Follow the Star!

What was that famous Christmas story, something about being guided by a star? Well, this year, fashion has gotten into the spirit of the message. From Old Hollywood dames to the new generation of talent, there has been a turn to the simple charm of the actor, and not just as a model, too. 

Dior’s winter campaign is a short film by Sylvain Chomet, an award-winning French animator, called Night in Colour. The cast plucks some of the hottest names in film credits – all Jonathan Anderson favourites – with Louis Garrel as Christian Dior, Robert Pattinson narrating, Josh O’Connor as a chair, and Rihanna as a lucky star. The film revolves around Dior’s encounter with Marlene Dietrich (played by Camille Cottin), perhaps the most glamorous actress of all time, as she demands a last minute ballgown for an event.

The nostalgia doesn’t stop there: Prada’s holiday campaign went viral last week for its emphasis on hand-drawn animation. The Disney-style campaign stars puckish animals dancing around a sylvan scene, stealing handbags and shoes from Prada ambassadors such as Sadie Sink and Kelvin Harrison Jr. It says something of our time that the brand has to emphatically note in all its comms that they eschewed AI for traditional art, though many internet-attuned (short) attention spans were outraged nonetheless. 

Elsewhere, the charm of Hollywood manifested again in Ami’s winter campaign that launched today, starring legendary French actress, Catherine Deneuve. The message is clear: if you’re going to employ a celebrity to bring your collection to life, go big or go home. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Gucci, for whom under Demna Gvasalia nothing is too obvious, has centered their holiday video campaign around Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” starring, of course, the singer. Tacky or genius? Maybe a bit of both? That song is the bellwether for the start of the Christmas period, and so it begins. What we do know now from the spate of campaign launches in the last week is that it’s never been more apparent that the luxury brand race to outdo each other in the holiday spirit is at full speed, and we are loving every second of it.