Bag maker Vuitton likes a Rolling Stone

Keith Richards is the new face of Louis Vuitton, the French maker of luxury handbags and luggage.

The 64-year-old Rolling Stone appeared on a London billboard Tuesday and in advertising placed in British newspapers. The campaign will be featured in magazines throughout March, said Antoine Arnault, Vuitton’s head of communications and the 30-year-old son of Bernard Arnault, founder of brand owner LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

The younger Arnault said the ads were designed to promote Vuitton’s heritage in luggage and win back older customers who had lost interest as the label became more fashion-oriented.

Earlier ads in the campaign featured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and actress Catherine Deneuve.

Richards appears holding a guitar in a hotel room, with a custom-made Vuitton guitar case behind him on the bed.

“Keith Richards is timeless and ageless,” said Rita Clifton, who heads the U.K. division of brand consultant Interbrand. “He’s lived his life on the edge, but he’s not a sleazebag. He’s lean and mean and he’s still current.”

Arnault, speaking in his Paris office, said Louis Vuitton was picking “achievers who changed things” to star in the ads. The first series included Deneuve sitting on her Vuitton trunk in a film-set train station and tennis champions Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf cuddling on a couch near their luggage.

Richards was photographed by Vanity Fair contributor Annie Leibovitz. The image features lamps hung with black scarves printed with skulls. A caption reads: “Some journeys cannot be put into words.”

The younger Arnault said Louis Vuitton wanted to reach business customers and frequent fliers who thought the label had shifted from being a travel brand. Since 1997, creative director Marc Jacobs has driven Vuitton’s expansion into clothing.