The Campaign Faces: A/W14

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Natalie Westling in McQ, Tom Ford and Céline
Natalie Westling in McQ, Tom Ford and CélineGIF by Greta Larkins

We consider the key muses for the influential A/W14 campaigns

For some, the change of a season is indicated by the turn of the leaves. For others, it is the release of the biannual fashion campaigns, where the crème of the season’s catwalks take on fashion’s most prestigious brands. These campaigns have become as influential and anticipated as the magazines that they support, stretching beyond the means of a simple advertising mechanism. This season saw Edie Campbell and family riding horseback across the pages of Lanvin, while Balenciaga cast Gisele as a buzz-cut warrior. Strong trends emerged: shearling coats, block colours and geometry, alongside equestrian influences at Alexander McQueen, Lanvin, Louis Vuitton and Hermès. It is interesting to see how one model’s face can shift so easily between fashion house, adapting to the imaginative mood and backdrop of each campaign. Here AnOther consider our three favourite A/W14 chameleons, reinvented by Greta Larkins, aka FashGif.

Natalie Westling – Céline, McQ, Tom Ford
Natalie Westling is most well known for dying her hair fire-hydrant red for Marc Jacobs S/S14 earlier this year, somewhat reminiscent of Sally in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. This season, her doe-eyed cartoon charm and crimson coiffure features alongside Daria Werbowy in Céline’s A/W14 campaign, shot for a 6th consecutive time by Juergen Teller. Céline’s campaign aesthetic is fast becoming an iconic composition: the minimalist arrangement, bright flash, white framework and subtle element of surrealism. Westling is also the face of Tom Ford and McQ. Mr Ford presented a 12-model army, while McQ was shot by Karim Sadli in south-west London, alongside new face Paul Barge. Look out for Westling too in the upcoming A/W14 issue of AnOther.

Lexi Boling - Alexander Wang, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger
Lexi Boling stars in Coach’s debut womenswear RTW line, with new creative director Stuart Vevers. The campaign was inspired by Joel Sternfeld’s cinematic landscape photographs of America, taken during the 1980s. It is set against the backdrop of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, New York, shot by Steven Meisel, who is becoming the key name in campaign imagery, having also shot Prada, Miu Miu and Moschino this season. Boling couples an all-American charm with a sharp edge led by a transfixing stare, also noted in Tommy Hilfiger’s A/W14 campaign shot on the vast mountains of Lake Tahoe. For Alexander Wang, she travelled to the austere fictional dorm rooms of a Catholic all-girls’ school. Photographed by Steven Klein, teenage rebellion is paired with a brooding sense of vulnerability.

Julia Nobis - Dior, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs
Australian-born Julia Nobis has become as renowned for her eclectic interests as she has for her bleached out appearance. She plays guitar, enjoys metal music and hopes to become an ER doctor. However, before A&E becomes her first port of call, she continues to head up fashion’s most esteemed campaigns: David Sims paints a mechanical picture of Nobis for Marc Jacob’s minimalist offering, while she stands against a blue, bird-scattered sky for Dior. It was shot by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo, who also worked together throughout the upcoming A/W14 issue of AnOther. Nobis joins Riccardo Tisci’s “Rave Duality” party, which took inspiration from London and Paris after dark. Photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, she sits alongside portraiture shots of the iconic French actress Isabelle Huppert.

Text by Mhairi Graham