Plush against the bustle of Paris’ Champs-Elysées district, the latest Berluti campaign stands out for its simplicity.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes. In today’s context, the statement has less to do with the nursery rhyme from the depths of one’s childhood. Rather, it is an apt descriptor of Berluti’s return to the rudimentary — and the thoroughness of its return, at that.
Simple, not in the manner of overtly simple silhouettes, nor in the way of a collection that speaks to the plainness that once was ascribed to modern luxury. In the new seasonal campaign — shot by photographer Bastian Achard and creative directed by Atelier Franck Durand — simplicity takes charge in the sophisticated savoir-faire that tracks the maison’s enduring line of shoes, bags, ready-to-wear and more. In other words, the campaign’s primary subject is the purity of Berluti’s craft.
Venerated is the maison’s skilful artisanship, as the precious intersections of Champs-Elysées are transformed to host a series of collaterals, that stand out for being, plainly, frank. Engineered to be particularly direct — as per the Berluti house DNA — these photographs spotlight the fundamentals that breathe legitimacy and luxury into each Berluti opus. Shot, framed and displayed a stone’s throw away from its historic Rue Marbeuf boutique, nanoscopic details of Berluti’s savoir-faire techniques are blown up to be witnessed by the busiest district of Paris.
As small as they may be, these details are distinctly mighty. A maison-signature Scritto motif hides underneath a coat collar. A shoe is made to be more than just a shoe, uplifted into the form of the house’s Andy loafer, solely for the precision stitching that surrounds its penny bar. These features distinguish objets d’art from regular, practical vessels. Simple, but well-executed subtleties recur in the house’s newest campaign, reiterating Berluti’s technical capabilities without ever being too showy.
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