This Louis Vuitton short film is based on local Beijing director Quentin Shih’s own experience of having moved to New York, only to return to Beijing a decade later and finding it completely changed. Louis Vuitton commissioned Vogue to create an advertorial that would showcase their signature luggage line in a unique way. Instead of going the traditional route of using a fashion shoot, GQ Editorial Director Grant Pearce and I worked together on this project to develop an artistic narrative that conveyed the idea of travel and the passage of time.
We shot in various locations around Beijing that highlighted both modern Beijing with it’s towering skyscrapers, as well as the old “hutong” villages of traditional Beijing. Our narrative dealt with how these traditional village homes are slowly being destroyed in order to make room for modern apartment high-rises and five-star hotels, and how this gives way to nostalgia for the past.