Donatella Versace opted to bring back Steven Meisel to shoot Versace’s advertising campaigns in Spring 2018. But we’ve been longing for Meisel to ditch the plain studio backdrops. The photographer must have heard our cries loud and clear because he decided to shoot the brand’s Fall 2019 campaign in a warehouse. The ads once again feature a large cast, including Kaia Gerber, Anok Yai, Bente Oort, Maike Inga, Yassine Jaajou, Ilja Sizov, Huang Shixin and Paul Hameline all styled by Versace favorite Jacob K.
Gerber’s image (above) was the first to drop and members of our forums didn’t exactly see eye to eye. “I hope that the tacky type of woman they achieved with this styling was intentional, I would like to see more of that direction. I can see local girls wearing cheap-looking furs like this with silly fake bags and their hair all messed up and cheap. She could almost be a hooker!” commented aracic.
“I actually like this first image, it’s wacky and tacky and it’s the fun that’s been missing from Versace. The brand seemed to take itself too seriously lately,” confessed dodencebt.
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“While I like the idea of the literal ‘bag lady’, the aesthetic doesn’t appeal to me for Versace, but it’s also interesting to see Kaia be presented in a new and different way,” said tigerrouge.
“This is like a Versace version of a Prada campaign,” mikel pointed out.
Forum member apple wasn’t a fan, either. “Well, let’s say that the collection was terrible in the first place. It didn’t feel Versace or innovative or desirable, it was just a mess. A good campaign with the right art direction could have made it more appealing, but these images only make it worse! You want to go grunge? Then do it! But make it look fashionable.”
“Bente? Maike? Anok? Sounds like anything but a Versace campaign cast, not even Kaia can save this from being and feeling irrelevant,” declared Riseup.
Did Versace miss the mark this season? Sound off and await more from the campaign here.
