It has now been a total of seven consecutive seasons in which Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin have remained Virginie Viard’s mainline campaign photographers of choice at Chanel, having officially formed their partnership with the Fall 2020 campaign which starred an impressive cast of models. Now, for Fall 2023, the Dutch photographic duo are behind the lens once again as per Viard’s request, as the creative twosome capture Loli Bahia as the face and embodiment of the French fashion house’s latest collection. In the chic and minimal campaign images, the French model of Algerian descent (who has previously fronted Chanel’s Pre-Fall 2022 and Cruise 2023 campaigns) goes solo against a dark grey studio backdrop, which ultimately allows Viard’s camellia-inspired collection to do all the talking.
A job well done? Our forum members think not. “Sorry, but who wants to look and be like her?” quizzed VERNIQUE. “Miserable clothes on a bored-looking girl in front of a grey wall: it’s the big depression!”
“Go Loli, give us nothing!” laughed an unenthusiastic TunHakii.
“I really don’t understand the fascination with this girl, worse than Kendall [Jenner] IMO,” NicholasII voiced.
Also left majorly underwhelmed with the outcome was yslforever, adding: “The outfits were already awful on the runway, here Chanel achieves to make them look worse. What a waste of good fabrics…”
“This is so boring. Chanel lost its spark,” declared Creative.
“This reminds me of the Chanel campaign I hate the most, the Fall 2015 one – same annoying grey background without any nuance on the lighting,” noted Lola701.
Forum member Kerg asked: “Maybe the problem is more with Inez & Vinoodh than Loli? Honestly, I&V don’t fit Chanel. They suited Emmanuelle Alt’s Vogue Paris perfectly but Chanel is a different level. They’re clearly not made for advertising…”
Check out more imagery from Chanel’s Fall 2023 campaign and join the conversation, here.
