EXCLUSIVE: Elle Fanning Debuts in Alexander McQueen Campaign With Naomi Campbell, Eva Green, Liu Wen
LONDON — Alexander McQueen and David Sims are back for another collaboration.
The British luxury brand’s fall 2023 campaign features a lineup of friends of the house shot by the fashion photographer, including Naomi Campbell, Liu Wen, Eva Green, Yseult, Eliott De Smedt, Karolina Spakowski, Momo Ndiaye and Elle Fanning.
More from WWD
All the women are photographed against solid backdrops.
In one image Campbell wears a red sequin dress with detailed cutouts and matching ankle boots and in another, she’s in a black strapless jumpsuit with a pair of statement earrings and set of rings.
Fanning makes her campaign debut for McQueen in a tailored double-breasted number with a white shirt and leather tie. In another image, she’s wearing an embroidered evening gown with fringes.
At the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the actress wore a custom version of a crystal-encrusted dress from the brand’s fall 2023 collection, but added her own touch by adding a voluminous pale-pink tulle skirt to the screening and opening of “Jeanne du Barry.”
Wen wears a long belted leather coat with a white shirt and leather tie, holding the Seal quilted bag in black. In another, she’s in a white shirt with a black tie with a strapless button-down bodice.
The fall 2023 collection nods to Joan of Arc through its uniform-like appeal and silverware and it marked the brand’s return to the Paris Fashion Week schedule earlier this year.
“Anatomy, anatomy of tailoring, anatomy of clothing…where he started on Savile Row, revisiting construction of garments then tearing it apart and subverting it and turning it upside on its head,” said Alexander McQueen’s creative director Sarah Burton backstage at her show last March.
“It feels smart in the times we live in; you want to feel put together and strong against such chaos,” she added.
Green wears a shimmery iteration with statement silver jewelry in a black-and-white shot, and a pinstriped black-and-white suit in another.
Two men’s looks make cameo appearances in the shots, with Ndiaye and De Smedt wearing sleek tailored pieces with a slightly feminine yet sharp touch.
Sims worked with the Kering-owned brand in May for its pre-fall collection campaign shot against a brutalist setting and featuring Amanda Murphy, Celina Ralph, Sora Choi, Alaato Jazyper, Florence Huntington-Whiteley, Florence Hutchings, élise Crombez, Colin Jones, Rejoice Chuol, Wang Han, Wanessa Milhomem and Adhel Bol.
In June, McQueen expanded its offerings into candles to sit alongside its ready-to-wear, accessories and fragrances.
The candle collection is made up of three scents — Ghost Flower, Pagan Rose and Savage Bloom — taking inspiration from juxtapositioned ideas such as “light and darkness, innovation and tradition and strength and fragility,” according to the brand.
Each candle was envisioned by a different perfumer, where they were tasked with interpreting the McQueen codes into a scent, with slight nods to the brand’s runway collections, where storytelling is at its heart.
In the same month, the brand’s founder, the late Lee Alexander McQueen, was honored with a blue plaque at his childhood home in east London.
It’s been a celebratory year for the British brand, from Kate Middleton wearing McQueen at the coronation of King Charles III to Beyoncé performing in several ensembles from the brand on her “Renaissance World Tour.”
According to reports from WeArisma, an influence analytics company, Middleton’s Alexander McQueen gown had an engagement value of $349,700 based on one image from Time magazine’s Instagram.
Best of WWD