Bottega Veneta takes filmic approach for surreal shorts

February 6, 2018

Bottega Veneta's spring/summer 2018 campaign is a film anthology. Image credit: Bottega Veneta

Italian fashion label Bottega Veneta is capturing the many moods of its spring/summer 2018 collection in an anthology of films.

Ushering in a new format for its Art of Collaboration campaign concept, Bottega Veneta tapped a handful of cinematic artists for a series of six films surrounding its latest collection. Mirroring the shifting seasons, the effort centers on the subjects of renewal and reconnection.

Bottega Veneta was reached for comment.

Collaborative campaign
For upwards of 15 years, Bottega Veneta has been seeking out creative partnerships for its advertising campaigns, selecting a photographer to capture its designs on camera (see story). Building on this idea, this season’s effort sees the brand working with more than one talent.

Titled “Reflections,” Bottega Veneta’s campaign was directed by Fabien Baron, with cinematography by Academy Award-nominated Philippe Le Sourd, set design by Stefan Beckman and an original score by Johnny Jewel.

Split into six parts, each short has its own mood, theme and narrative.

The first episode, “Miraggio,” stars models Vittoria Ceretti and Aube Jolicoeur. Ms. Ceretti is seen walking down a sidewalk looking straight ahead, while Ms. Jolicoeur appears staring at a car engulfed in flames as it rolls along a street.

After the camera angle changes, the viewer can see that Ms. Ceretti’s handbag is also on fire, making the model’s nonchalant stroll more surreal.

Video still from Bottega Veneta's Miraggio. Image credit: Bottega Veneta

Per Bottega Veneta, the fires in the film are meant to represent passion and the soul, while also calling to mind a sense of emergency.

Chapter two of reflections, “196.6 MHz,” takes its name from 1966, the year Bottega Veneta was founded. Setting the scene, two touching hands are seen being pulled apart.

The vignette centers on a man and a women attempting to connect via a radio. Ms. Ceretti is seen getting into the driver’s seat of a car, while her costar Janis Ancens paces in a motel room.

Both interact with radios, turning nobs to try to get a signal, trying to bridge what is an unidentified distance. While the pair fails to communicate verbally, the final shot is of the same hands reaching for each other and reconnecting.

Bottega Veneta's Reflections campaign

This short was inspired by the idea of Bottega Veneta’s connection with the world, which began as the house was established.

Diversified approach
As digital media has erupted, many luxury brands have played with the ad campaign. One increasingly popular approach is the creation of additional content, allowing brands to more easily populate social media feeds for extended timeframes.

For instance, Italian fashion house Prada reformulated the traditional seasonal advertising campaign with a multifaceted story that showed off its spring/summer collection as varying identities.

Prada, 365 is the designer’s new method of imagining a traditional advertising campaign. Instead of just one campaign to last the season, Prada has introduced five interpretations of the same story of which content will be released throughout the year (see story).

German fashion label Hugo Boss similarly hoped to make an entrance this past holiday season with a series of vignettes that emphasize the brand’s style in a unique fashion.

Hugo Boss’ holiday campaign consists of an advertisement spot broken into separate videos for more dramatic effect. Coupled with its beefed up purchasing services, the fashion brand is hoping to make a powerful entrance into the holidays “in the fast lane (see story).

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Bottega Veneta takes filmic approach for surreal shorts

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