Just as fashion is subject to trends, so too is fashion marketing. In this era of rapidly shrinking attention spans, it has become harder to capture and retain consumer interest. As a result, fashion brands are now looking to attract customers in increasingly creative ways.

Enter the paparazzi-themed fashion campaign.

GCDS S/S 24 campaign photographed by Backgrid via Showstudio.com

Celebrities have always been the object of people’s attention, and using celebrities to get eyes on a fashion brand’s goods is not new. In fact, the public has grown bored of the typical celebrity endorsement. Recently, however, fashion houses have exploited the public’s celebrity obsession in a newer and more authentic way.

A$AP Rocky in Bottega Veneta pre-Spring 24 campaign via Showstudio.com

Take, for instance, A$AP Rocky’s Bottega Veneta campaign. At first glance, it didn’t look like a campaign: Rocky was simply spotted by paparazzi being out and about, going to dinner and fake-exercising, all while he was clad in pieces from Bottega’s then-unreleased Spring 2024 collection.

A$AP Rocky. Photo by RAAK/Backgrid via Highsnobiety.com

We don’t know if Rocky was paid to make appearances in Bottega Veneta’s offerings, but from a consumer’s perspective, the images came across as more candid and organic than a conventional ad campaign. And, in a social media-driven landscape that prizes authenticity (or at least the appearance of it), such images proved effective in drumming up interest in Bottega prior to the release of their SS24 collection.

Rapper JT for Poster Girl. Photo by Moni Haworth/Courtesy of Poster Girl via Fashionista.com

But fashion’s fascination with paparazzi imagery doesn’t stop there. Labels like Poster Girl and Marc Jacobs have taken inspiration from the paparazzi for their recent campaigns. Fashion brand GCDS has also channeled celebrity culture, albeit without using actual celebrities. The label collaborated with Backgrid, the world’s leading paparazzi agency, to create a campaign that looked straight out of a gossip tabloid.

Fashion models were shown running errands, hopping out of sports cars, and canoodling with each other – the usual things we’ve come to expect that paparazzi will capture our favorite celebrities doing. This campaign from GCDS carries an aura of ‘real life,’ satisfying our voyeuristic demand for insight into the mysterious worlds of our favorite stars.

Speaking about the campaign, Giuliano Calza, the creative director of GCDS, said, “LA is the perfect playground to bring clothing to life, animating looks beyond the runway. In a world that often overlooks the beauty of the everyday, stepping out of the studio to capture this campaign was a rare and refreshing experience.” His statement and the success of the campaign reflect society’s yearning for real life beyond the confines of the screen, even if the ‘reality’ in question is merely aesthetic in nature.

Hollywood Style Editorial by Steven Meisel via *Vogue.it*

Of course, this is not the first time that the ‘lowbrow’ world of tabloids and the ‘highbrow’ realm of high fashion have collided. Old-school fashion enthusiasts will recall (among many others) Steven Meisel’s iconic Vogue Italia 2005 spread, entitled Hollywood Style. This editorial featured paparazzi-style images of models out-and-about, sporting the latest in 2000s fashion, styled by Edward Enninful.

“Hollywood Style” - Vogue Italia January 2005 / Steven Meisel via *Vogue.it*

This shoot was controversial at its time of publication, since in the early 2000s, celebrity-obsession and reality TV were at their peak. Paparazzi-style celebrity coverage was seen as mass-market and only fit for ‘trashy’ tabloids, not a high fashion publication like Vogue Italia.

Fast forward to the present day where we witness renewed interest in 2000s fashion and a distrust of influencer marketing, and the scene is ripe for a resurgence of some sort of paparazzi-flavored fashion promo.

Nicole Richie for Jimmy Choo, 2006. Courtesy Jimmy Choo via Dazeddigital.com

One can argue that this paparazzi-inspired style of capturing fashion images helps potential customers to contextualize the clothing, to see how the brands in question can fit into their everyday lives. A celebrity wearing a designer brand to get gas imbues this ordinary activity with an air of fantasy and luxury. This genre of fashion campaigns allows us to envision a world where, instead of looking like a mess while running errands, we can affect the stylish nonchalance of our favorite celebs.

A$AP Rocky by Backgrid via Highsnobiety.com

Social media has made us all celebrities in our own right, with everyone having their own fifteen minutes of fame at their fingertips. Before social media, paparazzi images were our only portal into the private lives of the rich and famous. Paparazzi snaps of the early 2000s showed that celebrities were just like us, but these new paparazzi-inspired fashion campaigns show that we too can become celebrities if we buy from the right brand. Even real life has been commodified into a fantasy to sell fashion.

The rise of pseudo-paparazzi campaigns serves as a testament of the symbiotic relationship between fashion and celebrity. Given the public’s demand for authenticity, fashion brands must infuse it into their marketing efforts. But these ‘staged yet candid images fuel the tensions between fact and fiction, authenticity and artifice.

The lines between fantasy and reality have become increasingly blurred. It’s as if the more we crave reality, the more we are served a simulated version of it; the more we hunger for truth, the more we are satiated with illusions. While the ‘reality’ depicted by these fashion images is debatable, the real-world revenue that they generate is evident.

Article by Ren Wilson, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine

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