Jacob Elordi Stars in Bottega Veneta’s Dreamy Campaign
Bottega Veneta has revealed “What Are Dreams,” a black-and-white campaign featuring Jacob Elordi and crafted by the acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Duane Michals. The shoot took place at Michals’s New York home, blending reality with imagination, inspired by the artist’s passion for surrealism.
Concept and Visual Style
The campaign includes twelve striking images and a short film where Elordi appears in mysterious, dreamlike settings. He is framed by elements such as a billowing curtain, a convex mirror, and a suspended feather—visual motifs characteristic of Michals’s style.
Poetic Element
“What Are Dreams,” from Michals’s 2001 poem, serves as the project’s title. Elordi recites lines reflecting on the “midnight movies of the mind…where things look familiar, but not at all the same.” Handwritten excerpts of the poem are scattered throughout the visuals, enhancing the introspective mood.
Artists’ Perspectives
“I’m very much interested in the realm of the invisible. My problem is, ‘how do I make the invisible visible?’” Michals said. “Of course movie making is also a dream, and Frankenstein is a scary dream. Jacob understood exactly what I was trying to do with the project. He was right there for the magic and the mystery of it.”
Michals, known for merging text and photography to express unseen and imagined realms, described the collaboration as a mutual search for “magic and mystery.”
Behind the Scenes
Before the campaign, the British actor shared with CR a behind-the-scenes glimpse of preparing for the Oscars alongside Dsquared2’s Dean and Dan Caten, highlighting his close involvement in the creative process.
Summary: The campaign fuses Jacob Elordi’s enigmatic presence with Duane Michals’s surreal artistry to explore dreams and invisible realms through evocative images and poetry.
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