Bravo to Bruno

Often discussions of branding and promoting a line are centered around: how do we "break through the clutter?" The mere quantity of pictures we are exposed to create a "banality of images." It's a phenomenon that media scholars are both intrigued and repulsed by. With so many fresh faces, so many underground shops, and so many video lookbooks, it is an increasingly challenging job to break through the clutter in a way that emanates meaning not just noise. Vanessa Bruno has the most incredible lookbooks floating through the world wide web with the same sort of ethereal and undying youthful energy of her clothing. Her latest video was incredible:

The video is gloomy and gratifying all at once. She plays with light and dark as dialectic counterparts by revealing a journey of a mysterious figure who reveals the dichotomy of strength: its fist-slamming strength (as Valentine Fillol Cordier pummels the ground under a dark sky) and its delicate sensitivity and sensual nature bathed in the softness of daylight (with Lou Doillon air-strumming a guitar). The video is a montage of scenes open to levels of interpretation that are varied and rich. For example, the image of Valentine Fillol Cordier commanding a tree to sway suggests we examine our realtionship to nature.

By asking viewers to engage with her content on such a deep level Bruno is tapping into what marketers mean (or should mean) by the phrase "breaking through the clutter." She is enunciating her brand's ideology through a visualization of a journey that speaks to the complexity of her creations. From a less-lofty, more business perspective Bruno and her team certainly know the label's most praised pieces are outerwear and managed to incorporate a few terrific jackets!