Nordstrom's Painted Pictures

(NEW YORK) Nordstrom: where fashion meets art.

The Seattle, Wash.-based retailer has evolved its iconic Ruben Toledo illustration-centric ising campaign of years past to incorporate the lens work of acclaimed fashion photographer Ruven Afanador in brilliant three-dimensional form.

Toledo painted 20-by-30 foot walls to create a series of arresting, surrealistic, black-and-white sets that bear the Cuban artist's signature whimsy and of-the-moment aesthetic that has made him the sought-after illustrator he is. The creative process on-set was so explosive, in fact, that at certain points, Toledo felt himself inspired to paint directly onto the models' faces and bodies as Afanador captured the high-fashion spirit through his images.

"It's one thing to say that fashion and art go together and to show it by putting a model in an art gallery," said Linda Finn, executive vice president of marketing at Nordstrom. "We knew we didn't want to do that and we knew Ruben's artwork needed to be more than just a backdrop. Instead, what Ruben and Ruven came up with truly fused art and photography. The art became the environment--transcending the very idea of a backdrop. The result truly exceeded our expectations."

The ad campaign breaks in March issues of Elle, Vanity Fair, and Vogue.

The retailer's Vogue ads, which feature Lily Cole, highlight designer apparel from YSL, Dries Van Noten, L'Wren Scott, Lanvin, Rodarte, and Chanel, as well as shoes by Manolo Blahnik and Pierre Hardy and handbags by Lanvin, YSL, and Chanel. The Vanity Fair ads utilized model Jenny Sweeny and feature apparel by Oscar de la Renta, Versace, Giambattista Valli, Roberto Cavalli, shoes by Christian Louboutin and Dior, and a VBH handbag. Elle's ads feature model Kiera Gormley in looks by 3.1 Phillip Lim, Charles Chang-Lima, Alice + Olivia, Vera Wang Lavender Label, and Alexander Wang.

Jeffrey Kalinsky, executive vice president of designer merchandising for Nordstrom, will co-host an intimate cocktail party with Vanity Fair's Alexis Bryan at his home on February 13 in celebration of the campaign. Toledo, Afanador, and several of the designers whose collections are featured in the campaign are expected.

According to Finn, it was Toledo's decision to bring Afanador into the collaboration. "We have had a long-standing respect for illustration in fashion going back to the seventies when we worked regularly with the renowned artist Antonio Lopez and we even had illustrators on staff back then," said Finn. "Lately, we've been talking about how to keep evolving the [Toledo] creative to stay fresh. We started to experiment with the art and photography combination in our designer catalog last year."

To hear Toledo describe the on-set process is to bear witness to art in movement. "Making art for the images of the ad campaign was really an art happening for me--the walls I painted on were 20 feet tall by 30 feet long and each scene contained three walls plus the floor!" he recalled. Each painting was created on site while Lily Cole was changing clothes and Ruven was setting up the next shot. "Each painting was painted over by the next and when I work this fast, the energy for me comes from everyone around," he added. "It has to truly be a collaboration with everyone involved and in fact that is what great fashion or art is really about for me."
JIM SHI