Sydney Sweeney channels her inner Anna Nicole Smith for new Guess campaign: 'A dream come true'
The life and legacy of Anna Nicole Smith lives on in a new collection by GUESS Originals — and her diehard fans can’t get enough.
In the new campaign, Euphoria and White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney recreates Smith’s famous GUESS campaign that skyrocketed the then-Playboy playmate into international stardom and solidified her role as a pinup legend.
In gorgeous shots by photographer Kenneth Cappello, Sweeney channels Smith’s signature blonde locks with the '90s-inspired denim jacket, high-rise jeans and bandana in her hair.
“Anna Nicole Smith is essential to ‘90s fashion,” Nicolai Marciano, director of brand partnerships at GUESS, said in a statement. “Anna’s legendary beach shoot revived for this collection and the campaign with Sydney Sweeney is the perfect timeless moment to continue to celebrate one of the most iconic Guess Girls with a new generation.”
After Sweeney shared the finished product on Instagram and Twitter, describing the experience as a "dream come true" in the comments section, fans weighed in with overwhelmingly positive feedback.
“Anna is smiling from Heaven,” one commenter who claims to have been Smith’s body double for “many projects” wrote.. “I’m very excited for the launch!! You did an amazing job.”
“How are you real,” singer and activist Halsey wrote with another adding, "You are beautiful Syd! So proud of you."
Perhaps not-so-ironically, several commenters noted that Sweeney was giving off “Marilyn Monroe vibes,” which makes sense given Smith herself acknowledged how inspiration Monroe was to her own life.
Born in Texas as Vickie Lynn Hogan, Smith rose to fame as the March 1992 Playboy cover girl before appearing in the now-iconic GUESS ads throughout the early '90s.
Smith famously battled the son of her late husband, oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall II, in court to claim the hundreds of millions of dollars she alleged she was promised. Smith later headlined her own her reality sitcom The Anna Nicole Smith Show and became a fixture in the tabloid media in the 2000s before her death from an accidental overdose of prescription meds at age 39 in 2007 — just five months after the death of her son, Daniel.
The paternity of Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn, was the center of a media frenzy until it was later confirmed that Larry Birkhead, who had a relationship with Smith before she died, was the biological father.
Larry and Dannielynn now live together in Kentucky, where he continues to keep Smith's legacy alive, telling 20/20 earlier this year, "Anna should be remembered as this larger than life figure that was really a caring, giving person. A beautiful lady who loved her fans and loved her family."
The Anna Nicole Smith collection, a 32-piece piece men’s and women’s by GUESS Originals, will be available beginning Oct. 7 in select GUESS retail stories as well as well as guessoriginals.com and select styles at urbanoutfitters.com.
