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Fashion ads, catalogs long have used sex and sass to sell clothing
Fashion might be a magic show, but don't confuse the model with the magician.
That role belongs to the photographer, the art director, the person who lays the graphics down and around the beautiful people.
These behind-the-campaign people make the catalogs and ads that catch our eyes and capture our imagination. And, if all goes according to plan, they make us run to the stores, boutiques and websites to blow wads of money.
"Fashion is all about creating a fantasy world," says fashion historian and Kent State University Museum Director Jean Druesedow. "The ads, photos and catalogs are the travel brochures to that world."
The most famous of those "brochures" remains Brooke Shields' 1980 ads for Calvin Klein, and not merely because of how Shields, 14 at the time, looked.
The print and TV campaign was shot and directed by Richard Avedon, a photographer who captured American style for decades. It also featured the famous tagline, "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."
"It suggested that you, too, can aspire to this lifestyle," says Druesedow. "But it's nothing new -- fashion ads have been doing the same thing since the end of the 18th century."
They became increasingly risque in the early 20th century, thanks to French fashion ads that featured dramatic photography and models in suggestive poses.
It coincided with the rise of the mail-order catalog in America, thanks to companies such as Spiegel. By the 1950s, Frederick's of Hollywood was rolling out eye-popping catalogs full of burlesque girls in push-up bras.
"Eye-popping" has always been the key. Controversy? The more the better.
It brings outsider chic to the brand, a key to Abercrombie & Fitch's racy photos of seminude models.
In another Calvin Klein campaign, it was "heroin chic."
In 1993, the brand was the target of criticism for rolling out ads featuring the waifish, emaciated Kate Moss. Despite the attacks, the spots achieved their aim: to stand apart from glossy ads featuring vibrant, perky models such as Christie Brinkley and Cindy Crawford.
It wasn't just Moss' looks. It was the stark, black-and-white photography -- a style inspired by Helmut Newton, a German whose provocative photos were a staple in fashion magazines since the 1940s.
Fashion photographer Bruce Weber used black and white to a very different effect while shooting for Ralph Lauren. His pictures depicted the American Plains, the outdoors and characters who looked like they lived in a different time.
"Weber's photos transcend fashion -- he isn't just shooting models to sell clothes," says Tom Hinson, curator emeritus of photography for the Cleveland Museum of Art. "But his black-and-white style fits perfectly with Ralph Lauren's desire to sell you this nostalgic vision of America."
Agent Provocateur throws out all references to real -- from today or yesterday.
The British lingerie brand sets the standard for innovative ads and catalogs, depicting models in outrageous settings. Some appear as extravagant pirates, some as maidens trapped in a surreal forest.
The company goes beyond just catalogs, releasing books and even outrageous wedding invitations that feature Kate Moss, called "Let Them Eat Kate."
It's the antithesis of American Apparel, which takes the fashion ad in a totally different, but no less innovative, direction.
Rather than hire professional models, it uses store employees, many of whom hardly look like "real" models. It doesn't even use professional photographers.
Those are just some of the "no-nos" in the company's approach.
"No Photoshop; no expensive, extensive lighting; no professional makeup artists or stylists; no expensive staged photo shoots or on-location shots," says company spokesman Ryan Holiday. "We use our factory, the stockrooms of our stores."
The idea is to connect with "indie" consumers looking for authenticity.
The ads are no less provocative or sexy -- the common threads in fashion ads since, well, the first model strutted in front of a camera.
"Sex sells," says Druesedow. "It always has and always will."
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