MIXED DOUBLES: It’s been a year since Barneys New York established its new visual direction with a high-impact women’s campaign styled by and featuring Carine Roitfeld, along with her children. Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman followed that with a personality-driven spring campaign featuring Penelope Tree. So for fall, he decided to go traditional…sort of. The women’s campaign, shot by Paolo Roversi, features models Arizona Muse and Magda Laguinge dressed to the nines in Paris, with the innuendo that they’re lovers. “It’s not hitting you over the head, but they’re two women,” said Freedman. “They’re lovers, but there’s two different sides to their lives.” One is swanky, captured in a lavish chateau stocked with 20th-century furniture; and one seedy, shot in a pool hall and what Freedman calls “a very, very inexpensive hotel.” Barneys has been a big supporter of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in support of its Americans for Marriage Equality Program, via its Perfect Pairs shoe campaign and last holiday season’s Gaga’s Workshop, sales from which benefited the Born This Way Foundation.
The fall men’s designer campaign also features a twist: Freedman and Juergen Teller took the team to Belgrade, Serbia, a city not known for its fashion. Freedman featured a female model, Irina Kulikova, for the first time in the men’s campaign. She was photographed stripped down — no makeup — with an entourage of men, including a fresh new face, Hendrick Siems, whose orange hair and unique look made the cover of the mailer.