The holiday season may have come and gone, but Drew Starkey superfans have just been gifted a second Christmas for the new year. Freshly dropped this morning, the internet It-boy and Queer actor takes a starring role in Loewe’s brand new SS25 campaign, heading to the Spanish woodside with David Sims in tow. Starkey’s legions of dedicated fans are some of the most rabid we’ve seen for a while – and memorably leaked our winter 2024 cover with the actor before we had a chance to reveal it ourselves – so God knows what they’ll get up to once they sink their teeth into this fresh set of images.
In the campaign, Starkey is shot in the Tavertet countryside, an area of Collsacabra in Catalonia, the most north-easterly region of Spain on the French border. As inquisitive as ever, the actor studies some crunchy leaves in minute detail, swings about a big branch while barefoot, and lounges quizzically on the forest floor, all while sporting Jonathan Anderson’s latest creations. “A longing for nature in its elemental state is part of the Loewe ethos,” says an accompanying press release, which makes perfect sense given Starkey’s willingness to get up close and personal with a bunch of sticks and leaves.
Elsewhere in the campaign – which is described as exploring the “relationship between body and landscape, gesture and nature” – another J-dubs muse returns in the shape of Taylor Russell, who slips into a buttery leather capelet, sleeps inside the branches of a tree, and crouches in the woods in one of the floaty, crinoline hoop dresses that’ve become an A-list hit since debuting on the SS25 catwalk back in September. Along with Russell and Starkey, Chinese actor Wang Yibo also stars, clutching the Puzzle bag while posing in the woodland setting, and the crinoline hoop dresses also reappear in other shots, hanging eerily off of metal rods erected in the forest.
“With its pagan directness, the campaign brings fashion out of the city on earthy ground,” continues the statement, “fostering an holistic message of human presence as part of the whole of nature.” So, J-Dubs clearly wants us all to touch grass for SS25, and is using Starkey, Russell and co. as conduits for his environmental message. Will you be heading to the woods and jumping in a big pile of leaves any time soon?
Scroll through the gallery above to see the entire campaign, and check out Drew Starkey’s Dazed cover story below.