In April, Marc Jacobs launched #CastMeMarc, a Twitter and Instagram-based search for fresh faces for Marc by Marc Jacobs’s first autumn-winter campaign under new designers Katie Hillier and Luella Bartley. “We wanted the ads to shout with youth and energy,” Jacobs told WWD. “To reclaim the spirit that the collection had when we first conceived of it — to be another collection, not a second line.”
The clever clarion call drew 70,000 entries from all over the world, culled down to 50 then 30 under the expert eye of casting director Anita Bitton. The final nine were flown to New York, styled by Katie Grand and photographed by David Sims, Bartley’s husband. The ads starring these colorful unknowns will debut in Teen Vogue’s August issue.
UNCONVENTIONAL
Since its inception in 2001 as an offshoot of the main line, Marc by Marc Jacobs built a reputation as a fashion insider favorite, offering well-made basics at more realistic prices. The success story, however, turned stale in the last three years, including the grainy, high-exposure images by lensman Juergen Teller, with whom Jacobs has collaborated since 1998.
As the company forges this exciting path, it seems set to meet its goal to refresh itself. “The unconventional-looking models work well with the equally unconventional clothes, which were inspired by skate culture, BMX and K-Pop,” notes Dazed magazine. “It’s also nice to see these particular clothes, which aren’t the easiest to wear, on real people, as it suggests that perhaps giant bow necklines, kimonos and bandanas covering the mouth are okay for real life.”
CROWDCASTING
While crowdcasting online demonstrates that a fashion label is truly in touch with the times, Marc by Marc Jacobs did not pioneer the approach. In fall 2013, Nicola Formichetti’s maiden project as Diesel creative director had him scrolling through Tumblr and other social media platforms for potential stars.
Shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, the Diesel Reboot campaign featured a spirited selection of androgynous models. The tagline, “#dieselreboot,” summed up Formichetti’s determination to rebrand the denim company for the 21st century.
The follow-up ads, published in the March issues of Interview and Vogue, allowed the spirit to evolve. “The second campaign was much more about the group, the gang, the tribe, the community. The people got to us in different ways, but they’re connected visually, physically, mentally, and denim is the thing that unites all of them. And that’s the theme and the tagline — we are connected,” said the Japanese-Italian stylist to WWD.
Image is everything
According to Forbes, “Image is everything to luxury fashion companies. But that same elitism is keeping certain luxury brands from engaging in social media, one of the most powerful forms of marketing at the moment.” Instagram, at the forefront of the nascent field of visual social commerce, and younger, nimbler fashion brands are doing the right thing by racing to interact with their customers through such apps.
The general consensus is that snapping selfies should be kept to a minimum. But as it is conceivable that more and more high-end fashion companies will eventually turn to social media for their marketing needs, it seems all right to treat the Internet as your portfolio and those iPhone photos as your headshots.
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