DONNA’S VIETNAMESE TRYST
Byline: Lisa Lockwood
NEW YORK — Donna Karan, it seems, will go to all corners of the earth — literally — to follow through on an idea.
“As the collection started to evolve, New Orleans came to mind. I wanted the campaign to be steamy and very hot,” said Karan.
But who needs New Orleans, when you can take a quick trip to Vietnam — which is where Donna Karan’s spring Collection campaign took place. The only regret Karan said she has was that she was unable to go on the shoot, which featured Jeremy Irons and Milla Jovovich and was photographed by Mikael Jansson.
“I wanted to be there with Jeremy Irons,” swooned Karan, who added that she’s always wanted to feature the actor in a campaign. Jovovich appears for the second time in a Karan campaign, the first time being last fall, along with Gary Oldman.
“I think Milla is such an alive woman and has a seduction,” said Karan. “What woman wouldn’t want to be seduced by Jeremy Irons? It’s about dreaming, fantasy, a man and a woman, Asia and Paris,” said Karan, who as reported, recently struck a deal to sell Gabrielle Studios, the licensing company that owns the rights to her trademark, to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton for $450 million. LVMH has also proposed to buy Donna Karan International for $195 million.
Karan explained that the lightweight fabrics were inspired by her trip to Burma, and that she had recently seen the movie “Indochine.” She said they shot the campaign as if it were a movie.
“I feel right now it’s a sequel to her [Jovovich’s] relationship and journey with Gary Oldman. They didn’t look like they were getting along so well,” said Karan, referring to last season’s images where the two look like they’re having a fight.
According to Trey Laird, executive vice president of imaging and creative services at Donna Karan International, the shoot took place in and around Ho Chi Minh City. They shot for three days in street markets, vegetable stands, rice fields, museums and along the Mekong River.
“Donna was very inspired by the East, and it was her desire to fuse the East and West,” said Laird. “This collection had the undercurrent of being in a steamy place, an exoticism. She wanted it hot, sensual and steamy. We wanted to capture the emotion and chemistry.”
Laird said the people they met were very friendly and fascinated by what was going on during the shoot. “There were dogs and pigs and chickens and mopeds and thousands of people surrounding us. It was very inspiring,” he recalled.
As for the couple, Laird said, “They’re very sensual and raw. They’re glamorous in a very natural way. The chemistry was amazing.”
There are images of Irons kissing Jovovich’s shoes, Jovovich rubbing Irons’s neck; the two laying together on a bed in a French colonial hotel and taking a boat up the Mekong.
Karan’s budget is up 10 percent for spring. According to Competitive Media Reporting, DKI and its licensees spent $8 million in media for the first six months of 2000.
The company plans to run multiple page inserts in the March issues of Vogue, Vanity Fair and W, and the ads are expected to coincide with the opening of Karan’s Collection store on Madison Avenue in New York in April.