Dior Mens Fall 2023 Ad Campaign

Review of Dior Mens Fall 2023 Ad Campaign by Photographer Rafael Pavarotti and Art Director Ronnie Cooke-Newhouse with models Emile Danckaert, Wu Guoqiang, Awwal Adeoti, Loris Moine, and Silouane Vongkhamchanh

Dior draws on the fluidity and depth of both poetry and the sea for its Fall 2023 men’s campaign. The campaign was shot by photographer Rafael Pavarotti with art direction from Ronnie Cooke-Newhouse.

Pavarotti’s nuanced solo and group portraits put a soft focus on the collection’s poetically minded balance of precise details, generous volumes, and a romantic spirit. Classic studio backdrops build on the looks’ liberal use of iconic Dior gray, while the moodiness is balanced out by a few moments where the models crack rare smiles.

On the one hand, the collection’s and runway show’s nautical and poetic references – the show’s staging featured Robert Pattinson and Gwendolyn Christie reading T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land – could have provided fertile ground for a more deeply conceptual campaign – what would it have looked like to try to translate an iconic modernist poem into the medium of fashion photography? (It would have been great to see Pattinson star in the campaign too, but that must entail a pretty huge budget.)

On the other hand, the elegant simplicity of the campaign is working perfectly as it is. This is a collection that beautifully balances softness and sensitivity with an exacting attention to detail, and Pavarotti’s quietly powerful portraits convey its spirit excellently.