At the beginning of March 2023, a screenshot of the fashion house’s stories circulated on social networks. In it, brand representatives allegedly advise Ukrainians to “learn geography” in response to their outraged comments about the use of a blue-white-red flag with the letter V in the presentation of one of the shows. We checked whether Louis Vuitton really wrote this.
Ukrainian users and officials criticized Louis Vuitton for video clip with the announcement of the show as part of Paris Fashion Week. The video showed a blue, white and red flag with a black V hanging in the middle of the Musee d'Orsay in the French capital. Some accused the brand of lack of tact, others of supporting Russia's military actions in Ukraine. Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak wrote on Twitter: “The Russian Federation has been destroying Ukrainians in Europe for more than a year, using the tricolor and V/Z swastika. An elite fashion house aimed at the “Russian nouveau riche” decided to publicly play with symbols of aggression. Luxury smells better when it's soaked in blood, right, Louis Vuitton?”
In response to criticism from Ukrainians in the comments, Louis Vuitton allegedly posted in stories photograph French tricolor and the signature “Teach Geography” (translated from Ukrainian - “learn geography”). On March 6, this story, allegedly deleted an hour later, was reported in Russian media, such as RBC, "Vesti.ru", Life.ru, "Russian newspaper", "Gazeta.ru", RTVI, RIA Novosti, "Ren-TV» etc. The screenshot was also published by popular Telegram channels, including Baza (360,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), “Ruthless PR man"(343,000 views), "Fisherman"(293,000 views), "Ostashko! Important"(100,000 views), etc.
Instagram-fast Louis Vuitton (LV), which caused condemnation from Ukrainian users, was published on March 4, 2023. Within a few days, more than 18,000 comments were left under the video. Among their authors were those who recalled that the flag shown in the video has nothing to do with Russian aggression against Ukraine - the combination of white, blue and red colors is used in the French tricolor, and the letter V symbolizes the first letter of the surname Louis Vuitton, French designer and founder of a fashion brand. The same flag flutters above the LV flagship store in Paris. Logo featuring a black letter V on a blue, white and red background used fashion house since at least 1901. On the LV website written, that the emblem was first used by Gaston-Louis Vuitton, the grandson of the founder of the brand, Louis Vuitton. This symbol is periodically used in women's and men's collections of accessories and jewelry; it was also present on several wardrobe items at the recent showing Louis Vuitton during Fashion Week in the French capital.
That is, by advising critics to “learn geography,” Louis Vuitton allegedly reminded them both of the colors of the national flag of France and of the history of the brand’s use of the letter V. At the same time, we were unable to find the story that Russian media and bloggers wrote about on LV’s verified Instagram page. They are usually displayed on the profile for 24 hours, and then are automatically deleted if the author does not save them in special collections. In highlights (stories album) using the hashtag used in the screenshot #LVFW23 she's not there either. Media mention, that the image with the call to “learn geography” “was on Instagram for an hour, and was later deleted.” Delete stories really Can, without waiting for their 24-hour “life” to expire.
Nevertheless, some inconsistencies in the Russian media version make us question its credibility. First, we did a reverse image search and made sure that absolutely all media outlets and social media users were sharing the same screenshot taken one minute after the story was published. Moreover, the same image is also published by non-Russian speakers. internet users, although the screenshot was taken on a smartphone with a Russian-language interface. It is extremely unlikely that out of Louis Vuitton's 51.8 million subscribers, only one Russian-speaking subscriber noticed this story, especially considering the excitement around the brand's previous post.
Secondly, the font used for the hashtag #LVFW23 in the screenshot is different from the one used brand in for writing the same hashtag in others stories This is not typical for Louis Vuitton - they usually maintain consistency in the design of their publications, using a corporate font.
The earliest publication we found with a screenshot appeared in the Telegram channel “Signal"(previously he had repeatedly featured V debriefings “Verified”) March 5 at 16:31 Moscow time - about a day after the appearance video Louis Vuitton with the announcement of the show. At the same time, the majority Media refer to the newspaper channel "Komsomolskaya Pravda”, who published the same screenshot an hour and a half later than the original source. Many publications claim, that the advice to “learn geography” was addressed to Podolyak in response to his indignant tweet. The media were not at all embarrassed that the Komsomolskaya Pravda post appeared on the Internet more than two hours earlier than the tweet, which means that this story could not be a “response.”
The brand itself did not publicly respond to the wave of outrage over the video with the tricolor, nor to the advice attributed to it to “learn geography.” British edition The Telegraph requested comment from the fashion house but did not receive a response. Taking into account the inconsistencies in the design of the stories and the absence of other screenshots of the same post, supposedly published to a multimillion-dollar audience, we can conclude with an extremely high degree of probability that the screenshot of the Instagram stories is a fake. Probably its creators took the image of the French flag from photo bank and superimposed the interface of the Instagram page of the Louis Vuitton brand on top of it.
Cover photo: Telegram
Most likely not true
- Is it true that singer Madonna made a video in which she chewed and spat out the flag of Ukraine?
- The Telegraph. Ukraine accuses Louis Vuitton of endorsing Russian invasion with advert for Paris fashion week
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