Take two of the most prominent “It” girls and models, have them bask in the sun on a Mediterranean island wrapped in rich prints, fluo colors and gold chains, add a pinch of sparkle and throw a couple of drones in the mix: the recipe for Versace’s latest ad campaign is served.
The fashion house tapped Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid as its muses for a range of images, scoring a high glamour quota. Photographed in Cavallo — a small island located between Corsica and Sardinia — by Harley Weir, Bieber and Hadid are the faces of the brand’s Dylan Turquoise and Dylan Blue women’s fragrances, respectively.
Speculation about Versace tapping the two talents started to swirl in mid-June, when Bieber and Hadid were flown over to Cavallo in a trip that resonated significantly in the press as the lockdown was still impacting life in many countries.
This is the first time Bieber is fronting an ad for the Italian label, after she strutted the catwalk for Versace in the past. Hadid, though, has a long history with the brand, being a regular on the Versace runway and having appeared in its advertising campaigns for the fall 2018 and spring 2019 collections as well as for the Kith x Versace range last year.
Bieber’s official debut with the Versace gang coincides with the launch of the house’s newest fragrance, Dylan Turquoise, which is the third iteration of the Dylan family of scents manufactured and distributed by Euroitalia.
Nodding to the name of the perfume and the color of its bottle, in the ad Bieber wears a dazzling aquamarine crop top and miniskirt while lying down on the shoreline, her hair slicked back and gold chains with the house’s signature Medusa head logo dangling from her ears, waist and ankle.
Hadid was called on to embody the Dylan Blue flanker, launched in 2017 as the women’s counterpart of the successful Versace pour homme Dylan Blue scent introduced in 2016.
At the time, Bruce Weber photographed both black-and-white campaigns. The images for the female scent were fronted by Croatian model Faretta Radić, who was portrayed among a range of male talents including Christian Hogue, Trevor Signorino and Jake Lahrman. The concept was in sync with the one conceived for Dylan Blue for men, when male fighters trained in a gym trying to win over the heart of Hadid’s sister Gigi.
These have been replaced by color images of Bella Hadid in a midnight blue look with a plunging neckline and model Louis Baines appearing with a naked torso and denim pants at dusk, respectively.
The campaign will make its debut on Versace’s social accounts beginning Sept. 15 and be featured in print media beginning next month.
To flank the pictures, Gordon Von Steiner directed the talents in a short video defined by continuous, circular camera movements defying the sense of gravity and catching the models in moments of their day at the beach, transitioning from in to out of the water.
The concept fits with the fashion house’s chief creative officer Donatella Versace’s definition of the Dylan Turquoise fragrance, which she said reminds the wearer of “warm sun and summer days” and billed it as “an ode to the sensuality of the Versace woman.”
Created by the nose Sophie Labbé, the floral woody eau de toilette features citrus notes of mandarin essence and lemon on the top, blended with pink pepper. The green heart combines exotic guava juice with jasmine petals and essence of freesia, while the dry down is a mix of vibrant woods, white musk and Clearwood, a molecule made from sugarcane.
Mirroring the Versace pour femme Dylan Blue scent’s bottle, the flacon evokes mythology and Greek culture with its amphora-shaped silhouette made of frosted glass and golden details. These include the cap engraved with the name of the fragrance, the Baroque-style letters in relief spelling out the brand as well as the Medusa head logo.
Hitting the shelves of selective perfumeries in Italy next month and landing in the American market in February 2021, the fragrance will be available in three formats, retailing at 53.50 euros, 75 euros and 99.50 euros for the 30-ml., 50-ml. and 100-ml. sizes, respectively. In addition, a namesake hair mist and bath line comprising a perfumed bath and shower gel as well as a body lotion will flank the scent.
“We aim to distribute Dylan Turquoise in about 2,000 doors in Europe this year. If we consider a longer span of time of 12 months since the launch and the current market, we plan to reach 15,000 doors globally,” said Euroitalia’s president Giovanni Sgariboldi, adding that he forecasts sales from the scent to reach 20 million euros in its first year.
As reported, last year Euroitalia developed the brand’s high-end line of fragrances, dubbed Atelier Versace. Marking the first move into haute parfumerie for both Versace and EuroItalia, the collection made its debut with six genderless scents, each celebrating a particular ingredient.
“Atelier Versace is a project that reached its goal of extreme selectivity and exclusivity.…We plan to integrate the collection with a series of refined scents next year,” said Sgariboldi.
Euroitalia has been the licensee of Versace fragrances since 2005. The first scent the companies developed and launched that year was Bright Crystal. The label counts 26 fragrances on the market.
Besides Versace, Euroitalia produces perfumes for the Dsquared2, Missoni and Moschino fashion houses, in addition to owning the Reporter label and the Naj-Oleari makeup brand. Last month, the Italian manufacturer acquired the Atkinsons 1799 and I Coloniali labels from Morris Profumi, which merged with Selective Beauty creating the Perfume Holding company in 2010.