What is it about train travel that is just so intriguing and magical? Perhaps, growing up reading Agatha Christie, the Railway Children, The Boxcar Children and The Mandie Collection has something to do with it... as of recent that childhood memories have come flooding back with the help of The Polar Express and the Harry Potter movies.
“You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody else didn’t realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present and into the future. You probably did too; you just don’t recall it. See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls... Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.
After you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm." - Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
I have such fond memories of riding the train in Europe as a kid.. I will have to dig out a photo to post for you all. Sadly, the use of the railway system in the US has been on the decline over the years reminding me of how Bradbury writes about the summer of the last trolley ride. I can't begin to tell you how happy it makes my heart to see that vintage travel and trains are popping up everywhere these days...
Our first stop, Louis Vuitton, keep topping themselves in regards to creative and wonder infused marketing. In their most recent campaign, Louis Vuitton Express, they tap into the beautiful nostalgia of vintage train travel. The campaign the result of a match made in heaven showcasing the creative partnership between Louis Vuitton and photographer extraordinare Todd Selby of The Selby.
"Coming just in time to celebrate the brand’s 20th anniversary in China, on July 21 Louis Vuitton will open its first-ever mainland China “Maison” at Shanghai’s Plaza 66, two days after the “Louis Vuitton Express” (currently about to leave Moscow) rolls into the city. " - Jing Daily
Louis Vuitton Express ties into the brilliant Louis Vuitton Paris Fashion Week show which took place in May. Invitations guests received prior to the show, in the form of luggage tags were the only clue of what was to come:
Following the Paris Fashion Week and Louis Vuitton Express is the Fall 2012 Ad Campaign photographed by Steven Meisel which will transport audiences back to a time of luxurious and enchanting travel:
I know for the majority of us that Louis Vuitton is not in our price range and perhaps not even our style, but I think that their level of incredible creativity should inspire all of us... Keep an eye open for more vintage train travel posts that will be coming soon!