Review of Louis Vuitton LV Buttersoft Sneaker Ad Campaign by Photographer Rosie Marks with model Callum Turner
Louis Vuitton taps Callum Turner—actor, self-declared sneakerhead, and LV house ambassador—to bring gravitas to Pharrell Williams’s first sneaker design for the brand. Photographed by Rosie Marks, the campaign introduces the LV Buttersoft Sneaker, which made its debut in the recent Fall-Winter 2025 menswear show. Rather than leaning on nostalgia or chasing novelty, the launch reflects an evolution that highlights craftsmanship while widening the brand’s footprint in contemporary sneaker culture.
Rendered minimally while holding sophistication, Turner cradles and lounges with the shoes, producing images that feel like cinematic stills rather than posed e‑commerce. The backdrop is neutral and uncluttered: the sneaker’s buttery lamb-and-calf leather texture takes center stage. Marks’s imagery is simple, centering the shoe’s tactile qualities and letting the materials speak for themselves. The campaign presents reliance on familiar tropes: portraiture, soft lighting, and simplistic styling that, while tasteful, verge on static. Yet while the result is visually refined, the conceptually restrained visuals are in deliberate alignment with the brand.
The campaign leans into subtlety rather than spectacle; Callum Turner, a natural choice given his existing relationship with the house and sneaker enthusiasm, grounds the visuals with an easy, lived-in presence. His familiar casting enhances the campaign’s credibility, especially within the sneaker space, where authenticity still matters.
By emphasizing quiet quality—warm leather, elusive branding, easter‑egg details—Louis Vuitton treads between exclusivity and wearability. From the hand-painted edges to the embossed Pharrell motif, the details serve as quiet markers of luxury, perpetuating the brand’s emphasis on craftsmanship as a cultural signal. LV leverages Turner’s easy elegance to position Buttersoft as a wardrobe staple, not a one-season hype piece. It aligns with a cultural moment that values understated luxury and proven authenticity over loud trends.
The Buttersoft campaign leaves a purposeful but soft-spoken impression. Rather than presenting the sneaker as a breakout moment, it integrates the design into a broader, ongoing narrative–one where luxury is expressed through material nuance and authentic relevance. It’s a move that builds continuity, not a reinvention, but a layering of identity. In doing so, the campaign not only introduces a new product, but continues to display the direction of Louis Vuitton under Williams’s direction.
Photographer | Rosie Marks
Model | Callum Turner