DKNY Spring 2024 Ad Campaign

Review of DKNY Spring 2024 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Trey Laird with Photographer Alasdair McLellan with Model Kaia Gerber

The Donna Karan revival continues with a new Spring 2024 campaign for DKNY, seeing the iconic brand make a triumphant return to the streets of New York. Masterminded by creative director Trey Laird, the campaign stars Kaia Gerber lensed by photographer Alasdair McLellan.

McLellan captures Gerber in easy breezy portraiture as she kicks back in versatile staples like jeans, leather jacket, and trench coat, putting a boldly branded seal on things with DKNY printed tees and bags. Finishing it off with a Yankees cap – a trademark of Kaia’s that often appears in paparazzi street style photos – the styling makes for an organic look that is the epitome of New York chic.

The campaign’s layout pairs portraits of Gerber with images shot on film by McLellan of some of the city’s most iconic architectural landmarks. The two elements are collaged together with yellow tape in a subtle nod to DKNY’s signature taxicab yellow.

DKNY was always inspired by the streets of New York, so it’s great to have it be part of the streets of New York and the landscape of the city. We love the idea of reintroducing it with that kind of tone.”
– Trey Laird

This spirit of developing an organic New York icon extends across other aspects of the campaign as well. The accompanying video bridges a kind of phygital experience that sees Gerber’s moving face take over billboards and wild postings. Meanwhile, real wild postings are going up across New York, Milan, London, and Paris, starting with the headshot portrait of the star in her Yankees cap.

“Every brand has to find there connection to culture that’s authentic to them,” says Laird of the power of that single image. “I wanted to ask how I could shift your perception of a brand with one image – you see that portrait and it feels different. It’s definitely DKNY, but it’s a new DKNY.”

Though it wasn’t conceived as a driving force of the campaign, the casting choice also subtly reflects that synthesis of brand heritage and new energy with a fun intergenerational Easter egg. The refreshed DKNY arrives hot on the heels of a star-studded campaign that boldly relaunched the main Donna Karan label by bringing together a legendary roster of supermodels who helped to define the Queen of 7th Avenue’s influential grip on the New York fashion scene in her late 80s heyday. Among these faces was Kaia Gerber’s iconic mother, Cindy Crawford. Taken together, the two campaigns thus literally embody Donna Karan’s new forward direction, with DKNY embodying a youthful New York energy and Donna Karan reviving a spirit of sophisticated femininity.

Stripping things back to find revitalized energy in the core character of the brand, DKNY sets the stage for an iconic new chapter.