CASABLANCA AW24 "VENUS AS A BOY" MENSWEAR COLLECTION
For its latest campaign, Casablanca Paris has maintained a sharp focus on the original message of Creative Director Charaf Tajer’s Fall/Winter 2024 runway: the unparalleled influence that ancient Greek discoveries, creations and teachings continue to hold over our present world, allowing for the always-harmonious melding together of the ideals of classical beauty and contemporary allure. That singular permanence is underlined by the video’s time-traveling trajectory, as it navigates complex pathways backward and forward through time and space, evoking the odysseys of both Homer and Kubrick.
It’s clear to see that the campaign’s exhilarating voyage is also infused with the mesmerizing spirit of Eleusis, the legendary Grecian pilgrimage destination that served as a key inspiration for Tajar’s designs for the Casablanca AW24 collection. Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Sophocles and Euripides traveled to Eleusis to partake in mind-expanding experiences, facilitated by psychedelics. Those hypnotic and transformative Eleusinian experiences are echoed in the campaign video, with models adopting the classic poses of Grecian gods and Olympian heroes, as they are transported down Athenian avenues, up temple staircases, over billowing clouds, through rotating galaxies, into and out of interior spaces.
Working closely with director Frédéric de Pontcharra, Tajer blended several musical influences into the campaign’s storytelling, including references to a series of iconic ‘90s videos and, of course, “Venus As A Boy,” Bjôrk’s 1993 single for which the Casablanca Fall/Winter 2024 collection and its campaign video are named. “Björk’s lyrics in that song have always spoken to me,” explains Tajer. “As friends have often pointed out, her message—He believes in beauty. He’s Venus as a boy—reflect my ever-strong curiosity and my constant desire for beauty. And the fact that Venus herself was the Roman reimagining of the Greek goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, adds another layer to our themes of recontextualization and parallels between the ancient and modern world.”
AW24 COLLECTION COMING SOON
Credits
Creative Director - Charaf Tajer
Director - Frédéric de Pontcharra
1st Photographer - Corentin Leroux
2nd Photographer - Fiona Torre
Styling - Helena Tejedor
Set Designer - Felix Gesnouin
Models -Adam Castellano, Mamuor Majeng, Georgia Palmer, Mary Ukech, Alex Consani, Rolf Schrader, Tida Rosvall Casting - Establishment New York
Video Production - Mynd C/o Wanda Productions
DOP - Nathaniel Aron
Executive & Post producer - China Presles
VFX Studio - Orage
Editors - Antoine Deslandes, Hervieu
Colorist - Nicolas Gautier
Photography Production - Producing Love
Retouching - Atelier 99
Hair - Karim Belghiran
Makeup - Stephanie Kunz
