The 10 most-inspiring 2020 fashion campaigns

During 2020, fashion brands faced a completely unexpected scenario and their season campaigns, being mostly conceived and built in advance, created a rather alienating dissonance between their muffled world and the tragic realities of lockdown. In other cases agencies, photographers and brands have had to face the practical problems of the pandemic and lockdown by turning or towards digital platforms with very fluctuating results both aesthetically and efficacy; or towards a return of DIY aesthetics - as for example in the Jacquemus campaign.

Now that the 2020 campaign season is nearing its end, the editorial staff of nss magazine has pulled the sums and selected the most interesting campaigns of the year - both aesthetically and conceptually. The following, however, is not a ranking but rather an overview of the most popular trends of the season just ended.

Bottega Veneta - FW20 Campaign

Shot by Daniel Lee's Bottega Veneta photographer Tyrone Lebon, the FW20 season campaign saw the brand's models immortalized by raw flashes of light against the backdrop of a snowy night. The result, dramatic and minimalist at the same time, recalls certain shots of the final act of The Shining and represents perhaps the most aesthetically clean and guessed campaign of the year.

Gucci Tailoring - Fall 2020 Campaign

Tyler, The Creator with A$AP Rocky, Iggy Pop and a parrot. Alone, the cast of this Gucci Tailoring campaign would be enough to defeat all the others – but there are also the gorgeous outfits of Alessandro Michele and the cerrone soundtrack to elevate it even more. 

Prada - SS20 Campaign

Three faces, those of Frank Ocean, Austin Butler and Nicolas Winding Refn, that demonstrate how far-sighted Prada's casting choices can be, ranging between hip-hop icons, tv teen idols and niche directors. The decision to focus the campaign concept on turning the brand's name into a series of acronyms, while risky, worked perfectly, especially with regard to the female version of the campaign – giving Jamie Hawkesworth's photos a final touch of romance.

Aspesi - ManneQueen Town 

Winner of the UK Fashion Film Festival and produced by nss factory, this Aspesi campaign has as its only protagonist Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in an imaginary city populated only with mannequins. The story follows a humorous election campaign The result is the creation of a retro universe halfway between Lynch's surrealism and John Waters' humor camp. 

JW Anderson - SS20 Campaign

JW Anderson's soft and dreamy aesthetic has found a new life in Tyler Mitchell's shoot that has immortalized models and models in a playful world, made of pastel colors and tricycles the size of stilts. Perhaps the lightest campaign of the year - a mood replicated also in the anderson collection campaign created for Moncler Genius and set in a surreal garden.

Jacquemus - SS20 Campaign

The temptation of a DYI campaign has touched many brands this year, both large and small, but it was Jacquemus and Bella Hadid who started the trend and no one managed to overcome the brand in timing, precision and freshness of invention that are all the favorite playing fields of Simon Porte Jacquemus. 

Chanel Cruise 202'/21 - Balade en Mediterranèe

Anticipated by a teaser by Massimiliano Bomba and with a video made by Julien Pujol, who also took the lookbook, the presentation of Chanel's Cruise collection has the merit of having inaugurated the season of digital fashion shows and of having given both anticipated and formalized the general characters of that Mediterranean aesthetic that characterized the entire summer season of 2020. 

Marine Serre - "Amor Fati" SS21

The best of this year's digital campaigns, also accompanied by a dedicated Instagram filter, Amor Fati by Marine Serre is a short film suspended between atmospheres reminiscent of the sci-ion classics of the eighties, such as Dune, the horrors of Cronenberg and the surreal mood of Un Chien Andalou. The images of the campaign tell how the power to change one's style or way of being, transforming or camouflage builds personal narratives through the garments we choose to wear.

Palace x Evisu Capsule Collection Campaign

While not rivalling the others on this list in terms of production values, the combination of two already historically related realities such as Evisu and Palace, the presence of skaters Lucien Clarke and Rory Milanes along with drum 'n' bass legend MC Skibadee represents a perfect throwback in the early 2000s and the London clubbing world. The video that makes up the campaign, which evokes both the suburbs of London and the more psychedelic digital scenarios, is almost prophetic in its anticipation of the large number of virtual presentations that would dominate in fashion weeks to come.

Travis Scott's Astroworld Event

While not a fashion campaign in itself, Travis Scott's Astroworld event was the first of its kind to use cross-sectoral contamination to bring music, gaming and streetwear together while demonstrating the enormous possibilities enclosed in the digital field. He also did all this by-passing the lockdown restrictions in its first and most serious stages, pointing the way forward not only for music and the world of online gaming but also for the fashion of the season immediately following.