in the era of the supers, the brunettes were always my favorites, and it’s interesting that all three (christy, linda and stephanie) continue to model (christy is appearing in the spring campaign for bally and has the cover of january’s w). stephanie doesn’t model as much as she used to (although she turned up in last spring’s vuitton show dressed as a nurse and subsequent campaign), but new valentino creative directors maria grazia chiuri and pier paolo piccioli chose her for the spring campaign shot by mert and marcus. even though the collection wasn’t designed by them, they had no problem taking the feminine designs and creating a campaign that conveyed “strong and sharp glamour and sensuality.”
at first, i was puzzled by the ad, because i thought it was a cop-out by piccioli and chiuri–“let’s just have a supermodel on a grey background in black and white and call it a day”–until i looked closer and realized the ad is brilliant. seymour provides the perfect juxtaposition to the chiffon dress, her arms outstretched and her muscular leg peeking out from under the short skirt. there is quite a debate going on that the leg is distracting, but i don’t think it is. your eye goes right to her, and you realize you aren’t looking at a prepubescent girl…you’re looking at a woman. the valentino woman. bigger version of the full ad below.
scanned by luxx at thefashionspot