In a 2014 Vogue article titled The Top 11 Brigitte Bardot Doppelgängers of All Time, a peak period image of the tragic French actress is juxtaposed with one of the then just 19-years-old Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen from 1999 – and the resemblance is nothing shy of uncanny. Of course, things have ultimately worked out better for the latter, married as she is to football star Tom Brady and still vigorously in demand at age 41 – by which time Mlle. Bardot’s film career had receded into the history books.
The new Burberry TB Summer Monogram Collection campaign puts Ms. Bündchen in a similar photographic juxtaposition, but this time it is with her former self. Indeed, the new images are set against images from ten years earlier, also shot by Luigi & Iango (super in-demand fashion snappers Luigi Murenu and Iango Henzi) – though it makes one really wish to get in on her beauty regimen, since she seems to not have aged a whit during that time.
The campaign was of course lorded over by Burberry Creative Director Riccardo Tisci, and according to Gisele, it was love all the way. “I was so happy to see Riccardo again after such a long time,” she enthuses, “and shooting with my sweet friends Luigi and Iango is always a blast. It was so special spending time with everyone, we had so much fun on set.”
The accompanying short film certainly bears this out, as we see her silently dropping a couple of Burberry layers, including a modernized black gabardine trench, before raising a black & white flag of her decade-younger self. The music kicks in, and wouldn’t you know, it’s the Serge Gainsbourg classic ‘Initials B.B’, the controversial songsmith’s emotionally searing tribute to Ms. Bardot, first recorded in 1968.
“To be able to create in an extremely minimal and modern way a Burberry campaign that is full of positive and great energy, and with Gisele Bündchen as our muse, was really an honor,” Murenu explains. “She transmitted with her kindness, grace and extraordinary energy in a very contemporary and cool way, and the campaign transmits all the codes that touch us the most at heart: light, love and perfect harmony – between four friends and artists who really appreciate and love each other.”
The “TB” by the way is Thomas Burberry, founder of the exalted British house in 1856. The imprint itself was launched in 2018, a collab between Tisci and venerable British art director and graphic designer Peter Saville (he of Factory Records fame). This year’s collection includes silk kaftans, pussy-bow blouses, wool-blend cardigans, wool sweaters, silk-blend bomber jackets, hoodies and polo/t-shirts.
Specific to summer are the Lola and Freya tote bags, linen high-top sneakers, contrast-trim leather point-toe pumps and neoprene sandals. All pieces are available at Burberry.com, and in select Burberry boutiques.
