Margaret Howell Fall 2025 Ad Campaign

Review of Margaret Howell Fall 2025 Ad Campaign by Photographer William Waterworth and Videographer Joel Kerr with models Gideon Adeniyi & Tanya Churbanova

Set against the shingle beaches and open skies of the Kent coastline, Margaret Howell’s Fall 2025 campaign evokes the slow, elemental rhythm of a coastal walk in late autumn. Photographed by William Waterworth, with an accompanying film by Joel Kerr, the campaign continues the brand’s decades-long exploration of natural light, British landscapes, and real clothes worn in real weather. Tanya Churbanova and Gideon Adeniyi embody this stripped-back vision, their presences understated, their expressions quiet.

The imagery is undeniably beautiful. Waterworth’s lens captures Howell’s signature fabrics—wool flannel, herringbone tweed, brushed cotton—with textural reverence. The black-and-white palette emphasizes depth over drama, spotlighting the nuance of tailoring and the humble dignity of functional garments. There’s an elegance in the simplicity: a buttoned-up cardigan, a tie half-windblown, a coat collar turned just slightly against the breeze. It’s a campaign rooted in honesty, not theatricality.

Still, that very honesty at times threatens to tip into detachment. While the campaign’s restraint is in line with Howell’s ethos, it doesn’t fully immerse the viewer in a world. There is no tension, no story beyond the quiet beauty of the garments and the landscape. The models walk, stand, look, but rarely feel. As a result, the campaign registers more as a moving lookbook than a memorable narrative or emotional portrait.

This absence of interiority may explain why the campaign feels less impactful than it might. The visuals recall the spirit of Raymond Moore or Bill Brandt’s coastal photography—melancholic, moody, and sublime—but never fully commit to their depth. There’s a sense that something is being observed rather than experienced. The coast becomes a backdrop, not a force. The viewer, like the models, remains at a contemplative remove.

What’s missing is friction—something to disrupt the frame or jostle the clothes. Howell’s best campaigns have often balanced softness with stubbornness, elegance with erosion. Here, the garments never seem to interact with the wind, water, or grit. A scarf lies too perfectly, a cuff remains pristine, a collar never truly fights the chill. Even moments of intimacy between the models are underplayed, their expressions bordering on blankness rather than introspection or connection.

That said, the consistency of Margaret Howell’s visual world deserves recognition. While other brands chase trend cycles or influencer-bait spectacle, Howell remains unwavering in her aesthetic clarity. Few designers have so thoroughly committed to the poetry of the everyday. The campaign may be subdued, but it still offers a compelling counter-narrative to fashion’s louder voices: one of longevity, realism, and quiet grace.

Perhaps it’s not about memorability, but about accumulation. Margaret Howell campaigns rarely aim for immediate impact—they build, season after season, into a complete world. In that sense, Fall 2025 is another brushstroke in a long, slow portrait of British restraint. Beautiful and calm, it holds its ground. But a little more vulnerability—a glance, a gesture, a storm—might have made this walk along the shore linger just a bit longer.