Nick Knight Teams Up With Artist Rob Unett On Latest Campaign
Assembling a dream team of collaborators including artist Rob Unett, the image-maker utilises abstraction to showcase the limited edition collection of skirts.
Assembling a dream team of collaborators including artist Rob Unett, the image-maker utilises abstraction to showcase the limited edition collection of skirts.
Zara has long looked to the world of high fashion as the ultimate inspiration for its designs. Bringing the hottest trends from London, Milan, Paris and beyond to high streets around the globe has made it one of fashion’s biggest presences. Looking to turn the tables and focus on setting trends rather than following them in 2021, the Spanish retailer introduced Zara Atelier. Twice a year an in-house design team drops a limited six-piece capsule collection imagining elevated sartorial staples beginning with The Coat and The Dress for Collections 01 and 02 respectively. For Collection 03, it’s none other than SHOWstudio director Nick Knight who was tasked with creating a campaign showcasing The Skirt.
Understanding that the world of high fashion goes beyond product design, for Zara Atelier the retailer has enlisted some of the industry’s biggest image-makers to create elevated campaigns to rival the luxury landscape. Following campaigns by Paolo Roversi and Jamie Hawsworths, Knight has assembled a dream team of longtime collaborators, including hair stylist Sam McKnight, make-up artist Val Garland, stylist Ludivine Poiblanc and set designer Andrew Tomlinson. Of course, one of the defining features of the campaign comes from artist Rob Unett whose use of paint and textured glass reshifts our perceptions of the skirt.
‘It’s the idea of focusing the visual tension on the clothes by abstracting the rest of the image,’ explains Knight. The photographer previously worked with Unett on the cover of Vogue China’s March 2020 cover by painting the Perspex box that cover star and singer Chris Lee found herself in. This time around Unett utilises the glass as a means to disjoin her from the garment, making the skirts the focal point. ‘I like the idea that the glass abstracts [the model] and it becomes very diffused while adding a sharpness'.
While the notion of abstraction defines Knight's campaign that doesn't mean the presence of model Maggie Mauer is at all overshadowed. ‘She's a very strong model. She’s a character and you can see that in how she stands, how she moves,' Knight tells us. 'You can abstract that more because she is so strong. If we didn’t have a model so powerful, you might lose them in it.’
