Bottega Veneta is writing the next chapter of the Art of Collaboration with a disruptive new digital-first ad campaign created with renowned agency Baron & Baron.
Titled Reflections, the Spring/Summer 2018 campaign embraces moving images as its core. Envisioned as an anthology series, six distinct and deeply cinematic and films, directed by Fabien Baron, have been released episodically throughout the season via multiple platforms and partners. These narrative episodes have become a beacon for immersive and innovative mobile-first storytelling.
The Art of Collaboration, conceived by Creative Director Tomas Maier in 2001, was a great success, highlighting a storied relationship with artists. As the next chapter unfolds, the focus returns to Bottega Veneta itself, with a communication platform that reinforces the brand’s own “initials” more relevantly for today’s customer. Just as the original Art of Collaboration broke ground by engaging fine-art photographers to push the boundaries of fashion advertising, this new concept sets a unique precedent in luxury storytelling. “We have always told stories about our products and our brand,” says Maier. “The evolution of the Art of Collaboration enables us to reach and have a dialogue with the customer on his or her own terms.”
In its new form, the Art of Collaboration relies on a team of collaborators instead of a single creative voice to translate the vision of Tomas Maier. The remarkable talents working with Maier include Fabien Baron, who directed the films, Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd, renowned set designer Stefan Beckman and record-producer and composer Johnny Jewel who scored the original soundtrack for the six films and trailer.
For this season and those to come, the short films unfold in the style of an anthology series—with different narratives and characters that cohere under a singular aesthetic vision, established by Reflections. That vision is woven from the brand pillars: Mystery, Sophistication, Architecture, Sensuality and Surrealism.
After having revealed the first four films, Miraggio, 196.6 MHz, Utopia and Rebirth, Bottega Veneta now presents Aurora and Vertigo. Aurora is about the brightness within the dark. A woman is walking slowly and confidently along a dark empty street in a small town. Heading towards a flood of bright white light, she suddenly stops and faces a perfectly empty white room with seemingly no beginning, no end, no walls. She steps into the white space and disappears. The bright light signals a brighter future. It’s about a film noir feeling transforming into its diametric opposite.
Pulsing with rhythm and movement, Vertigo is a hypnotic story about an electric fantasy with laser and neon lights. A woman is dancing sensually to the slow pace of the music with the camera catching a moment of mystery and fantasy. The music transports you to the alternate reality of a mirrored space that turns everything into a multi-faceted world of reflections. It’s a story that invites you to lose yourself in your imagination.
