12/16/2023 0 Comments High fashion love“Controversy always makes for a good story and invites welcome hype.” “ It’s definitely something that appeals, especially to brands that characterize themselves as rebellious and freethinking-even some that don’t,” says Tina Craig, founder of Bag Snob. Instead, like many of their generation, they’re outspoken on issues like race, feminism, and environmentalism embrace gender fluidity and celebrate LGBT rights. Teens today have been exposed to tragedy, violence, and terrorism from a young age, says Nancy Breiling Nessel, a marketing expert who specializes in Generation Z, and, having grown up with social media, they see it as a tool to advance the conversation and make the world a better place.Īnd while a few decades, and even a few years, ago, that may have seemed like a liability to a brand whose customers skew older and wealthier, today the cultural climate is such that anything more conservative seems behind on the times. Unlike past waves of young starlets who have enthralled high fashion-the Hailees, Elles, and Dakotas of the world, or, earlier, Brooke Shields and Natalie Portman, who fronted campaigns for Calvin Klein and Isaac Mizrahi, respectively, at age 15-today’s teenage stars are not emblems of innocence or precocious sex appeal. But I think it fundamentally comes from the desire to be different, the desire to be new.” This, he argues, is a good thing-both because the industry thrives on innovation and because it’s still playing catch-up in a major way when it comes to diversity and inclusivity. “I think that there’s an element, honestly, of people vaguely grasping at straws, trying to find something new,” says Munro, who himself is currently negotiating with Willow and Jaden for a cover of Italian Vogue. “I can’t fathom why we all independently seem to come to the same point. It’s very weird. (And, naturally, the one that’s going to generate the most engagement on social media.) Last year, women their grandmothers’ age ruled the pages of magazines, with then-80-year-old Joan Didion modeling sunglasses for Céline, septuagenarian Joni Mitchell strumming her guitar in Saint Laurent, and “geriatric starlet” Iris Apfel fronting campaigns for both Alexis Bittar and Kate Spade New York. Now, the pendulum has swung the other way-but why?Īccording to casting director Angus Munro, who’s worked on campaigns for Kenzo and Calvin Klein and casts i-D magazine’s famously energetic and of-the-moment covers, the pace of fashion has sped up to such breakneck speeds that brands have to fight to stay ahead of their competition in terms of casting the freshest, most surprising face. But the recent batch of partnerships stands out both for its prevalence and for who these teens are: not nameless, voiceless underage models, but the offspring of A-list celebrities, or else actors and singers themselves with followers and fame-the Instagram generation. Now, it’s not like luxury brands’ obsession with youth is a new story-fashion has made muses of school-age stars since time immemorial. The fashion world, it seems, is tired of millennials. Inside that and other luxury glossies, 14-year-old Kaia Gerber cavorts alongside rappers and models in Alexander Wang’s new campaign 17-year-old Jaden Smith models womenswear for Louis Vuitton and Lourdes “Lola” Leon, 19, and Amandla Stenberg, 17, pose for Stella McCartney’s new Pop fragrance ads. Flip through, say, the April issue of W and you’ll find Willow Smith, Kiernan Shipka, and Zendaya on the cover-ages 15, 16, and 19, respectively. If you pick up a magazine these days, you might notice a peculiar phenomenon: They’re looking an awful lot like high-school yearbooks-albeit incredibly cool ones.
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