Proenza Schouler Spring 2024 Ad Campaign

Review of Proenza Schouler Spring 2024 Ad Campaign by Creative Directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez with Photographer Davit Giorgadze with model Pamela Anderson

Proenza Schouler questions beauty standards and perceptions of celebrity with a stunning new campaign starring the inimitable Pamela Anderson. The legendary model and pop-culture figure was lensed by photographer Davit Giorgadze.

Anderson made an exciting and unexpected front-row appearance at the New York brand’s most recent runway show, which we can now see was in anticipation of this debut as Proenza Schouler’s latest muse. The ad is another strong example of the brand’s signature campaign aesthetic, capturing the design duo’s balance of sophisticated tailoring with subtly experimental approaches to construction through an atmosphere of grounded elegance.

But the most striking aspect of the campaign is Anderson’s makeup-free (with the exception of a touch of lip gloss) look, a decision which is still practically unheard of in the world of celebrity beauty standards and red-carpet dressing, not to mention fashion campaigns. The approach is striking on its own for its sheer uniqueness and visual honesty, but it takes on deeper meaning in connection to Pamela Anderson’s modeling career and position as one of the foremost Americana sex symbols, raising provocative and important questions about how women’s value is portrayed in media. What makes an icon of desire desirable, and when does this desire end? Who sets beauty standards for women? Who gets to be a fashion icon? Why is it shocking to see an older woman with no makeup in a fashion ad?

Proenza Schouler has wisely established a practice of creative partnerships with meaningful muses who embody the brand’s quietly idiosyncratic ethos of sophistication and maturity, and this campaign feels like the most uniquely powerful chapter of this story yet. The campaign exemplifies how a thoughtful casting choice can fill simple visuals with meaning and spark important conversations about the role of fashion.