PARIS — Sarah Burton’s first campaign for Givenchy is all about the female gaze.
In the images, Kaia Gerber plays different characters under the direction of Halina Reijn, best known for helming “Babygirl,” which featured Nicole Kidman as a high-powered woman exploring her sexual fantasies.
The Dutch actress, writer and film director shot the campaign and accompanying videos. She also appears in one of the images, kneeling in front of Gerber, who is dressed in a white babydoll dress and gold slipper heels, as if to adjust her pose.
In another image, the director’s hand appears in the foreground holding a script, as Gerber — in a short red dress and black loafers — looks toward her. In a third shot, the model and actress lies on the floor in a black lace dress with a red belt, covering her eyes.
“Kaia Gerber and Halina Reijn captured something I love about how creative women collaborate,” Burton said in a statement shared exclusively with WWD. “The idea behind my first campaign for Givenchy was to focus on the friendship between a film director and an actress. I wanted it to celebrate the female gaze.”
Kaia Gerber and Halina Reijn in the Givenchy campaign.
Halina Reijn/Courtesy of Givenchy
The British designer presented her debut collection for Givenchy in March after spending her entire fashion career at Alexander McQueen.
“The clothes were superb, peerlessly realized and immediately desirable; sometimes young and zesty, but most often the pinnacle of adult sophistication. Here was a show where you could sense how proud the models were to wear them, and the entire cast of diverse sizes and ages looked gorgeous,” WWD’s Miles Socha said in his review.
Ahead of the show, Gerber teased an image on Instagram of her posing in the black lace dress from the campaign shoot. She also wore a long, black version of her little red dress for the opening night of “Good Night, and Good Luck” on Broadway in April.
At 23, she already has a number of big screen credits, including “Babylon,” “Bottoms” and “Saturday Night,” as well as the FX spinoff series “American Horror Stories.” This is Gerber’s first Givenchy campaign.
Kaia Gerber in the Givenchy campaign.
Halina Reijn/Courtesy of Givenchy