UPDATED 12:57 EST / DECEMBER 29 2015

NEWS

Louis Vuitton uses ‘Final Fantasy’ character Lightning to model new fashion collection

High-end French fashion house Louis Vuitton is launching a clothing and accessory line inspired by video games, and the company has tapped an actual game character to model the new line: Final Fantasy XIII’s Lightning.  The ad campaign is part of Louis Vuitton’s Spring-Summer 2016 collection.

Creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere revealed Lighting as the new face of Louis Vuitton’s “Series 4” line in a somewhat surreal promo video posted to Instagram. “Reality and fantasy become one : lightning a genuine heroine in the new @louisvuitton series 4 ad campaign,” Ghesquiere said in the video description.

In his posts to Instagram, Ghesquiere said that Louis Vuitton partnered with veteran Final Fantasy designer Tetsuya Nomura to bring Lightning to life in the campaign. Nomura has been with Final Fantasy developer Square Enix since the early 1990s, first working as a debugger on Final Fantasy IV for the Super Nintendo. He later played a major role in some of the series’ most iconic games, and he served as the lead character designer on fan favorite Final Fantasy VII, in which Nomura created the look of some of the franchise’s best known characters.

Nomura himself has been rather creative when it comes to character fashion, and the Final Fantasy franchise in general is well known for some of the outlandish outfits worn by its characters. While this includes Sephiroth’s stylish black long coat, it also includes Final Fantasy VIII’s Squall in his fur collared half-coat thing and pants with way too many belts, as well as Final Fantasy X’s Tidus in his—uh, whatever the hell this is:

Final Fantasy X Tidus

Yikes

Surprisingly, the new Louis Vuitton Series 4 ads are not the first fashion campaign to feature Lightning as a model. The character has previously appeared with other Final Fantasy characters in a Japanese publication in an advertisement for Prada.

Image credit: nicolasghesquiere | Instagram

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