Campaigns, those colorful pages that occupy the forward sections of the sorts of magazines that fill the shelves of the agency, come in various shapes, sizes, themes, and, as it so happens, media. The other week this page featured a video of Karmen Pedaru’s latest island jaunt for Gucci Resort 2012, but today we have another campaign entirely that demands serious examination. Ford Men’s Justin Kern doesn’t so much star in the Co Spring 2012 campaign film as he imbues it with a sense of history and tangible ethos. Co is a line of luxury essentials that include versatile separates in silk, cashmere, and lightweight fur that Justin cofounded with film producer Stephanie Danan in early 2011. Co is sold in New York at Barneys as well as other fine stores throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The three and a half minute short film by director and Daft Punk cofounder Thomas Bengalter was filmed on location in Morocco, Belgium, and France provides Co Spring 2012 with a sweeping backdrops, the likes of which are typically the preserve of feature films.
I had an opportunity to speak with Justin Kern about the film and his foray into the world of fashion design.
Damien Neva: What are the reasons you chose for doing a film treatment for the Co Spring 2012 collection? How does this film speak to the new Co collection?
Justin Kern: My partner Stephanie [Danan] and I both have backgrounds in filmmaking, so as we started creating the brand, we of course thought of film, its influence on fashion and vice versa. We decided to make a short film for each collection with an emphasis on narrative storytelling. It’s important for us that the “Co woman” have a story arc — that we see her making choices, taking action. And that’s maybe different from most fashion advertising.
DN: There is a bit of David Bowie‘s The Man Who Fell to Earth about the Co film. Are there any parallels to be drawn with this film intentional or otherwise?
JK: We wanted this collection to feel a bit more dramatic. Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger was an early reference. This lead to other sci-fi, horror, and period pieces of the 70s such as Altered States, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Death in Venice, and the films of Stanley Kubrick. Thomas [Bangalter] went so far as to use vintage lens filters which Kubrick used in the making of 1975′s Barry Lyndon.
DN: In their time those filters in particular were state of the art in capturing low light. Nice to see them in action once more. How did you transition from modeling into designing luxury essentials? How has the former informed the latter?
JK: Modeling for me was a kind of fashion school. I was lucky enough to work with some of the top photographers, stylists, and designers in the industry and I became really fascinated by the whole process, especially the branding. Photo shoots and runway shows were exciting, but I probably learned the most as a “looks” model for stylist Karl Templer, and then later as an assistant to Mario Testino, getting to see (and even take part in) all the behind-the-scenes decisions that lead up to the finished product. By starting a brand of my own, I wanted to put all of these experiences to use.
Credits include: Direction, Thomas Bangalter; Lighting, Said Lagbouri; Hair, Zineb Bendoula; Makeup, Catherine Bruchon; Production assistance, Younes Lourini; Filmed on location in Morocco at Villa Makassar and La Pause, Marrakech as well as Villa Empain in Brussells, and Le Harve, France.
