting perception or sales.
But would publicly admiring Squarepants be damaging to the LV image? I imagine if anything it has generated discussion about him, his work, his ideas and creative process – making the brand an interesting topic of conversation. Like this blog, for instance. Whether or not it was purposefully done to promote or generate attention – what a great promotional tactic! Get a cute tattoo and watch it unfold…
Hm, I wonder if we’ll see yellow hues in the next collection?
For the full slide show click here.
Picture courtesy of the NY Times.
d e s i g n s b y steffyt 
im sure having spongeyNESS tattooed does absolutely no damage to LV nor how we perceive jacobs work…
its a personal gesture…not a bold gesture…
dontcha think…
personal being…it belongs to him and is set aside from his work…
it is a comment on marc himself…
how we perceive him…
plus, hes got a freggin M&M tattoo as well…
clearly…marc jacob is the coolest man alive…
i liked him already…i like him even more now…
if he had a LV or JACOB tattoo…
well then…
id have a whole diff story there…
True! If he had a corporate symbol tattooed that would be a very different statement – and surely get a different reaction. But I’m sure that’s totally not his “thing.” He seems to have quite a few cartoon-ish tattoos. I wonder if he’d be open for an interview?
These days getting a tatoo is literally “branding” oneself with a brand – you. It seems to me that MJ, while he has that serious designer guy side, there is a sense of humour behind that high fashion. Frankly, LV would do well to associate itself with some of that fun and fresh humour offered by SpongeBob and M&M candy man. It makes the brand more accessible and therefore, more well known across the fashion and non-fashion public. Can you imagine an ad with SpongeBob and an LV bag? It would totally turn my head and create a major buzz. No, wait a minute…how about Hello Kitty with an LV bag? Or better yet, a Hello Kitty LV bag! I’m getting too excited now. Putting pop culture and high fashion is something that companies would be wise to exploit. After all, if you can market to the young, you could have a customer for life.
I was thinking to myself, are they going to have Sponge carrying an LV bag next? But actually, if you’ve seen the LV ‘journey’ ads, they’re quite the opposite. The ads are extra long, feature zen-like people in zen-like situations, where people are “taking the journey” and need to have this amazing and enlightening experience. Where at first, I thought it would be something spectacular and extremely unattainable – some “nirvana” – I realized that’s exactly what they want LV to stand for. So they’ve got their ‘serious’ side too, I suppose.