The Fall Of Creative Fashion Campaigns

©Burberry

I flick through the pages of Vogue’s September issue and I’m hit with a mixture of disappointment, frustration and perplexity. What’s happening? Why is it all the same? Pouting lips, coy, aloof expressions; it’s the same poses over and over. That hurts-your-eyes-bright lighting, the studio background, skin so polished it looks like a new species of plastic humanoids is emerging; it’s the prescriptive shuffle of a fashion photo shoot thinking of its face and forgetting its soul. It’s the height of blandness. It’s so bland it’s Beige. Pale, murky, sandy beige. No one wants to be Beige. Fashion certainly shouldn’t be Beige.

In an industry that boasts creativity and innovation, I don’t know how it’s come to this. So many of the photos featured in big campaigns are the product of money-hungry eyes, shrouded by the dim veil of hyper-commercialisation. Where are the perceptive eyes of risk takers and trouble makers? Advertising is the vehicle through which brands communicate, so it stands to reason that ads should capture a core aesthetic and succeed in singing an articulate and powerful tune. I should be sitting here with an inspiration-overload-induced headache, surrounded by images that provoke my curiosity and make me wonder about all kinds of things.

These ads should contain things to shock, amuse and engage me but instead i’m stuck with images that are more beige than algebra coursework. The thing that calls these nasty beige adverts out is the fact that they’re placed right next to beautiful adverts which sparkle with energy and emotion. It’s like putting a tantalising box of treasures next to a perspex box of mashed potato. It’s not hard to see which you’d take home to investigate.

Before I delve deeper into the untold imaginations of fashion brands and advertising, I think a few of the more wonderful campaigns should be acknowledged. Chloé are a fashion house that create storytelling campaigns that make you feel like you’re hanging with the cool kids on their bohemian road trip, feeling the evening sun fall on you. The air looks fresh and the image is full of the sense of exploration. There’s intrigue in these images; friends running off to their car, wind blowing, the focus pulling away as you look further into the image. Some people dismiss all fashion ads as trivial or materialistic, but when looking at this campaign there’s a spirit I simply can’t shake; it’s raw, filled with narrative and tingling with excitement.

© Chloe

Turning the pages of Vogue’s September issue used to feel like looking at this Chloé campaign. I used to dart into WHSmiths to get a copy, turn each page with curiosity and plaster my room with my favourite campaigns. I was enthralled by the storytelling, the fantasy and I suppose, the glamorous tint of it all, but here comes a point when you want more than the polished fashion image. Something about my taste shifted and I could see the touching-up process on Photoshop too clearly and hear the fans of the wind machines whirring, making the models look ‘caught in the moment’. I really want the brands to cut the fashion crap and create the authentic advertising imagery they’re capable of creating.

Burberry’s AW campaign is a chief example of the onslaught of lacklustre imagery that plagues fashion. There’s a lot of intense staring going on, from models, Malaika Firth, Cara Delvingue and Suki Waterhouse, and it would almost be convincing, if it weren’t for a duller than dull studio set up. The transparency of these shoots makes me want to cry. There’s nothing free, real or raw about the photos, it’s all just another fashion advert, something I find hard to swallow when the Burberry collection itself is so stuffed with vitality and beauty.

The free-form, hand-drawn flowers inspired by The Bloomsbury Group run through the latest Burberry collection, and seeing the show on Youtube I was struck by the delicate, homemade approach and the appreciation of craftsmanship. In an interview with Vogue, Christopher Bailey commented on the heightened ‘soul’ of the pieces, but if there were ever soul in the advert, it’s been trampled out. Personally, I think the culprits behind this campaign should be forced to hand paint every street in London with the Burberry print, as punishment.

Designers often talk about a mood or muse that seized them by the wrist when sketching, whispering in their ear bewitching ideas that underpin a collection. Yet these adverts show no signs of this.

They’re like generic pop songs, they’re as inspiring as an advert for bleach. They’re dry and dull and worst of all, they bear a heavy and clumsily superficial gloss.

Chloe’s campaign is all about chasing something hopeful and my hope is that fashion brands loosen, let their campaigns walk freely and strive to work out how exactly how they’re going to tell their fashion story, because every collection has a story and it deserves to be told. 

Here are some campaigns which show there's still hope:

 

* This artcile was originally posted on Young Gold Teeth, a wonderful ceative platform: http://younggoldteeth.wordpress.com