Valentino 'Unboxing' 2023 Ad Campaign Review

Review of Valentino ‘Unboxing’ 2023 Ad Campaign by Art Director Riccardo Zanola and Photographer Steven Meisel

Valentino strips down fashion campaign imagery to its core essence with its new Spring 2023 campaign, seen through the iconic lens of photographer Steven Meisel.

Titled “Unboxing Valentino,” the collection referenced the idea of unboxing, a popular and seemingly trite social media activity, seeing it as a jumping off point for values of individuality, revelation, community, and a crossing of the boundaries between the everyday and what is ostensibly elevated or set apart from it.

Meisel’s campaign imagery captures the spirit of the collection through elegantly minimal portraits of refined but utterly real individuals. The campaign is directly inspired by the famous editorial “The Group” shot by Meisel himself for Vogue Italia in 1999. Eschewing the familiar faces of models, the casting instead opts for a casting call that features real, anonymous people, individuals we might pass on the street and be struck by their unique beauty, their singular way of carrying themselves.

In putting these people together, Meisel’s group shots honor the spirit of individuality and distinctness while transforming them into a community, while the impeccably elegant styling emphasizes the values of fluidity and expression that both unites them and sets them apart.

The campaign does succeed in unboxing the fashion image, stripping away its external frame and inspecting what is essential about it: a portrait of an individual or group of individuals that speaks to how what they are wearing helps to convey who they are.

Reinterpreting couture craft and ready-to-wear codes as a language through which a new generation makes its voice urgently heard, the campaign is a powerful tribute to individuality and choice.