There was more than enough vougeing at Wednesday’s TargetStyle event, where models struck poses based on iconic images from the pages of Vogue, to fill an entire September issue of said magazine.
The mass retailer teamed with Vogue to run a 20-page advertising insert in the September issue featuring 15 photos from covers and editorial images from Vogue’s archives and reimagined them in unpredictable, ironic and humorous ways using Target products as props sand modern-day models such as Edie Campbell, Karen Elson, Imaan Hammam and Candice Huffine. Verushka appeared in two images, including Target’s reinterpretation of a shot from a 1967 issue where concentric circles of gold braids surround her face. The images were shot by Tim Walker.
At the Target event, tableaux based on the photos were scattered throughout Cedar Lake on West 26th Street and provided guests with an opportunity to step into the scenes and pose with models. “Photographers” perched on ladders and dressed like famous lensmen such as Bruce Weber with red bandannas tied around their heads — there was at least one Terry Richardson spotted wearing a plaid shirt and jeans — snapped with their iPhones for posterity.
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Emily Ratajowski said she grew up going to Target in San Diego with her mother and reading Vogue. She seemed to have mastered the celebrity art of withholding information, refusing to divulge the runway show she’s walking in during New York fashion week. “I can’t say,” she shrugged. “I’m starting a period piece in October. I’m in Marc Jacobs’ fall campaign and I did a movie with Zac Efron, ‘We Are Your Friends.’ It’s a coming of age drama.”
Camila Alves, who joined husband Matthew McConaughey in Thailand where he was filming over the summer, said, “It was quite a life experience and adventure.” Alves, who is the mother of three young children, works with Target to bring lifestyle tips to other busy moms. “I’m wearing Zac Posen, Kelly Meyer jewelry and a Target clutch. You need a little bling,” she said of the gold bag. “My mom has pictures of me at five years of age with my elbow on top of a Vogue magazine and my hand underneath my chin.”
Amanda Seyfried enthused about fashion week, “I used to be obsessed with it,” adding that she lives mostly in upstate New York. “This is a really genius idea. Target takes everything we see on the runway and reimagines and molds it into something accessible. I get all this free stuff from designers” but Target products look great, said Seyfried, who’s been admiring Vogue covers since she was 13. The actress said she’s working on “a secret project” and trying to get a film she’s working on with Shirley MacLaine green-lighted. But unlike Reese Witherspoon and other actresses who cite a dearth of strong parts for women, she has no burning desire to start her own production company. “There are some great roles for women [out there],” she said. Seyfried’s other ambition is to “learn to sew.”
Others at the event included Adam Lippes, Harley Viera-Newton, JAckie Cruz, Jeremiah Brent, Keren Craig and Mia Moretti.
Standing in front of one of the live scenes of four models in houndstooth and plaid blazers and cropped pants with slicked back hair, Brian Cornell, chairman and chief executive officer of Target Corp., said, “This is a very unique collaboration of two iconic brands. It was done in a really impactful way. We’re starting to build some really good momentum [in the style/fashion category]. We still have some work to do. Plaids are going to be sensational,” he said of the plaid takeover in stores and online through October. In another room, a carousel was carrying models wearing intricate gowns and head pieces seated on white swans with gold legs. “What kind of birds do you think those are,” one guest was overhead asking another. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Its fabulous.”