A new crop of fashion campaigns take us around the world: from an Italian house party (Gucci style) to the sedate English countryside with JW Anderson. Below, catch up on eight of the season’s unmissable offerings
Gucci Cruise 2020 (above)
Among a supporting cast of typically colourful characters, rapper Gucci Mane, musician Iggy Pop and actor Sienna Miller star in Gucci’s Cruise 2020 campaign, photographed by cult director and image-maker Harmony Korine. Conjuring a hedonistic Italian house party (something of a growing theme – the house’s Pre-Fall 2019 campaign was a debauched bacchanal in the ruins of a 7th-century Sicilian city), the ‘#ComeAsYouAre_RSVP’ campaign features a kaleidoscopic scene of uninhibited celebration, replete with feasting, dancing, dogs and poolside merriment. As per the house: “Gucci is a party and everyone is invited.”
JW Anderson Autumn/Winter 2019
American photographer Tyler Mitchell rose to immediate fame in 2018 after photographing Beyoncé for American Vogue’s vaunted September issue – in the process, the then-23-year-old became the first African-American photographer to shoot the cover of the magazine in its 125-year history. Last month, the photographer – whose work featured in AnOther Magazine S/S19 – captured JW Anderson’s Autumn/Winter 2019 campaign via a dreamlike series of images set amid England’s pastoral landscapes. The four street-cast models – Krisha, Djeneba, Rose and Enomha, none of whom had modelled previously – stand on stilts, “juxtaposing the carefee, youthful and elegant nature of the collection with the classic, simple beauty of the country landscape”.
Comme des Garçons Parfums, Copper
This month also saw Mitchell capture the latest campaign for Comme des Garçons Parfums’ latest fragrance, Copper. Promising (in typically esoteric manner) an “olfactive exploration of perceived differences and their harmonious alignment”, Mitchell translates this in the campaign via a series of sensual images, including a tangle of limbs and a semi-clad selfie taken downwards onto a mirror, where the photographer’s face is obscured by the fragrance bottle. “I wanted to visually link the idea of copper – a material typically perceived to be cheaper than gold – to the idea of black and brown skin and richness as a way of elevating the two,” Mitchell wrote on Instagram. “This was my first time doing a campaign top to bottom. From the research and creative direction to directing the film, shooting photographs and logo placement and layout. I’m so honoured it could be with Comme des Garçons.”
Helmut Lang Autumn/Winter 2019
Each August, in Tilburg, a small town in the Netherlands, thousands of redheads gather to proudly celebrate their fiery locks at Redhead Days festival, the world’s largest celebration of red hair. This year, scouts from Helmut Lang were also in attendance to cast the brand’s striking Autumn/Winter 2019 campaign: directed by British-Chinese photographer Alex Leese, a short film features festival attendees between the ages of 12 and 65 adorned in the brand’s flame-red Autumn/Winter collection. “There’s nothing to be insecure about because being a redhead is probably one of the greatest treasures you can have,” says 13-year-old Tyler, who appears in the video. “There’s beauty in everything, especially uniqueness. Being a redhead has taught me that.”
Givenchy Autumn/Winter 2019
Captured by AnOther contributor Craig McDean, Givenchy’s latest campaign stars models Adut Akech and Henry Kitcher in a series of photographs which recall the elegant simplicity of ‘the Givenchy sitting’, Hubert de Givenchy’s preferred style of portraiture. Titled ‘Winter of Eden’ – the same title Clare Waight Keller gave the collection itself – an accompanying video riffs on the creation myth, as Akech and Kitcher both take a bite of ‘forbidden fruit’, an apple. Unlike the creation myth, though, Akech and Kitcher remain fully clothed, wearing the spoils of Waight Keller’s darkly romantic Autumn/Winter 2019 collection, from 70s-inspired tailoring to exquisite crystal-embellished gowns.
Kenzo Autumn/Winter 2019
‘Greetings from Kenzo’ states the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2019 campaign, which promises a “journey on the road less travelled… less like a traditional campaign and more like a series of postcards sent from the edge of imagination”. Photographed by David LaChapelle, actor Logan Browning, musician Selah Marley, actor Hunter Schafer, and models Lindsey Wixson and Kiko Arai are seen embarking on a trip (with Kenzo’s new season Tali bag in hand, naturally). The extraordinary backdrops seen in the campaign shots – from a mammoth waterfall to an arid canyon – come from LaChapelle’s personal collection of vintage travel slides, which he has been seeking out and archiving over decades from all over the world.
Susan Fang Autumn/Winter 2019
London-based, China-born emerging designer Susan Fang chose to create her Autumn/Winter 2019 campaign in Qinghai Yushu, China, capturing her designs on the local Tibetans who live in the province. Fang – who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2017 – embraced spontaneity on her trip through the region with photographer Charles Guo and stylist Fiona Cheng, the group eschewing a specific plan of what or who they might photograph. The result is a collection of charming portraits – shared on Instagram along with Fang’s stories from the trip – of local women, children, men, families and friends wearing Fang’s signature woven garments and bubble-bead accessories and jewellery.
Jodie Comer in Either Way for Loewe
Last month, British actor Jodie Comer celebrated an Emmy win for her role as sadistic (but nonetheless stylish) Russian assassin Villanelle in BBC television series Killing Eve. Days later, she was revealed as the face of Loewe’s latest campaign – coinciding with the Spanish house’s Spring/Summer 2020 womenswear show in Paris – which sees her star in a Steven Meisel-directed short. In the playful film, she enunciates ‘Loewe’ in a backstage mirror, expertly switching between a vast spectrum of emotions – a skill for which she is now renowned. “Jodie is exceptionally talented, and what’s so magical about her is that she is 100 per cent committed to an idea,” says Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson. “I find that incredibly inspiring and I think that’s why people have gravitated towards her, and why we wanted to work with her in this campaign.”