Sex sells – or at least, that’s the thinking that Eckhaus Latta wanted to tackle head-on in its first ad campaign featuring its SS17 collection. A full-frontal, frank look at real sex, complete with real friends and Craigslist-cast people involved (yes, really) – the images are an unconventional but totally on-brand take on the glut of sex imagery in fashion.
For the project, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta teamed up with friend and photographer Heji Shin. The pair decided that they were “amused by the relationship between fashion advertising and sexuality (and) more interested in producing images that are open to interpretation.”
“We live in a time where there is still tension between individualised freedom of expression (especially online) and puritanical approaches to sex that are deeply encoded in culture,” the two say. This then, was a reaction to that – a defiant celebration of the fact that, “real sex, after all, is beautiful,” and just something that is an “acceptable – and integral – part of being a human being.”
Despite having previously debuted a poster with artist Bjarne Melgaard depicting a model sniffing poppers, Eckhaus and Latta are keen to stress that provocation isn’t actually the main goal here. “We’re more interested in being open to, and acknowledging a fuller range of human experiences,” they say.
Though still censored, these naturalistic shots of couples connecting intimately are a matter-of-fact antidote to the usually heavily stylised use of sex to sell clothes in this industry. Controversial only really through our perception of the subject matter, the visuals are a fitting representation to the label that has been leading the New York underground design scene for years now. If you have a problem – it’s not them, it’s you.
