Recent observations
Some iconic fashion brands continue their stories with a little old surprise and delight.
The fashion world has started the year with some attention-grabbing moments that have broken through into wider popular culture – here’s a few that have grabbed my attention over the last few weeks.
Pharrell Williams' approach to Louis Vuitton's Fall/Winter 2024 collection is a great blend of the brand's luxury heritage with his unique point of view of pop culture.
The range is an exploration of America's Western culture, an escapist look into a unique piece of Americana - reappropriating codes and symbols of a particular style and imbuing it with the pop culture and urban sensibilities of Pharrell's aesthetics. Boot cut jeans were reimagined in leather or embroidered in detailed indigenous motifs, shearling jackets with tone-on-tone details like quilting, throw in a few pieces featuring Pharrell’s digital camouflage pattern and it’s an intriguing collection
The western look was interspersed with another trend, workwear, seen in the mechanic jackets emblazoned with Louis Vuitton graphics on models carting oversized Louis Vuitton trunks in the new season’s looks.
As appropriate, everything has a luxurious feel, yet a very wearable range of clothes, building on what has come from the brand in seasons past under the direction of Virgil Abloh, shaping a style of fashion that is becoming synonymous with LV’s menswear – luxurious wearable fashion befitting an owner of LV’s core luggage product.
What's particularly intriguing about this collection is how Pharrell has interwoven his own narrative with Louis Vuitton's longstanding tradition. It’s a continuation of the brand escapist ethos - travel – and then blending it with pop culture themes Pharrell has played with in the past. For instance, the use of indigenous American craftsmen to create motifs across the range, adopting the bold red leathers for one look reminiscent of a Japanese anime character, the pixellated camouflage applied to suiting – bolder statement pieces that marry pop culture themes with the unmistakable Louis Vuitton charm. Pharrell seems to be hitting his stride with a collection of clothes that continues the Louis Vuitton story but is delivering on the promise his personal brand has, for the fashion house.
The recent Calvin Klein campaign has definitely grabbed everyone’s attention. Jeremy Allen White, carousing across New York rooftops in his “tighty-whiteys” has seen Calvin Klein leverage his rapidly rising moment as a “leading man” and affinity with NYC, and blend it with the brand’s long roots in the city.
It’s a definite thirst-trap moment and a deliberately provocative campaign reminiscent of Calvin Klein's history of pushing boundaries in fashion advertising, dancing the line between art and objectification (maybe crossing over?). But it's Calvin Klein's way of staying relevant and keeping the world talking about more than just clothes - reigniting the Clavin Klein attitude of the 90s and 00s.
Whilst there’ll be some who view the provocative nature a little off-putting it does build hype amongst their intended target - those who aspire to look like Jeremy, those who think they're just as good as Jeremy or those who wish to attract others who are attracted to Jeremy in his Calvins.
The campaign is a continuation of Calvin Klein's historical approach to branding. It's not about being seen; it's about being remembered.
Being provocative is a choice for Calvin Klein, and in the past, it has proven effective. The recent work is definitely aimed at keeping their brand top of mind.
A campaign that jumped out to this art-nerd was Marc Jacobs' 40th-anniversary campaign, featuring the legendary artist Cindy Sherman. A lovely fusion of fashion and art that pays homage to the brand's New York roots.
Cindy Sherman, renowned for her creative self-portraits, brings her unique style to the campaign. Portraying two personas, Sherman helps celebrate the Marc Jacobs’ brands origins as an eclectic and boundary-pushing fashion. The campaign, captured by German photographer Juergen Teller, features a blend of fashion and art that is wonderfully striking and unexpected.
The choice of Sherman as the face of the campaign embraces a diverse form of creativity as well as connecting to New York’s artistic culture. By tapping Sherman's signature image-making style – character-driven portraits – she helps evoke a reappraisal of the brand - innovative, artistic, and challenging norms.
Teller and Sherman have worked together in the past for Marc Jacobs in 2006 which was also turned into the artist book Ohne Titel.
The campaign showcased other personalities such as musicians FKA Twigs and Lil Uzi Vert, along with model Lila Moss, all of whom brought their unique spark to the storyline. Shot outside the brand's headquarters on Spring Street in New York City, the campaign delivers on Marc Jacobs as the epitome of a New York brand, one that is firmly rooted in the city's rich artistic and cultural milieu.
What’s great about the use of Cindy Sherman for the brand's 40th anniversary is that ist not just a celebration of longevity or origin but reclaiming the brand’s original artistic integrity. This is the brand’s vision of “their” New York - the NYC artists and innovators that inspired the brand at its start.
A fashion brand that has taken over social media feeds is Maison Margiela and their Spring/Summer 2024 Artisanal show. The show, created by heavyweight creative director John Galliano, blended fashion and art, delivering on spectacle.
Galliano's show opened with a film noir piece directed by Baz Luhrmann setting the tone for for the event – a narrative-driven collection playing with the avant-garde, pushing the boundaries of what haute couture can be.
Being haute couture, the emphasis was less on wearability and more on art, with the clothing dramatising characterisations of the model’s anatomy with corsetry, combined with oversized proportions in materials that played with opacity. The garments, with their exaggeration and corseted illusions, played with historical codes while remaining distinctly modern in their execution. Each piece is a work of art, creating a sense of drama and fantasy.
The show was aimed at delivering a grand experience for the brand - avant-garde artistry, meeting social-media-friendly spectacle. Playing to theatre, film and art all at the same time encouraged the models to play with their character - sometimes breaking the “fourth wall” to interact with audience members. Galliano remarked that his approach for the show was to explore the “underbelly of Paris” through the lens of the “voyeuristic portraiture of Brassaï” [source], a spectacle designed to build the Maison Margiela brand narrative back into its history of innovation and boundary-pushing.
One element that’s captured social media’s attention has been the makeup. The glassy porcelain look added to the drama and surreality of the event. There is currently a whole side of Tiktok determined to unlock the process undertaken to create the looks.
What’s great about the above group of observations is that they’re all successfully pushing their brand’s story further - building upon the codes that the brand is known for and extending them into relevant and interesting experiences. What is common across all of them is that brand does come first - the values or essence of the brand should drive the next campaign or experience, building from what you're famous for. What’s also exciting about them is that whilst some look back to go forward (Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs) others aren't afraid to inject new or bold thinking to introduce new audiences to their brands (Louis Vuitton) or help new audiences understand the core of what has made a brands great in the past (Maison Margiela).
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