Alexander Wang #WhereIWang Spring 2018 Ad Campaign. Alexander Wang took to Instagram for his recent Spring 2018 campaign that offers a sign of the cleansing pallet times while rejecting the social norms of conventional ad campaigns.
Gone are the Wang #WangSquad models cavorting in large groups, gone are the highly stylized visual images that broke the boundaries of retouching and captured fashion and consumers imagination. In its place is a palette cleanser, a white board if you will, a campaign that breaks a few fashion advertising norms by relying on the idea of ‘copy’ married with that of, dare we say it, ‘ product shots.’ Albeit distorted ones, shot by Albert Watson, that have taken the idea of a singular product on a white background to a whole new level.
In a collection of Instagram posts put forth by Wang, the distorted, un-conventional shots of collection pieces are filtered in all their black and white glory. Accompany each shot is a brief excerpt from the given person who reportedly wore the piece.
Wang also wrote on Instagram to express, “For our Spring 2018 campaign I wanted to give creative power to the women that inspire me, letting them choose the pieces they wanted to wear, wherever they wanted to wear them. To have the prolific Albert Watson photograph the clothing or item as a study after the subject wore it feels especially timely, removing her from the photograph, but retaining her vibrant spirit; highlighting the beauty of an object and hopefully igniting imagination for the audience.”
It is clear this campaign is a step out of the box, designed for the box in your hand. The campaign is simple, clean and open to viewer interpretation, as with every product the accompanying quote provides followers with the slightest peek into the lives of captivating models like Behati, Keia, or Zoe with quotes such as “Impromptu after party on the beach in Malibu.”
On a more fiscal than visceral level, the campaign operates as a CFO’s dream come true. No ‘Wang Gang’ in a photoshoot wipes out a great deal of expenses from manicurist and lighting crews to drivers and craft services. And since none of the talent, with the expectation of Albert Watson, comes with a last names, one has to wonder if talent representatives received fees either. Behati could be Behati on-the-runway or Behati around-the-corner for all the reader knows. And since the campaign appears designed for Instagram rather than traditional media, outside what we imagine to be a NYC wild poster campaign, the media expenses could be quite low too.
But as Leonardo Da Vinci once famously stated, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” And by going with less, in this case, Alexander Wang has ultimately created more.
