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If you haven't noticed, we're in the thick of campaign season right now. Now that the last of the fall's most anticipated luxury ads are hitting the Internet, this leaves us to ask, which of this season's crop of campaigns is the most beautiful? Most original? Most striking? Most suited to the brand's and creative director's image? Obviously beauty is subjective, but we surveyed the landscape and took the liberty of rounding up ten of the campaigns that, in our humble opinion, are the best.
Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen's fall ads, shot by David Sims and starring Edie Campbell, look as regal and commanding as 16th Century portraits of Queen Elizabeth I in her jewel-encrusted finery. But they also look modern in their black-and-white severity. We vote this the season's strongest campaign, hands down.
Tom Ford
Tom Ford shot his own fall ads, which star Soo Joo Park, Gemma Refoufi, Herieth Paul, and Zuzanna Bijoch. The white studio is the perfect backdrop for the models' high impact posing and Ford's graphic collection. Points also to this campaign for featuring several models of color.
Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney was one of many brands to flirt with surreal imagery this fall, and one of the most successful. Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott shot Suvi Koponen and Chiharu Okunugi in attention-grabbing, purposefully oversized outerwear, with bright graphic elements like arrows surrounding them. The ads also draw attention to the inherent falseness of shooting fall clothes in the spring — only rather than trying to make the backgrounds look more wintry, Okunugi is shot standing in a swimming pool. The results are eye-catching and, more importantly, humorous.
Givenchy
Givenchy's fall ads are notable for its simple portraits of starlets like Amanda Seyfried, plus the legendary editor Carine Roitfeld and her daughter, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld. Carine styled the shoot. Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott were the photographers.
Balenciaga
The ads showcasing Alexander Wang's first collection for Balenciaga are downright cheeky. '90s supermodel Kristen McMenamy is the brand's face for the season, but she was shot by Steven Klein only from the neck down, forcing the viewer's attention back onto the clothes. The dark, spare, and moody images mark a departure from Nicholas Ghesquière-era Balenciaga, when celebrities abounded in the seasonal campaigns.
Kenzo
Fall at Kenzo is surreal and saturated with color. The brand tapped TOILETPAPER, the art magazine founded by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, to produce its latest campaign. The results are jarring, strangely alluring images, like a pair of pants from which protrudes one foot and one hand, both be-ringèd, and a dog whose hide was Photoshopped to look like a tiger. Definitely one of the season's most creative campaigns.
MAC
MAC's fall makeup collection is inspired by the fashion illustrations of Antonio Lopez, the Puerto Rican fashion illustrator whose 1970s drawings for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar helped define the era, visually speaking. The makeup brand got Marisa Berenson, Pat Cleveland, and Jerry Hall — all of whom were favorite subjects of Lopez — for the campaign. A brilliant casting move that also provides this fall's fashion and beauty ads with some much-needed age diversity.
Valentino
Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin cast a variety of new face models and took inspiration from the Dutch Old Masters, like Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt. The results are stunning.
Mulberry
For fall, Mulberry tapped Tim Walker, known for his ethereal, elaborate fairytale imagery, and Cara Delevingne. The resulting campaign, in which Delevingne poses with a variety of birds, is darkly evocative of the British countryside.
Dior
Willy Vanderperre shot Christian Dior's fall ads, which star Marie Piovesan, Iselin Steiro, Daria Strokous, and Anastasia Ivanova. The setting is the lavish interiors of the Opéra Garnier in Paris, which perfectly sets off Raf Simons' clothes and the brand's French heritage.
— Jenna Sauers
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