Designer fashion labels have long been known for their splashy advertising campaigns — and now accessories brands want in on the action.
Stuart Weitzman, Nine West and Marco Bicego are among the firms running edgier, more high-fashion campaigns this season, showing accessories on models instead of still life images. The switch comes as more companies expand into multiple categories, such as bags, eyewear and jewelry, and use models to represent their lifestyle brands.
Weitzman created his latest advertising concept — a model in the handbag Garden of Eden — to coincide with the launch of his handbag collection.
“It’s the first time we began to offer more than just shoes,” Weitzman said. “We decided to do a campaign that made you aware of the entire brand rather than a particular shoe.”
The ad is Weitzman’s first in eight years since the success of his “A Little Obsessed With Shoes” campaign.
Weitzman, who is chief executive officer of his $200 million namesake accessories business, acknowledged the importance of placing his new bags in a physical context.
“Putting a model on your page does two things: It shows a product in use and it sends a message saying, ‘Hey, this is a younger, cooler product.’ I can’t remember the last ad I saw with a chic grandmother,” he said.
Nine West creative director Fred Allard also wanted to move his brand in a new direction. For the spring campaign, the accessories company took to Palm Springs and shot model Natasha Poly in its most fashion-forward visual.
“We’re getting closer to what’s going on in fashion,” Allard said. ” We wanted to update the brand. We also wanted to establish our name in accessories as a whole. A head-to-toe model gives us the entire picture.”
Marco Bicego’s president, Moise Cohen, agrees with that idea. The seven-year-old jewelry brand used Israeli model Bar Rafaeli — who has gained attention as the love interest of Leonardo DiCaprio — for its spring campaign.
“It’s a universal message of luxury,” Cohen said. “Looking at jewelry without a model is not the same. Earrings on a page wouldn’t come to life. The message we’re trying to send is about a beautiful woman in a luxurious environment.”
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These brands aren’t the first to offer the lifestyle image. David Yurman shifted the paradigm for jewelry advertising with a 2001 black-and-white campaign featuring Amber Valletta wearing the designer’s signature jewelry.
David Lipman, who produced the Yurman campaign, told WWD in 2005 that his inspiration came from meeting the designer’s wife, Sybil, who is company president and chief marketing officer, on the beach in East Hampton, N.Y.
“She was wearing her jewelry in a very casual way,” Lipman said. “The whole campaign came out of that one day. What I wanted to capture was that casual elegance and authentic glamour from an American point of view.”
Since then, the $500 million jewelry brand has featured Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Riley Keogh in ads, as well as Naomi Watts and Ed Burns.
However, Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group, a research company based in Port Washington, N.Y, predicted the age of the lifestyle ad image would end as quickly as it began.
“In accessories, it’s always the same thing,” he said. “For a while, everyone had their product on a rock. Then they went to the models. And now, every ad is the same. Every model is wearing natural-colored clothing and they’re all facing the same direction. Look at any fashion magazine — ad after ad all have the same look.”
On the other end of the spectrum is fine jewelry house Harry Winston. The brand originally shot its diamond necklaces and cluster earrings on actresses before switching last spring to still life portraits against animal backdrops.
“We really think our jewelry is so beautiful, it speaks for itself,” said Suzy Korb, Winston’s chief marketing officer and creative director. “Models are a great way to stop people — they’re aspirational. But for a company like Harry Winston, which is already so aspirational, we don’t need models. It can detract from the product and the beauty of the jewelry.”
However, Korb noted that for a future campaign, Winston might bring back models to depict the moment of receiving jewelry. “Birds can’t tell that story,” she said.
Le Sportsac took a different direction altogether this season. The 33-year-old accessories brand known for its funky nylon travel bags wanted to go back to its Seventies roots by showcasing the patterns that have made the bags popular. Its new ads do not have a single model or product image, only the patterns that have helped put Le Sportsac on the accessories map.
Sunglass icon Ray-Ban launched a campaign this season called “Never Hide,” in tandem with its 70th anniversary. It depicts 10 models donning Ray-Bans in their own way.
The lifestyle image is indeed a strong trend for spring advertising, but there are naysayers.
“These ads are just an example of an industry jumping on the bandwagon,” NPD Group’s Cohen said. “Even the word lifestyle is a total buzzword — everyone claims they are lifestyle this or lifestyle that. They don’t even know what a lifestyle is. If they come out with fragrance or belts, it doesn’t make them a lifestyle brand. It just means they launched fragrance or belts.”