Abby Champion • Celine Women’s Campaign for La Collection des Grands Classiques

“Publicity images often use sculptures or paintings to lend allure or authority to their own message,” wrote John Berger in his 1972 classic Ways of Seeing. Any work of art used in publicity, Berger explains, serves a dual purpose of communicating affluence and authority. Enter Hedi Slimane, chief creative at Celine. The French designer has made a career off of promoting affluence and authority. His latest advertising campaign photographed earlier this month in Rome features a beautiful blonde, Abby Champion, in a High Renaissance palace designed in part by Michelangelo, which itself is home to countless masterpieces, not to mention the French embassy. Some flex! For Abby, the same holds true, and the timing is impeccable for the most important month in the fashion calendar.

Credits include: Client, Celine; Campaign, Women’s La Collection des Grands Classiques; Photography, Hedi Slimane; Hair, Esther Langham; Makeup, Aaron de Mey.