Monday, July 25, 2016

> New ZARA F/W 2016 campaign directly inspired by painter J W Waterhouse

Browsing through my fav blogs, I started discovering images of the new ZARA lookbook for the coming fall:

Photographer Mario Sorrenti & Stylist Francesca Burns named it the "Disco Forest", but it seems to me this is much more a Victorian Forest coming right out of the paintings of John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), from the Pre-Raphaelite movement:

Here, look again:

Same palette, same poses, same mood...

Don't get me wrong, I love being inspired by paintings or literature for my work, just like Hockney, Warhol or Wilde,
in fact sometimes I am afraid the art direction is stronger than the collections I am displaying. But what puzzled me in this particular story is that they did not mention their inspiration anywhere, not in press releases, not in articles.. unless i did not find them?


I am aware that sometimes I go far in my settings, but I do love real inspiration and story telling that invites my viewers to go the extra mile, whether they actually do it or not.

My two favorite JW Waterhouse paintings: Boreas, Lamia & the Soldier

What about you? Were you ever confronted by the importance of package v/s content? Art direction v/s fashion collection?