Top 10 Fashion Ad Campaigns of 2022

The Top 10 Fashion Ad Campaigns of 2022 as chosen by Kenneth Richard

The campaigns in this category feel, in a sense, effortless. None of them exist in a vacuum; they all take shape as the latest chapter in an ever-unfolding exploration of creative principles and aesthetic identity. Thoughtfully drawing on established brand identity, these campaigns give us the sense of witnessing fully fleshed-out worlds that already exist, that a brand has always been breathing life into, but now has just happened to be photographed for the first time. And on seeing these photographs, we long to be a part of it.

Most of these campaigns also attest to the impact and ever-increasing relevance of film in fashion communications. As video-based social media platforms like TikTok continue to grow and brand channels become increasingly multifaceted and entertainment-focused, video is becoming more and more essential to storytelling and brand identity.

Balenciaga’s campaign was a smart and fitting – though ominous – continuation of Balenciaga’s consideration of dystopian futurism and environmental precarity. The runway show sent its models trudging through an artificial snowstorm, and here the house explored further facets of man made environmental horrors and the decadent paradoxes of our late capitalist moment. Are these characters living in simulated environments in a technologically augmented future? Are they an elite class who have had the privilege of retreating into virtual reality while the rest of the world starves and burns? Or have they miscalculated their outfits and found themselves in a real world that is irrevocably, unrecognizably changed? What is both frustrating and exciting about Balenciaga is that they don’t answer these questions, instead choosing to build a mysterious and undeniably cool aesthetic world out of these tensions. Even if we’re heading into a nuclear winter, Balenciaga will be looking cool and making it look easy.

Eschewing staged shots and time constraints for naturalism that unfolded over the course of weeks, the cross-generational cast of Bottega Veneta’s runway show was lensed by a group of photographers that included both veteran image-makers and young creatives who had never shot fashion before, making for a wide range of honest perspectives. Captured mostly on film and under natural light, the resulting series of images found a particular focus on new creative director Matthieu Blazy’s concept of craft in motion, while their approach ranges from intimate backstage shots to expressive portraiture and moments of candid joy. 

Gucci and Palace celebrated an unexpected collaboration with a kaleidoscopically stylish campaign that swirled together British skate and club culture with Gucci’s hedonistic Italian opulence. The film featured a brilliant and hilarious coda that formed a kind of self-aware meta-layer to the campaign as it introduced us to muppet versions of Gucci’s advertising department, led by a muppet Alessandro Michele himself, who ruminated on his own brilliance. While the campaign would have already been great without this muppet coda, it proved again that Gucci is willing to go the extra mile to create unexpected, engrossing narratives and to reflect on its principles of creativity, luxury, and play.

Ralph Lauren’s special collaboration and campaign with Spelman and Morehouse colleges was a brilliant way to celebrate the too-often overlooked legacy of Black Americans in academia and its culture – a statement that is made even stronger by its campaign’s all-Black creative team and cast (a first for the brand). There is nobody whose name holds as much weight in the vocabulary of American dressing like Ralph Lauren and his Polo, and yet this legacy is often misattributed as something pertaining to an exclusively white America. Focusing on the impact and importance of historically Black colleges and universities – the legacy of which reaches back centuries and continues to be essential in shaping individual lives and cultural movements to this day, and will be long into the future – Ralph Lauren took essential steps to honor the diverse face of the American Dream, and did so in impeccable style.

Here are The Impression’s Top 10 Ad Campaigns of 2022 as selected by our Chief Impressionist, Kenneth Richard.

Balenciaga

Fall 2022

Balenciaga Creative Director | Demna
Photographer | Daniel Roché
Talent |  Kim Kardashian, Alexa Demie, Big Matthew, Khadim Sock, and Kim Yeon-koung

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Bottega Veneta

Fall 2022

Bottega Veneta Creative Director | Matthieu Blazy
Photographers | Malick Bodian, Solène Şahmaran Gün, Francois Halard, Sander Muylaert, Louise Thornfeldt, and Maria Thornfeldt
Videographers | Benoit Debie, Gretar Gunnlaugsson, and Luca Werner
Models | Rhenny Alade, Emma Balfour, Mariacarla Boscono, Adamu Bulus, Leo Comanescu, Izabelle Dantas, Dara Gueye, Sanggun Lee, Silas de Maat, Paola Manes, Awar Odhiang, Chu Wong, and Anok Yai

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Gucci ‘Cosmogonie’

Resort 2023

Gucci Creative Director | Alessandro Michele
Art Director | Christopher Simmonds
Photographers & Directors | Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott
Models | Adedayo Atiba, Ruiqi Jiang, Yetunde Odimayo
Stylist | Carlos Nazario
Hair | Paul Hanlon
Makeup | Thomas De Kluyver
Manicurist | Anatole Rainey
Set Designer | Gary Card
Casting Director | Marianna Rizzi
Location | Castel del Monte, Italy

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Jil Sander

Spring 2022

Jil Sander Creative Directors | Lucie and Luke Meier
Art Director | Heiko Keinath 
Photographer | Chris Rhodes
Models | Henry Kitcher, Helena Severin, Moustapha Sy, Chu Wong

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