Kody Phillips Fall 2024 Ad Campaign

Review of Kody Phillips Fall 2024 Ad Campaign by Photographer Kizzy Kalu and Film Director Wenxin Yang with models Matt Rossi, Mell, Manny Omitto, Jet Fighter Watson

Kody Phillips is out for blood with his Fall 2024 campaign. The independent, Brooklyn-based designer’s biggest campaign yet was made in collaboration with a team of local creatives, including photographer Kizzy Kalu and film director Wenxin Yang.

The imagery draws inspiration from 1970s action and blaxploitation films like The Warriors and Shaft, with Kalu taking a nostalgic and energetic visual perspective to capturing the antiheroes mid-beatdown amongst train depots and graffitied backlots.

Another series of images makes a brilliant riff on typical lookbook imagery: rather than seen from in front, the characters are captured from above as they lie spread out on the pavement, having apparently just been beaten up and run over. Clever set-design details create suggestive moments of environmental storytelling, subtly fleshing out an open-ended narrative.

The approach works brilliantly for Phillips in several ways. The pastiche of a historic film movement feels like a perfect home for the designer’s work that blurs the lines between classic menswear and progressive streetwear, and the provocative conceptual storytelling is a strong extension of his idiosyncratic and independent communication style. Whether it’s a critique of media’s commodification of the spectacle of male violence, a riff on how brutal the fashion industry is, or simply some artists having fun, it’s a great campaign. We’re looking forward to seeing more from this rising designer.