Since the start of her short career, Bella Hadid has been embraced by the world's biggest fashion houses. She's walked the runways for Chanel, Dior, Balmain, and Givenchy, among many, many others. And while that's all pretty impressive, it's her latest campaign for a more niche label that has us seriously excited.
Hadid's latest gig: starring in J.W.Anderson's fall '16 campaign. (You may know it for its delightfully strange pierced bags.) It's a surprising move for both model and brand. For starters, it's the first time the label has chosen a celebrity to front its ads. "When we were discussing the general concept of the campaign, we wanted a beautiful girl with a strong personality," Jonathan Anderson told Dazed. "Bella’s name came up, and it was then decided!"
The latest set of ads are quite the departure from the aesthetic seen in past seasons' ads. J.W.Anderson's most recent campaign was much smaller in scale — about the size of a postage stamp, actually — and featured lesser-known model, Mayka Merino. (These ads were sold as collector's items and could be printed as actual postage, according to WWD.) In these newly released, full-bleed shots, Hadid is depicted as an actress on set, captured during a moment backstage by photographer Jamie Hawkesworth and styled by Benjamin Bruno — both Anderson's longtime collaborators.
A colorful image of Bella in a ruffle-hemmed yellow and blue dress is juxtaposed with a striking black-and-white portrait of a boy with a marionette hanging around his neck, creating a stark contrast. The campaign was shot in Lee Valley Regional Park in the U.K.
It's certainly been a busy few months for Hadid, who just achieved the singular supermodel milestone that is being photographed by Mario Testino: She was shot by the illustrious lensman for the the August cover of Vogue China, alongside rapper and music producer G-Dragon. Hadid was also handpicked by editor Anna Dello Russo to front Vogue Japan's September issue.
Anderson has had his fair share of excitement as of late, too: The creative director, who splits his time between his namesake label, J.W.Anderson, and Spanish, LVMH-owned Loewe, collaborated on a capsule collection with A$AP Rocky to coincide with his spring '17 menswear show in June. Plus, he's rumored to be next in line at Louis Vuitton, reportedly considered to take over for Nicolas Ghesquière. (The French fashion house has strongly denied such reports so far, though.) Whether or not it turns out to be the case, if Anderson continues to create such critically acclaimed collections and collaborate with the biggest names in the biz, the fashion world really will be his oyster.