Breaking the Ice
Review of (designer/brand) Holiday 2026 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Louise Trotter with Photographer Drew Vickers and Film Director Stephen Kidd, with Julianne Moore, Léo Walk, Amelie Loblich, Anine van Velzen, Gertrud Rose, Leon Dame, Lina Zhang and Mubarak Oyewola
Bottega Veneta has found a useful way to warm up a glacier: put on Corona and leave Julianne Moore in charge. “They Dance Too,” the House’s end-of-year campaign under Creative Director Louise Trotter, takes the festivities into an alpine landscape where the temperature is low and nobody seems particularly concerned about looking sensible. Drew Vickers photographs the cast among snowfields and blue-green ice, while Stephen Kidd’s accompanying film places Moore at the heart of a mysterious mountain disco. Apparently, après-ski no longer requires the skiing.
The atmosphere is what first pulls you in. Inside the ice grotto, light travels through curved walls in shades of aquamarine, frosted blue, and deep teal. It has the otherworldly glamour of an ice palace, with enough darkness to suggest that something interesting might happen after the tour group leaves. Vickers lets those cool tones seep into the clothes and skin rather than lighting the models as though they had been dropped in from another photograph. The result feels immersive, slightly strange, and unusually seductive for a place where sitting down would be a commitment.
That chill does wonderful things for the materials. A red fuzzy bag on a gold chain looks almost hot against the translucent ice. Pale outerwear merges with the snow until its soft surface becomes the thing that separates body from landscape. In one close crop, snow clings to a sand-colored intrecciato bag and the trousers beneath it. It is a particularly good detail for Bottega: the weave remains clear, but the object has entered the world and picked up evidence. Beautiful leather can survive an encounter with something other than a plinth.
The dancers make sure the scenery never becomes the entire event. Lina Zhang throws her arms upward and kicks out a boot beside a frozen lake, the long belt of her brown leather jacket flying across her black skirt. Elsewhere, a dark, shaggy silhouette stretches against exposed rock and cloud. These gestures give the clothes their own small surprises. Leather bends, sleeves fall back, bags swing away from bodies. You see how things behave when their wearer has something more enjoyable to do than hold a pose.
The cast includes dancer Léo Walk alongside Leon Dame, Zhang, and a wider ensemble, with Moore lending the gathering a different kind of magnetism. In her ice-grotto photograph, she raises a small dark clutch above her head, her navy tailoring and long white neckline cutting through the blue surroundings. The gesture is simple enough to feel personal. There is no elaborate party apparatus to explain why she is enjoying herself. Sometimes the right person with one arm in the air is quite sufficient.
The declared homage to Claire Denis’ Beau Travail, carried into Kidd’s film through “The Rhythm of the Night,” gives that release a cinematic starting point. Wisely, the still campaign also offers plenty to enjoy without requiring the viewer to arrive with the reference prepared. A body leaning into a movement, a hat threatening to obscure a face, a handbag held close as someone reclines against the ice: these are pleasures available on sight. The occasional stillness is welcome, too. A silver surface catching the grotto’s light or a white woven shoe held above cold water provides a pause between the larger gestures.
A few of the seated portraits are more familiar fashion territory, their composed expressions making them feel slightly separate from the abandon elsewhere. The man in dark tailoring and sunglasses looks impeccable against the ice, though he seems more likely to assess the guest list than join the dancing. More of the cast’s individual quirks in those quieter frames would have strengthened the sense of a shared occasion. But this is a small reservation within a campaign whose changes of pace largely work. The accessories have space to register, and the landscape gets to be vast without reducing everyone to decorative specks.
What makes “They Dance Too” persuasive is its willingness to let sophistication lose its balance a little. The bags remain desirable while swinging from raised wrists, the tailoring accommodates a private party, and the icy setting makes every soft or supple surface feel more tempting. Bottega offers an end-of-year fantasy with enough oddness to escape the usual seasonal decorations. The room is freezing. Nobody is asking for their coat.
Bottega Veneta Creative Director | Louise Trotter
Photographer | Drew Vickers
Film Director | Stephen Kidd
Models / Talent | Julianne Moore, Léo Walk, Amelie Loblich, Anine van Velzen, Gertrud Rose, Leon Dame, Lina Zhang and Mubarak Oyewola
Soundtrack | “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona