It was only a few weeks ago that Marc Jacobs made headlines for casting trans director Lana Wachowski as the first face of his SS16 campaign. The choice was not uncharacteristic of Jacobs – last season the designer enlisted Cher, Sofia Coppola, Willow Smith and Winona Ryder to front his campaign. However, the announcement of Lana was accompanied by a statement promising that Wachowski’s campaign co-stars would “celebrate the spirit and beauty of equality” – something proved by his latest casting choice, RuPaul’s Drag Race star Milk, aka Don Donigan.
Last night, Jacobs took to Instagram to share the image, accompanied by a caption explaining his casting choice. “One night while watching RuPaul’s Drag Race I recognised one of our men’s sweaters on a tall, handsome contestant. His unique, artistic drag sensibility reminded me so much of the amazing drag characters of my club days at The Pyramid, Copacabana and other New York haunts I used to frequent.”
Milk is one of a series of campaign stars being gradually rolled out via Jacobs’ Instagram account. Alongside Wachowski, other faces of SS16 so far include musical icon Bette Midler, comedian Sandra Bernhard and two models Veronika Vilim and Kiki Willems – both of whom walked SS16 and are credited by Jacobs as embodiments of the collection’s spirit.
Despite being eliminated in the sixth episode, Milk stood out from his contemporaries by refusing to “glam up”, instead each week creating a unique look accompanied by a character and story. This attitude is also evident in his campaign image, shot by David Sims; instead of appearing as his drag alter-ego he simply appears as Dan, laid out in a frayed denim midi-skirt and gold velvet boots.
However Donigan is not the first campaign star of the season to defy traditional notions of gender – Louis Vuitton recently made headlines for casting Jaden Smith as the face of its womenswear line, providing further proof that fashion is beginning to relax its attitude toward gendered clothing.
See the campaign so far in the gallery above
