Photographer: Alasdair McLellan
Art Director: Giovanni Bianco
Stylist: Katie Grand
Casting: Naomie Harris, Kate Moss, Missy Rayder, Lily Nova, Kesewa Aboah, Adwoa Aboah
Eliza Cummings, Rose Daniels, Jasmine Daniels, Jean Campbell
In certain places and amidst certain sounds, time seemingly circles itself. Throughout the untamed, thick-aired Mississippi bayou, draped with Spanish moss, the siren of insects is interlaced with jazz melodies somehow both timeless and avant-garde. In the deep American South, and more specifically the port of New Orleans, patois more than a dialect, it’s a way of life. Everything here is a deeply textured bricolage, full of tension and wild energy.
The campaign for Miu Miu, Fall/Winter 2017, realized by photographer Alasdair McLellan, collages New Orleans landscapes and landmarks, from the dripping bayou to the august Preservation Hall. Award-winning actress Naomie Harris and models spanning from new guard (Adwoa and Kesewa Aboah) to super (Kate Moss) are bedecked in this Miu Miu’s fashion compendium, a celebration of clashes in tone and texture.
Diverse references drawn from a multiplicity of pasts represent splintered images of glamour: brightly-colored faux furs and translucent plastics sheath feathered drop-waist dresses, superimposing contemporary shapes and materials onto old-timey sensibilities.
Harris, Moss, and the Aboah sisters are joined by Missy Rayder, Jean Campbell, Eliza Cummings, Jasmine Daniels, Rose Daniels, Lily Nova and the Preservation Hall Brass Band in settings opulent and stark. The resulting photos effervesce the type of atemporality only found in places as overgrown and alive as New Orleans. Jeweled hardware and piles of paillettes meet expanses of softness cinched together with wide straps, embracing the everyday hybridity of place and preservation.