As it has become some kind of a tradition, I’m sending you into the weekend with a bunch of pretty pictures (and a video), this time presented by Valentino. For the fashion house’s Fall 2013 campaign, the brand’s creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli took inspiration in Dutch painters like Rembrandt and Vermeer. Chiuri said that the “women were represented like paintings, caught in the intimacy and magic of their gestures,” while Piccioli added that the campaign showed “the magnificence of Flemish lights and 10 different characters of contemporary feminine grace and regality.” The models are placed next to classic elements of still-life paintings: a vase of flowers, a bunch of asparagus, feathers and grapes. I like how they threw some pieces of the season’s accessories into the mix. Very serene and pretty images. Well done. The images were shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.
Part I and II of my little series of ad reviews have been easier to write than the last one, the Ugly. Why? Well, it wasn’t difficult to find the bad ads; and the good ones also stood out quite easily. The one ad (yep, just one) I thought of as the Ugly one is by Alexander McQueen.
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
How must it be like to be an Alexander McQueen ad? You have no choice than to feel like the ugly sister besides such outlandish, beautiful and impossibly intricate, complex and elaborate gowns. I guess that whatever you do, you won’t be able to do justice to the clothes. I’m actually not sure about these ads; I don’t think that they are failing, but still, something is missing here, I can’t quite pinpoint, what. Even though I find the use of black and white quite striking, I still would have loved to see the gowns’ colors. Edie Campbell is doing a great job behind the mask; she’s really giving me the creeps with that stare. So help me out here: What do you think about the campaign?
Edie Campbell shot by David Sims
Ok, so let’s talk some more about the Fall 2013 campaigns. I get that the businesses behind these brands are multi-billion dollar operations that have to sell their merchandise; and in order to achieve that with the greatest amount of success, they have to appeal to a very wide range (of very rich) people. No, actually, they have to appeal to everyone – since the less rich will still buy the perfumes, underwear, sunglasses etc. they can afford – which makes the task even more difficult. So yeah, I guess that they can’t really take any risks, that they can’t experiment with new, innovative marketing ideas. But some of the images presented in the campaigns are so old-fashioned, so predictable, dull and boring, I wouldn’t take a second look if it wasn’t for the famous and renowned name splashed under it. Well, and that’s probably it, in the end: Who needs to risk losing customers with some edgy, over-the-top imagery, if you can just slap your big name under some unimaginative pictures.
So, without further ado, here I present you part I of what I’d like to call the „The Good (yeah, some are still good, after all, see also here and here), The Bad and The Ugly“. Stay tuned for part II, coming tomorrow, and part III, on Thursday.
The Good:
CARVEN
I really love the idea behind this campaign. The images are hauntingly beautiful, irritating and disturbing. And despite the fact that the merchandise they are trying to sell here – clothes – are out of focus, you somehow still get a feeling for the texture and the (I guess) softness of the material. For my part, I just want to go and cozy up in one of the coats.
Marine Deleeuw shot by Viviane Sassen
PROENZA SCHOULER
I really like the mood going on in these pictures. For me, they have a Hitchcockian feeling about them. I particularly like the digital rendition of the birds in some of the pictures, they ad a somehow threatening edge to the images. The soft colors, airiness and the light are also quite eye-catching.
Sasha Pivovarova shot by David Sims
STELLA McCARTNEY
Then there’s Stella, who, like Kenzo, is taking a surrealistic approach to her Fall campaign. The edgy scenes were shot in London and show the models partially submerged in a swimming pool (how cool is that, to just drown a really expensive coat in chlorine?) and standing on a street, surrounded by arrows, exclamation points and some more arrows. The slight strangeness and unexpectedness of the pictures are very appealing and a breath of fresh air.
Suvi Koponen and Chiharu Okunugi shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
For the third consecutive season, Juergen Teller shot Daria Werbowy for Céline‘s Fall 2013 campaign. And if you know Juergen Teller, you pretty much know how the pictures will look like. No different here: Candid, raw glamour and an overexposed, bare face with minimal make-up for the model (except for a dark red lip in some of the shots). I still really like the campaign, though, it’s actually one of my favorite of the Autumn/Winter 2013 season. I particularly like the bright patterned walls, the plaid print of the coat and the stonework as stark contrasts to the minimal designs of the Fall collection. Check it out for yourself:
Giambattista Valli showed such a beautiful collection today, I’m really blown away. Just look at some of the gorgeous gowns:
I just want to lay my head on the poufy thing and take a nap.
You can never have too many capes – and just look at this powdery blue color– gorgeous.
I want this headpiece on my head -like, now.
Overlooking how disturbingly thin this model is – what a great color combination.
I just want to touch these silk flowers; they seem so real! Just imagine the craftsmanship needed to create them.
Again, incredibly beautiful silk flowers cascading down the shoulder. I particularly like the combination of white and yellow.
Where is it totally acceptable to wear this dress to go grocery shopping? I want to live there. No, seriously.
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