Review of Versace Spring 2023 Women’s Ad Campaign by Creative Directors Charles Levai & Kevin Tekinel and Photographers & Directors Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott with models Emily Ratajkowski, Faaby Fall, Wang Fei, Mika Santos, Iva Varvarchuk, Lulu Wood
Versace and Emily Ratajkowski explore the layered identities of the modern muse in the house’s latest campaign for its Spring 2023 women’s collection. The campaign was created in partnership with two of fashion’s leading image-making duos: creative directors Charles Levai and Kevin Tekinel and photographers and film directors Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
Ratajkowski stands out from the passing scene as she takes a striking pose dressed in slick black and gold layered over punchy purple. While motion-blur effects lend a sense of ephemerality to the black-clad figures behind her, she maintains an unmovable poise.
The Versace woman is strong, purposeful, and always the leader of the pack. This season I love her in black or bold colors and powerful silhouettes.
– Donatella Versace
Things get interesting as we see that the background of moving models perhaps isn’t actually in the same place and time as Ratajkowski; one of the images shows us that she stands in a purple studio before a screen displaying an image of the street, rather than on the actual street, making for a self-aware kind of meta layer. It might feel like a stretch, but the approach actually reminds us a bit of some of the later work of Matisse, particularly when he would create paintings of his own studio where the space itself bleeds into his well-known past works: an investigation of the artist as art, as his own muse, or a blurring of the boundaries between experience and the interpretation of it.
The campaign thus feels like a reflection on the idea of fashion campaigns itself, exploring the ways image and digital platforms can transform and layer our experience of reality and something we tend to think of as separate from reality. Ultimately, though, it is a statement on the power of fashion – especially through the eyes of Versace – to cut through these layers and command attention for its own sake.
Versace Creative Director | Donatella Versace
Creative Director | Kevin Tekinel & Charles Levai
Photographer & Directors | Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott
Models | Emily Ratajkowski, Faaby Fall, Wang Fei, Mika Santos, Iva Varvarchuk, Lulu Wood
Stylist | Jacob K
Hair | Jawara
Makeup | Isamaya Ffrench
Casting Director | Piergiorgio Del Moro
Set Designer | Andrea Cellerino