Vogue’s September issue marks the beginning of the fashion and beauty retail Holiday selling season. The fourth yearly quarter is desperately important to fashion and beauty houses, because this quarter brings in as much of 40% of annual revenues. This being the case, fashion companies pour their energy and budgets into creating the most memorable ad campaigns of the year. 

Below, Fashion Reverie highlights fall 2024’s most intriguing fashion image campaigns:

Images courtesy of smagazineofficial.com

Alexander McQueen

Photographer, Glen Luchford is famous for his avant-garde campaigns for Prada in the late nineties and innumerable editorials for British Vogue. Luchford used London’s gritty East End as the backdrop and inspiration for the photographs he took for this latest campaign.

The resultant vibe was reminiscent of the house’s late founder and his troubled bad boy image. In fact, there are many similarities between the current Creative Director, Sean McGirr, and the late McQueen. Both were educated at Central Saint Martin’s College of Arts & Design in London. Both had the late and much renowned Professor Louise Wilson as their mentor while in school. McGirr chose to feature the label’s new sling bag in hopes that the edgy images will drive consumers to clamor for the bag; fashion houses’ fortunes rely heavily on having a bag attain “it bag” status to drive revenues.

Image courtesy of msn.com

Banana Republic enlisted 90s supermodel, Carolyn Murphy to inject some of her magic into the sportwear brand, and it worked! The GAP brand leaned heavily into what it does best, classic American sportwear.

UK photographer, Tom Munro is known for his editorial work with Harper’s Bazaar in its glory days in the 1990s under editor-in-chief Liz Tilberis. Munro added an impressive roster of celebrity portraiture to his fashion editorial portfolio in the decades that followed, including television commercials starring actor Cate Blanchett for Giorgio Armani’s ‘Si’ fragrance. It’s not Murphy and Munro’s first rodeo: they have been working together as far back as 1998, when Munro shot the model in a May 1998 editorial for British Vogue.

Image courtesy of thehollywoodreporter.com

Donna Karan’s latest campaign is named “In Women We Trust” and celebrates the 25-year long relationship between Donna Karan, photographer Mikael Janson, and creative director, Trey Laird. Janson shot Karan’s campaign 25 years ago, and Laird helped with the creative direction.

The fall 2024 campaign stresses the timelessness of Karan’s signature archival designs and the models in it. Donna Karan used some of the same models from those past campaigns: Christy Turlington, Karen Elson, Amber Valletta, and Shalom Harlow, along with some newer faces.

An article in WWD, ran a photograph of Donna Karan in the same gold slit skirt with gathered waist that nineties supermodel Amber Valletta wears in the current campaign. Christy Turlington, who also appeared in the campaign neatly summarized the brand’s DNA and campaign to WWD, “It’s an amazing group of women. I love the throughline of Donna Karan in us all.”

Image courtesy of vogue.com

Dooney & Bourke took an old school approach, looking back to the time-honored luxury clothing and accessory advertisements that ran in the 1970s and 1980s in the Sunday New York Times for inspiration. The image of the luxury item was there, but what stood out was the compelling copy. The beauty of those Times ads and Dooney’s latest, is that the copy is so incredibly straightforward. It tells the reader what the bag is, why they would want to have it, the fabric composition and the price. This direct approach alone is something one never sees in modern day luxury handbag image campaigns, making the ad a standout.

Image courtesy of fashionmagazine.com

Loewe

This once largely overlooked Spanish luxury brand is now red-hot. Loewe is a brand that just keeps gaining momentum. An article that ran in www.euronews.com on November 8, 2023, reported, “experts (are) naming it the hottest brand of the year”. Creative Director Jonathan Anderson utilized skills he learned while working as a visual merchandiser for Prada at the start of his career.

Anderson’s been at Loewe since 2013 and his efforts have recently reached critical mass with the hit “Puzzle Bag,” and other items such as the black pointy shoes with imitation red balloons as heels. These and other items possess a cartoon like quality that make them ideal for social media consumption, and as such, have attained viral status.

Add to that, support from mega stars Rihanna who wore Loewe while singing the National Anthem at the LVII Superbowl Halftime show, and Beyonce who wore a Loewe catsuit while touring for the Renaissance show. For fall 2024, Anderson collaborated with lensman, David Sims known for his boundary pushing editorial fashion editorials in Vogue Italia. Mr. Sims chose Mr. James Bond, aka Daniel Craig, and Netflix star, Greta Lee, to front the ads. As with the viral tank top that rings in at 342 Euros, Craig’s retro 70s $3,700 ski sweater is a perfect “stealth Wealth” item.

Image of amalfistyle.com

Prada’s latest image campaign retains the kooky aesthetic that’s been a quintessential part of the Prada brand since Miuccia Prada’s first collection in 1988.  In a recent interview with writer, Wendell Steavenson, for the February 2024 issue of Vogue, Miuccia Prada explained her motivation for designing Prada. “I make clothes for people so they can live their lives … We should be able to be who we choose to be, always … (I) want people to feel confident so that they can perform in life.” The fall 2024 ad campaign shot by Willy Vanderperre is entitled, “Now That We’re Here”. It features models in conversations and focuses on their interactions as opposed to the clothing.

Image courtesy of designrush.com

J’Adore Dior, stars Rihanna who has replaced Charlize Theron after her 10+ years as Dior’s “golden goddess.” The changing of the guard is in synch with the direction Dior’s creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, has been taking the brand.  The logo tee shirts she shows on the runway and re-do of the house’s iconic Dior tapestry canvas is drawing in new, younger customers, thrilled to embrace Dior by buying a tee, makeup and fragrance.

After the J’Adore ads debuted, Rihanna is now firmly associated with Dior and is helping the house attract these new younger customers. She is one of the key players redefining today’s concept of beauty in an increasingly diverse world that is miles away from the antiquated concept of Caucasian blonde beauty that dominated the second half of the twentieth century.

Steven Klein’s short film is the basis of the campaign and bears his distinctive stamp. Of his work, Klein explains, “I like to show subjects inside a sealed veneer.” In the J’Adore Dior film, Rihanna appears encased in gold and very much the untouchable “golden goddess” she’s cast as.

—Vivian Kelly