Review of Vivienne Westwood Sibyl Bag Fall 2023 Ad Campaign by Photographers Jianca Lazarus, Magen Buse, and Sarah Haywood with model Sibyl Buck
Vivienne Westwood explores the punk playfulness of multifaceted personalities with the new Fall 2023 campaign highlighting the brand’s Sibyl handbag. Starring the bag’s namesake herself, 90s fashion icon Sibyl Buck (who certainly hasn’t slowed down since the 90s), the campaign was shot across three chapters by a trio of photographers: Jianca Lazarus, Sarah Haywood, and Magen Buse.
The campaign’s visual narrative follows the geographic arc of its protagonist’s creative career after she left modeling in the late 90s, dividing into distinct sections of past, present, and future. The photographs by Jianca Lazarus see Sibyl return to the artist co-op she founded in Brooklyn, seeing her get right back at home among the space’s intersection of industrial bones and artist-loft eclecticism.
Today, Buck runs a communal permaculture goat farm among the luxury hippy bohemianism of Topanga Canyon, where photographer Sarah Haywood lenses her framed by greenery alongside some adorable goats.
But Sibyl envisions her final chapter in New Mexico, and photographer Magen Buse captures her in intimate, organic portraits among the desert landscape that has served as a place of spiritual communion and discovery for so many artists.
It’s a brilliant concept to feature the star bag’s namesake as the face of the campaign, and the approach takes this conceptual cleverness a step even farther with its unique and thoughtful tripartite format. If there’s one small criticism to be had, it might be that it could have been slightly stronger if the photographers each had a more distinct visual perspective, as they are all pretty similar, and yet not totally visually cohesive as a whole.
Nonetheless, the campaign is an eclectic, organic, and vibrant portrait of the past, present, and future of a very distinct voice who has made a mark on fashion while reaching far beyond it.
Photographers | Jianca Lazarus, Magen Buse, and Sarah Haywood
Model | Sibyl Buck
Locations | Brooklyn, New Mexico, and Los Angeles County