The 10 best campaigns by Zara

Zara is just as good as many luxury brands, at least in terms of campaigns and lookbooks. The Spanish retailer opts for casting, sets and great photographers (in recent years it often works with Steven Meisel), turning simple ideas into powerful images. Some examples? For the SS20 campaign it bypassed the pandemic shooting block by collecting the self-shots taken by the models in their homes, while for the Zara TRF SS19 collection it showed us the coolness of Rome.

Here are Zara's 10 best campaigns.

Zara Women’s FW20 Campaign

Rianne Van Rompaey, Mona Tougaard, Sacha Quenby e Mika Schneider, shot by Steven Meisel in a series of black and white images, wear the clothes of the new FW20 collection. The traditional tailoring codes, mixed and revisited in a contemporary key, sound almost like a call to action to the female empowerment, presented through tailored suits, Oxford shirts matched with vests and cosy coats, tie clips, cufflinks and punk brooches.

Zara Women’s SS20 Campaign

While the pandemic blocks the shooting, Zara asks the models to photograph themselves with SS20 items, each in their own home. Malgosia Bela, Anja Rubik, Jill Kortleve and the others, camera and iPhone in hand, posed, without make-up and with messed up hair, matching knitted dresses and coffee mugs, leisurewear and oranges, jeans and flowers, skirts and bare feet. The result of this experiment, which captured a specific social event shared by the whole world, is interesting, but it also sparked a lot of controversy. The reason? The poses of the models, always criticized because they are so absurd that it is difficult to see the fit of a garment and, therefore, to buy it. The account Instagram @awkwardzara collects some of the most bizarre: girls with a boot on their head, squatting over the kitchen stove, climbing the bookcase, suspended in the air between two walls like Spiderman,...

Zara TRF SS19 Lookbook

Matteo Montanari guides us from behind the lens in a fresh, playful and sparkling remake of Vacanze Romane. In place of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck there are Elibeidy Dani and Laurijn Bijnen who have fun around the Eternal City in the shots not of a real campaign, but of a lookbook for Zara TRF SS19 collection entitled Bella Roma. Among dresses with silver fringes, sequins, garments with a metallic finish, bows and girlie accessories, we rediscover the glimpses of one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Zara Women’s FW19 Campaign

Another project by Steven Meisel and Fabien Baron recreating a series of sophisticated and opulent overlapping images for Zara FW19. Among drapes and veils, Julia Nobis, Adut Akech, Vittoria Ceretti and the other models pose with regal elegance wearing printed dresses, Prince of Wales coats and chunky golden jewels with an 80's mood. Meisel's shots celebrate beauty, art and fashion, elevating Zara's democratic style.

Zara TRF SS18 Campaign

With the Spring Games campaign shot by Matteo Montanari in Florida Zara presents a collection full of patterns. Flowers, stripes and polka dots cover shirts, skirts, shorts and t-shirts, highlighted by a series of playful, vivid and cool images.

Zara Women’s FW18 Campaign

Lexi Boling, Fei Fei Sun and the other models are languidly lying on sofas and soft pillows in an atmosphere of flamboyant luxury, wearing long-sleeved dresses, velvet vests and scarves. Both the clothes and the setting of Steven Meisel's shots recall Yves Saint Laurent's 1976 Haute Couture winter collection, which was inspired by the imagery of czarist Russia and the Ballet Russes of León Baskt and Serge Diaghilev, but also by Paul Poiret's orientalist designs and Mariano Fortuny's rich fabrics.

Zara Women’s FW16 Campaign

For the Spanish retailer's FW16, Mario Sorrenti creates a Disco Forest with a dreamlike atmosphere, a boho-chic party in the nature, among sequins, white horses, swings, river canoes and romance. Zara seems to give its customers a modern interpretation of Sir John Everett Millais' works.

Zara Women’s FW15 Campaign

For the FW15, Colin Dodgson shoots Mica Arganaraz, Finnlay Davis and Adrienne Juilger in a room full of wild plants, combining seasonal 70s style coats, maxi dresses and blouses with images of a thriving and bushy nature.

Zara TRF FW13 Campaign

London, mini floral dresses, checkered shirts and animalier coats. Zara TRF's campaign for the FW13 plays with the essentials of British punk-rock by portraying a group of cool teenagers recalling the collections created by Hedi Slimane for Louis Vuitton. 

Zara Women’s FW03 Campaign

Kate Moss portrayed by Alfonso Ohnur. A series of simple images, but with such a powerful impact that it inspired, along with other Zara campaigns of that period, Archive Collection, a capsule which revisits with a contemporary twist the most iconic pieces created by the retailer between 1996 and 2012.