Yay! The first double-page shot of the campaign I was most awaiting has eventually leaked out. The last advert that made me feel such an unbridled reaction of visual awe was lensed by Mert and Marcus and sported the creations of a certain Miuccia Prada aswell... there must be a theme here. It seems like Miu Miu never fails to hit the nail on the head in terms of ads. I love that the spirit of the collections always translates onto them without any emanating sense of monotony or sloppiness, and I equally find myself admiring their capability of moving freely along a nuanced spectrum of models castings, going from one pole to another ; from newcomers to established models, including rising stars aswell. This season we get Polish model Kasia Struss, reported to keep company with Sasha Pivovarova and Querelle Jansen (double yay!), whose pictures have yet to surface.
That line-up seems pretty neat to me. Neither Querelle, who's coming back from the void after a few years' absence, nor Sasha walked this season's show, but they've been featured in Miu Miu and Prada campaigns in the past, respectively. I would somehow not lumped in Kasia under the Miu Miu girl category (then again, what is a Miu Miu girl?) but she's both exceeded my expectations and beaten up my a prioris here. And if you're well-versed enough in her career, it musn't be lost on you that she's actually sustained a solid collaboration with the brand since her debut season - it may not stick out as much as other label-model pairings, such as Freja and Chanel or Sigrid and Calvin Klein, but it does exist (less constantly so, though). She first made her way in the Spring Summer 2007 show, sat out the four following ones, fought her way back into the casting in Spring Summer 2009 and has grown into a regular of the brand ever since. Therefore, if you can't take anything from this all, it's that this season's Miu Miu girl is patient and self-possessed ; she can wait until an optimum opportunity to gain momentum passes by and is able to grasp it dexterously.
A tFS member laid out his own interpretation of these first pictures released and although I don't apprehend the campaign as he did, I can value his comment for being so insightful and putting forward a take on the shots I hadn't envisonned. This is the beneficial aspect of this forum (and all places up to public discussions) and its appealing to a wide array of people ; anyone can step up on their soapbox and render their valuable points accessible to others. As far as I'm concerned I had to carry over my own thoughts onto this blog for fear of cluttering up The Fashion Spot from being too wordy.
I find the idea of encircling the models within mirrors to be beyond brilliant, especially when you know about the impetus behind the collection, namely stardom and celebrity - two (one actually) concepts largely ubiquitous in our lives whether we try to face away from them or not. In my mind's eye, Kasia's different angles reflected in the mirrors are the signifiers of the numerous - whether they be interviews, redcarpet or magazines-ready - personaes mainstream personalities have to take on to gloss over the human being (and its flaws) lurking underneath, while the latter, embodied by Kasia, is caught up amid all those made-up images ricocheting off each other. These photographs raise a callous issue bound to rear up that a lot of people lose sight of (don't they..?) when dreaming up schemes to make it in any stardom-related industry : going down the route of fame goes hand in hand with taking the risk of losing the essence of your being in the process, through the onslaught of public eye and what it demands in return for its interest in you - that's to say enough substance, whether it be praise-worthy or scandalous, genuine or not, to get it talking. This idea of self-loss is made even more poignant by means of the bewildered impuissance conveyed by Kasia's expression and haphazard posing.
This actually brings to mind (I apology in advance but I just have to sneak that in) a most well-known text of Sartre's, The Waiter. He spells out in it that the role you get into every day in order to live up to others' standards and expectations will, in the longrun, insidiously encroach upon your true self to the point where you mix up who you are and who you play at being. It's indeed a risk we all run as soon as we step out into society, but this is a plague even more pervasive in the life of a celebrity who gets continuously pressured into projecting a fully put-together image that isn't necessarily in accordance with reality.
Don't get me wrong though. I thought I'd dwell on this campaign because of its ominously inspirational quality solely. Lord knows that I've had more than enough of that asinine, afflicting stardom culture. Then again, I wonder who is to be blamed... Celebrities themselves or the sea of celebrities worshippers? Eternal conundrum, isn't it.
source : scanned by style_expert @ tFS ; vogue.com ; wwd.com
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