ENDLESS SUMMER: As Parisians end their summer beach holidays and trickle back into the French capital for “la rentrée,” or the back-to-school period, in English, Chloé is extending the sunny, free-spirited mood with its winter campaign.
Photographer David Sims captured American model Grace Hartzel amid the grandeur of a Belle Époque villa, evoking a ’70s mood and “the off-season beauty of the French Riviera.”
Chemena Kamali, creative director of Chloé, has frequently turned to the past for inspiration, here “drawing on the legendary allure of Villa Nellcôte in the early 1970s, a time marked by creative freedom, decadent ease, mystery and contrast,” according to the maison, which shared the images first with WWD.
They will appear starting Tuesday on the Richemont-owned brand’s digital channels.
“The campaign evokes an atmosphere of cinematic tension between sensuality and restraint, presence and escape,” according to Chloé.
Kamali was in charge of creative direction, with styling by Elodie David Touboul. Sims also took charge of film direction.
“With these images, I wanted to capture the off-season spirit as well as the sense of escape and freedom of the French Riviera in the early 1970s, a time when creative freedom, decadence and mystery collided with the raw hedonism of that time,” Kamali said. “Grace brought her own sensuality, rebellious charisma and dynamic free-spirited energy into the campaign and made it entirely hers.”
The winter collection, due to arrive in Chloé boutiques and on Chloe.com from Sept. 4, hinged on frothy, yet strong-shouldered blouses; vaguely Victorian heirloom jackets; demonstrative quilted coats with tubular fur trim; plunging Henley knits, and long, narrow chiffon skirts.
