David LaChapelle Creates a Wild Winterscape for Moose Knuckles

The luxury Canadian outerwear brand Moose Knuckles has collaborated with legendary photographer David LaChapelle on an epic new campaign for its Autumn/Winter 2021 collection. SNL star Pete Davidson, model and actor Emily Ratajkowski, and model and activist Adwoa Aboah play in a surreal snowy cityscape that blazes with the luminous colours and high-definition kitsch that LaChapelle is renowned for. 

The photographer’s signature sensationalism sets the scene for this characterful cast: an eight-foot fluorescent ice wave, a human-sized snow-globe and an iridescent ice motorcycle, while cartoonish garlands of icicles are festooned throughout. Making fun with the winter season, each image is innately playful and wry, and vibrates with out-of-this-world energy.

LaChapelle’s world is the perfect fit for the label, says its creative director, Brody Baker. "Utility has a different definition at Moose Knuckles. We know our audience and we know how to make unparalleled outerwear tailored to their needs. They like to have fun, to have a good time, to create,“ says Brody. This latest collection sees Moose Knuckles’ 100-year-strong savoir-faire reach new heights of personality and self-expression, combining a technical expertise in fabrication, weight, warmth and mobility with a sugary palette, contrasting and stylised fastenings and sculptural shapes.

Fearlessness is key to both this collaboration and the season ahead. LaChapelle is a disruptive image-maker, famed for his provocative political statements and his psychedelic deification of celebrities that informed the visual culture of the 1990s. The campaign’s subjects each embody a variety of unafraid expression – ranging satire and activism, each using their platform to speak out. LaChapelle presents them here, exposed to the elements with an enthusiasm akin to glee.

The Moose Knuckles Autumn/Winter 2021 collection is out now.