Salt Inheritance
Review of Chloé à la Plage 2026 Ad Campaign by Chemena Kamali with Creative Directors Charles Levai, Kevin Tekinel with Photographer David Sims with model Apple Martin
There is perhaps no House better suited to the poetry of summer than Chloé. For its Chloé à la Plage 2026 campaign, Creative Director Chemena Kamali continues her soft-focus meditation on femininity, freedom, and bohemian ease, enlisting photographer David Sims and creative directors Charles Levai and Kevin Tekinel to build a world that feels less like advertising and more like an exhale. And yes, the campaign stars Apple Martin, but wisely, Chloé never lets celebrity become the loudest thing in the room.
Instead, the campaign leans into something the House has long understood instinctively: desire is often quiet.
Set against dreamy seaside vignettes, the imagery unfolds with the hazy warmth of a memory half remembered. Oversized shells rise from the sand like surrealist stage props. Sunlight spills across washed cottons, lace trims, raffia textures, and skin still warm from the day. Martin sits barefoot in embroidered separates or wrapped in gauzy florals, carrying woven accessories that feel handcrafted rather than hyper-commercial. There is a studied ease here, but never effortlessness in the lazy sense. Every image feels carefully sunlit, carefully softened, carefully restrained.
The strongest visual gesture belongs to Levai and Tekinel, whose art direction resists the temptation toward maximalism. Rather than overwhelm with spectacle, they build atmosphere through sparseness. A giant shell, an expanse of sand, a pale Mediterranean palette, and suddenly Chloé’s world feels expansive. The campaign quietly recalls fashion’s long romance with escapism, but filters it through Kamali’s increasingly confident understanding of what modern Chloé means: softness with conviction, femininity without fragility.
The casting of Apple Martin will inevitably spark conversation. Fashion has always flirted with legacy, and the industry remains fascinated by familiar surnames. Yet what makes the choice work here is restraint. Chloé does not attempt to manufacture an “it girl” moment or overstate Martin’s presence. Instead, she is absorbed into the mood of the campaign itself, less celebrity than symbol – a stand-in for youthful ease and privileged nonchalance. In many ways, that subtlety feels surprisingly intelligent.
Because the truth is, audiences today are increasingly skeptical of over-manufactured visibility. The old formula, where repeated exposure could instantly elevate a new face into cultural fixation, feels less dependable than it once did. Attention is easy; affection is earned. Chloé seems aware of this shift and wisely avoids forcing the narrative. Martin is not presented as someone demanding attention, but simply inhabiting a fantasy.
And the fantasy works. Sims’ lens captures the kind of languid glamour that feels refreshingly unhurried in an age of overstimulation. There is no theatricality screaming for relevance, no algorithmic desperation. Just sunlight, texture, softness, and an understanding that sometimes luxury is best communicated through mood rather than message.
In a season where so many campaigns compete to be louder, Chloé simply heads to the beach – and somehow says more in a whisper.
Chloé Creative Director | Chemena Kamali
Photographer | David Sims
Creative Directors | Charles Levai, Kevin Tekinel
Director | Romain Wygas
Model | Apple Martin
Fashion Editor/Stylist | Elodie David Touboul
Hair | Paul Hanlon
Makeup | Yadim
Set Designer | Poppy Bartlett