Top 10 Fashion Ad Campaigns of Fall 2022

The Top 10 Fashion Ad Campaigns of Fall 2022 Season as chosen by Kenneth Richard

The campaigns in this category feel, in a sense, effortless. None of them exist in a vacuum; they all take shape as the latest chapter in an ever-unfolding exploration of creative principles and aesthetic identity. Thoughtfully drawing on established brand identity, these campaigns give us the sense of witnessing fully fleshed-out worlds that already exist, that a brand has always been breathing life into, but now has just happened to be photographed for the first time. And on seeing these photographs, we long to be a part of it.

Balenciaga’s campaign was a smart and fitting – though ominous – continuation of Balenciaga’s consideration of dystopian futurism and environmental precarity. The runway show sent its models trudging through an artificial snowstorm, and here the house explored further facets of man made environmental horrors and the decadent paradoxes of our late capitalist moment. Are these characters living in simulated environments in a technologically augmented future? Are they an elite class who have had the privilege of retreating into virtual reality while the rest of the world starves and burns? Or have they miscalculated their outfits and found themselves in a real world that is irrevocably, unrecognizably changed? What is both frustrating and exciting about Balenciaga is that they don’t answer these questions, instead choosing to build a mysterious and undeniably cool aesthetic world out of these tensions. Even if we’re heading into a nuclear winter, Balenciaga will be looking cool and making it look easy.

Eschewing staged shots and time constraints for naturalism that unfolded over the course of weeks, the cross-generational cast of Bottega Veneta’s runway show was lensed by a group of photographers that included both veteran image-makers and young creatives who had never shot fashion before, making for a wide range of honest perspectives. Captured mostly on film and under natural light, the resulting series of images found a particular focus on new creative director Matthieu Blazy’s concept of craft in motion, while their approach ranges from intimate backstage shots to expressive portraiture and moments of candid joy.

Gucci and Palace celebrated an unexpected collaboration with a kaleidoscopically stylish campaign that swirled together British skate and club culture with Gucci’s hedonistic Italian opulence. The film featured a brilliant and hilarious coda that formed a kind of self-aware meta-layer to the campaign as it introduced us to muppet versions of Gucci’s advertising department, led by a muppet Alessandro Michele himself, who ruminated on his own brilliance. While the campaign would have already been great without this muppet coda, it proved again that Gucci is willing to go the extra mile to create unexpected, engrossing narratives and to reflect on its principles of creativity, luxury, and play.

Here are The Impression’s Top 10 Ad Campaigns of Fall 2022 as selected by our Chief Impressionist, Kenneth Richard.

Balenciaga

Balenciaga Creative Director | Demna
Photographer | Daniel Roché
Talent | Kim Kardashian, Alexa Demie, Big Matthew, Khadim Sock, and Kim Yeon-koung

Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta Creative Director | Matthieu Blazy
Photographers | Malick Bodian, Solène Şahmaran Gün, Francois Halard, Sander Muylaert, Louise Thornfeldt, and Maria Thornfeldt
Videographers | Benoit Debie, Gretar Gunnlaugsson, and Luca Werner
Models | Rhenny Alade, Emma Balfour, Mariacarla Boscono, Adamu Bulus, Leo Comanescu, Izabelle Dantas, Dara Gueye, Sanggun Lee, Silas de Maat, Paola Manes, Awar Odhiang, Chu Wong, and Anok Yai