Nordstrom Debuts Designer Ad Campaign – WWD

POWERING BACK UP: While New York City is trying to rev up business, welcome back office workers and renew the fashion scene for fall, Nordstrom has used Manhattan as the backdrop for its women’s fall designer campaign.

New Yorkers and tourists alike will recognize such landmarks as Central Park and The Carlyle Hotel (complete with a beaming doorman.) Models Joan Smalls and Shalom Harlow have starring roles in the citified images, too, sporting a myriad of fall styles. Their covetable and pulled-together ensembles weren’t just selected to encourage some fall shopping. Another takeaway is that it is time to ditch the sweatpants and start dressing up again, after two years of postponed, scrapped and downsized events, outings and celebrations. Think tailored looks from Alexander McQueen, a cocoon suit from Bottega Veneta and a Saint Laurent Le Smoking tuxedo.

In a statement, Nordstrom’s women’s designer fashion and editorial director Rickie De Sole noted how the retailer aimed ”to echo the energy of the collections that focused on the idea of power dressing.” For Nordstrom, that can translate into bold suiting and oversized proportions. From De Sole’s view, it’s ”refreshing to lean into dressing that makes you feel ready to take on the world after so much time at home…”

The campaign was photographed by Sean Thomas and it was styled by Tonne Goodman. It is the first campaign with editorial and fashion direction from De Sole.

The department store’s campaign serves up plenty of other designer labels in addition to the aforementioned ones. Fall style options from Chanel, Balenciaga, Dries Van Noten, Valentino, Sacai, The Row, Marine Serre, Givenchy, Jil Sander, Celine, Erdem, Khaite, Stella McCartney, Simone Rocha, Dolce & Gabbana, Carolina Herrera and Versace are also featured. Upper East Siders will see other glimpses of their neighborhood beyond The Carlyle, since Park Avenue served as another location for the fall campaign.

The campaign has a distinctively editorial feel, and why shouldn’t it? The retailer’s women’s fashion and editorial director, designer, Rickie De Sole spent nearly four years at Vogue before switching tracks to Nordstrom earlier this year. Goodman has a longer history with the fashion magazine, having joined in 1999. And Thomas has shot editorial for such magazines as Family Portrait, L’Etiquette, Vogue, Holiday and Buckley magazines.

Having appeared in a spring campaign for Mugler and a Steven Meisel-shot Moschino Couture one, Harlow recently posted praise for a talented young photographer she had worked with for the first time — Sam Rock. Meanwhile, Smalls, who headlined Anne Klein’s spring campaign, appeared in the latest campaign for Beyoncé’s Ivy Park label.