Eckhaus Latta Pre-Fall 2024 Sunglasses Ad Campaign

Review of Eckhaus Latta Pre-Fall 2024 Sunglasses Ad Campaign by Creative Directors Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta with Photographer Rob Kulisek with models Tony Ward and Tera Patrick

Sex sells, but Eckhaus Latta has something more profound in mind. Shot by photographer Rob Kulisek, the brand’s hot and heavy new campaign for its second sunglasses collection carries forward a striking exploration of sexuality and perception.

The campaign nods back to one of the most iconic, memorable, and provocative moments from Eckhaus Latta’s history: its Spring 2017 campaign that featured full-on shots of real couples actually having sex (with genitals pixelated). While it is a kind of spiritual sequel, this new campaign tightens the scope, with each image focusing entirely on an individual face rather than full bodies.

The original starting point for the campaign was around intimate and electric portraits of couples having sex. Here, we tried to amp up that sexual aspect of it to have something less direct but also more exposed.”
– Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta, Eckhaus Latta Creative Directors

The sunglasses-clad faces of models Tera Patrick and Tony Ward are captured in rapturous moments of release, making for portraits that feel disarmingly provocative and which – though not erotic in a pornographic sense (which isn’t the point) – offer a bizarrely beautiful look at a person being so fully within their body that they forget about the way their body looks. Kulisek’s digital snapshots are notably pixelated, making the images feel like an uncanny revisiting of some bygone early-2000s smut. This feeling is further emphasized by the fact that both models have previously worked in the adult film industry.

That strange blend of progressive provocation that is still anchored in an aesthetic familiarity feels very characteristic of Eckhaus Latta, and particularly this latest sunglasses collection, which the creative directors said seeks to “develop styles that felt familiar or historic but in our own language.” It’s great to see the brand revisit one of its defining moments and carry that momentum forward with freshness and focus.