Since the start of her short career, Bella Hadid has been embraced by the world's biggest fashion houses from Chanel, Dior and Balmain to Givenchy and Calvin Klein, but in a surprising move considering her Instagirl/supermodel status, niche Brit brand J.W.Anderson has nabbed her for the AW16 campaign. It's the first time the label has chosen a celebrity as the face: "When we were discussing the general concept of the campaign, we wanted a beautiful girl with a strong personality," Jonathan Anderson explained, "Bella’s name came up and it was then decided!"
While last season's campaign images were the size of a postage stamp and featured lesser-known face Mayka Merino, in these full-bleed shots, Bella is depicted as an actress on set, captured during a moment backstage by photographer Jamie Hawkesworth and styled by Benjamin Bruno, Anderson's longtime collaborators. In stark contrast, the colourful 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.
Shot in Lee Valley Regional Park in Essex, the location was presumably a world away from the glitz and glamour red carpet regular Bella is used to. And it's certainly been a busy few months for Ms Hadid, starring on the August cover of Vogue China alongside rapper and music producer G-Dragon (shot for the first time by legendary fashion photographer Mario Testino) as well as fronting the September issue of Vogue Japan, handpicked by editor Anna Dello Russo.
It's also been a busy few months for Jonathan Anderson, creative director of J.W.Anderson and Loewe, who collaborated on a capsule collection with A$AP Rocky to coincide with his SS17 menswear show in June. It has also been rumoured that he may be replacing Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton, though at present the French fashion house has strongly denied such reports. 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 is his oyster.
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