I was going to do a Lightning Returns write-up to complete my trilogy of games with dubious costume systems, but it honestly wouldn't hold a candle to when protagonist Lightning became a real life model.
I'm not making this up; Louis Vuitton teamed up with a video game character, to promote their Series 4 line. I have the press releases to prove it. They went full bore with it too; going as far as conducting an interview...with Lightning? Who isn't a person that exists?
The campaign is real. The bags she's holding are real. It's the precursor to what Square Enix is doing now with NFTs, except that stupidly expensive bags actually still have a use.
Back in, I want to say February 2016, I was on a research trip to Edinburgh. I don't travel on my own that often, and this was one of the first times I did it to a city I've never been to before, and I was somewhere in the New Town, trying to figure out where I was and on the verge of a panic attack. I turned around, saw a full animated window display of Lightning with a Louis Vuitton bag, and stared at it like that one clip of Steven Gerrard noticing the Queen's photo in the Rangers dressing room.
More fashion companies should do this. It really does completely short-circuit you if you're not expecting it.
