Thom Browne Swim 2022 Ad Campaign

Review of Thom Browne Swim 2022 Ad Campaign by Photographer Richard Phibbs with models Ajok Daing, Giacomo Cavali, and Juan Heredia

Thom Browne deconstructs swimwear with a new campaign by photographer Richard Phibbs.

There’s no water in sight here; instead, the campaign takes a minimal and sophisticated approach, setting its models among an abstract and sparse architectural space and capturing them in rich black and white.

There are still the shirtless hunks we might expect from a more traditional swimwear campaign, but seen through that signature Thom Browne lens of idiosyncratic, sophisticated whimsy.

Reasserting the designer’s embrace of gender fluidity and styling beyond the binary, a few of the images have fun styling gender-role reversals with a man wearing a bikini top while a woman goes topless over her swim trunks. Playfully rewriting a genesis story, one of these photographs sees its model pose in imitation of Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam.

Flipping the script on swimwear with that cheeky combination of intuition and intellect as only Thom Browne can muster, the campaign is an unexpected yet impeccable vision of stripped-back summer style.