Why Are High Fashion Ad Campaigns So Boring? Major Labels Continue to Play It Safe

It seems only weeks pass after a fashion runway season before labels’ ad campaign images come flooding in by the dozens. When I first began following fashion, I was always excited to see the newest arrivals of glammed up, glossy-legged models in angular poses with the latest bag draped over their shoulder and a smoldering gaze burning a hole in the camera lens. But perhaps I’ve grown jaded or overly critical; I am no longer excited by most of the ad campaigns, in which designers seem to recruit the same photographer talents and work with the same color palettes and concepts.

I understand there are restraints as to how far one can push creative boundaries when it comes to selling products, but varying the use of filters, photographers and models might be the answer. It seems contradictory, though, that the large fashion houses constantly pushing innovation and progression with each passing runway  season, remain so stagnant when it comes to their own ad campaigns. Versace’s Spring 2012 campaign, for example, doused in blue with a tanned and toned Gisele, reminds me of the Gucci ads for fall, (both shot by Mert and Marcus), but with blue instead of fall’s reds and oranges.

Many campaigns I’ve seen this season deliver the same scenario: models draped in front of <insert x> scenery (mountain, beach, car, boys), lounging on one another and looking utterly pleased with themselves for fitting into <insert y designer>’s sample sized garments. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t these campaigns be treated as permanent editorials? After all, (and especially for the two-page ads), these images live on in magazines for a couple issues at least, and are often a prelude to the actual content. If I were a designer, I would want the reader to linger as long on my photos in the first 100 pages as they do on the last 100 pages of the magazines, where fashion directors take liberty to style daring shoots, even if they’re tacky, over-styled or otherwise. At least they’re entertaining. The batch of Spring ad campaigns, on the other hand, are not.

A few campaigns caught my eye, however, and are a welcomed break in the monotony of Mert and Marcus and Camila Akron and Inez and Vinoodh and so on. Perhaps I’ll change my mind when more images start to roll in, but I feel like perhaps I should just lower my standards. It’s not about surprises anymore, it’s about selling the products in an easy, safe way.

Leave it to Nicolas Ghesquiere’s Balenciaga to deliver a quirky ad that lets the clothes do most of the entertaining. Last season, too, welcomed a rather boyish Gisele, seen awkward yet strong in a campaign that showed her in a new way that strays from her supermodel-esque appearances. You don’t have to like it or find it aesthetically pleasing, but at least Ghesquiere matches his collections, which always push boundaries and eschew prettiness for progression.

Cushnie et Ochs also had a simple yet enticing geometric-inspired series of ads by Hugh Lippe.

And then you have the illustrious Iris Apfe for MAC cosmetics which, I have to say, is fucking brilliant. That perfectly red pout with those old-lady red nails, styled to the heavens and unnerving blue-green eyes shielded by those sigature glasses. Yes yes yes.

image via// oyster 

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