Watch Colin Jones transform into a French spy for KNWLS

A chic blonde woman swaddled in a cowl neck faux fur prowls the streets of Paris, and a car full of secret agents look on. Alerted to suspicion, the woman looks nervously over her shoulder while the agents peer from behind mirrored shades and through binoculars toward her. Finally, they spring from the car and stalk the blonde woman like prey – that is until an old CRT television crashes from a top floor window, narrowly missing her and exploding on the streets below.

No, this isn’t the plot to a campy spy thriller coming to a cinema near you, but a brand new fashion film from London brand KNWLS, starring model Colin Jones as the blonde woman in question. One of a trio of new films dubbed Haute Tension, another sees Jones collapsed in the street and given mouth to mouth only then to be long lensed by a skulking spy, while a third features the American model tied up in the boot of a getaway car, before she breaks free and busts out her signature catwalk strut.

The cinematic shorts are part of a dynamic new proposition from the London house. The brand skipped London Fashion Week earlier this season, so the films are an inventive way to present the AW25 collection, full of shredded minis, fur-trimmed bombers and shearling coats, all styled by Georgia Pendlebury. Produced by Division and made in collaboration with Torso – the team behind Casey Cadwallader’s high-octane Mugler films – designers Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault wanted the shorts to show the KNWLS woman “in her day-to-day life,” but also fantasising about the lifestyle she could potentially have.

“We’ve always loved Col and what she represents,” the duo told Dazed. “She is unapologetically KNWLS and has the perfect attitude to capture that fantasy.” Putting her acting chops to the test, Jones embodies the average-woman-turned-Totally Spy with gusto, fiercely staring down the camera before melting back to softness. “Especially when working on something so cinematic and story-driven, you need someone who can effortlessly embody the character,” added Knowles and Arsenault. “She was a dream to work with.”

The films also feature a punchy and direct soundtrack, designed by Torso and inspired by a classic 90s cartoon. “The guys brought some incredible Aeon Flux references – the animation not the film – which we absolutely loved,” say the designers. “We had the idea of creating a sound-design driven score,” added Torso. “Music played from inside a car that elicits a certain mood, the sound of footsteps, or an ambulance driving by. We also dubbed the characters with cartoony vocal expressions to make it feel less-real, almost animated.” 

Along with the espionage and dynamic sound design, the films also feature the theme of surveillance, running heavily throughout. Models secretly follow Jones before ducking out of view, long lens cameras surreptitiously snap at her, while an uncomfortably close shot of Jones in the boot of a car unnerves and jars. “That concept actually came from Torso based on the initial concept we had developed with KNWLS’ art director Jamie Reid,” said Knowles and Arsenault. “We really liked the idea – especially how it ties into the current global sense of anxiety with social media, but with a sense of humour.”

That initial idea was developed by the Torso team to use surveillance in a hyperbolic sense, as a metaphor for seeing and being seen. “We imaged the project as a non-verbal fashion thriller, where KNWLS women move through Paris in a cat and mouse dynamic,” said Torso. “Colin is the KNWLS avatar, like the player-character of a video game, and surrounding her are malevolent characters with ambiguous motives and oblivious NPCs.” And though the potential for violence in each scenario is “subverted by Colin’s unbothered attitude” each film ends with a cliffhanger, pulling you further still into the universe that KNWLS and Torso have created together.

Watch all three films above, and check out the latest from KNWLS here.