The latest marketing campaign from Gucci is aimed for an authentic and relatable individual, according to the brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele which is why the company has teamed up with Zebedee Management to feature people who otherwise might have been overlooked for such campaigns due to their ethnicity, colour, body type or other physical attributes.
In occasion of the #PhotoVogueFestival held in November 2019, @guccibeauty and @vogueitalia launched an Instagram scouting project. As a result, photographer @davidpdhyde captures Ellie @elliejg16_zebedeemodel and Kadri Vahersalu @kadri_vahersalu for a special editorial featuring the buildable Gucci Mascara L’Obscur. The portfolio is inspired by Creative Director @alessandro_michele’s words: “I designed L’Obscur mascara for an authentic person who uses makeup to tell their story of freedom, in their way.” #AlessandroMichele #GucciBeauty
A post shared by Gucci Official (@gucci) on Jun 18, 2020 at 1:58pm PDT
David P Hyde, a renowned fashion photographer was tasked to photograph the campaign by Gucci Beauty and according to him, he was extremely intrigued by the idea of featuring unconventional beauty.
More than 6,000 applicants responded on Instagram by uploading their own photos following the theme “unconventional beauty” where David aimed to push the envelope when it comes to the concept of beauty.
It is indeed true that beauty exists everywhere, even within ourselves and David P Hyde follows this mantra to features models like Ellie Goldstein, Jahmal Baptiste, Kadri Vahersalu and Enam in the campaign which is jointly collaborated by Gucci and Vogue Italia.
Love it #Gucci
A post shared by Ellie Goldstein (@elliegoldsteinofficial) on Jul 5, 2020 at 7:48am PDT
The models were chosen to show different types of beautiful faces- faces of different ethnicity and shapes to break conventional norms when it comes to the concept of unattainable beauty and perfection depicted by most fashion publications.
The collaboration between Vogue Italia and Gucci showcases Ellie Goldstein, a teenage model with Down syndrome in the latest publication by the Italian fashion magazine. Ellie is shown wearing sparkling Gucci overalls while holding the newest addition to the Gucci Beauty line-up- the L’Obscur mascara.
The campaign also features models of African-American ethnicity and is the latest in the trend which encourages racial equality, especially in the wake of the recent racial protests in the United States following the death of George Floyd.
A photo of Ellie wearing Gucci accessories was also uploaded to the Gucci Beauty Instagram account and garnered a tremendous amount of attention from users on the social media platform.
Morning ❤ Hello magazine! #gucci #model
A post shared by Ellie Goldstein (@elliegoldsteinofficial) on Jul 7, 2020 at 7:46am PDT
The portrait went on to become the most popular and most liked post by Gucci ever, and even Ellie herself wrote a heartfelt comment under the photo expressing her gratitude towards Gucci Beauty for giving her an amazing opportunity and a wonderful experience on the shooting set.
Many of the users on the social media platform also wrote messages of admiration for Ellie, praising her unconventional beauty and personality.
