Abbey Lee Lives In a Trailer Park, Wears Kenzo In ‘Snowbird’ Short by Sean Baker
At first glance, Kenzo’s spring 2016 ad campaign featuring the Australian model and actress Abbey Lee looks like a pretty straightforward way to draw attention to the label’s latest Mediterranean-inspired collection. But, the ad also doubles as a film poster of sorts for Snowbird, an 11-minute short film directed by Sean Baker and starring Lee that premiered today on Kenzo’s website. (The campaign image was shot on the film’s location in Slab City, Calif.) It’s a layered approach to marketing that Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, Kenzo’s creative directors, said speaks to today’s multimedia moment. “Since the beginning of us doing advertising, we’ve always wanted to immerse ourselves into something culturally relevant,“ Leon tells Yahoo Style. “It was exciting to let Sean take the reins on this and have him explore an idea that he would also be proud of as a short film.”
Indeed, the phantasmagorical sets and poetic plot lines of Snowbird feels more art-house cinema than fashion short. Fittingly, it will be shown before feature films in select theaters across France later this month. Baker, who last year scored a breakout hit with Tangerine, the rapid-pace misadventure comedy starring a pair of transgender women of color that was shot entirely on his iPhone, once again used his mobile device to capture a gritty and frenetic side of femininity that Hollywood often turns a blind eye to. “As a filmmaker, a storyteller, you want to be up on what’s fresh and new and aligning yourself with the fashion industry as a way of doing that,” Baker said. “Fashion is always just a step ahead.”
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