Carhartt WIP’s Spring/Summer 2024 campaign presents itself as an interrupted program. Much like an old home video that’s been taped over several times, its material ranging from sleek commercials to gritty camcorder creations, the set of visuals is a collision of incongruous scenes, sentiments, and resolutions. A mix of both moving image and vividly colored stills, some sequences are reminiscent of archival CCTV footage in their blue and greenish hues, while others evoke the monochrome pages of hand stapled punk zines. These are juxtaposed with scenes that straddle early hip hop videos and high-end studio recordings that feature elaborate 360-degree shots.
A merger of various imaging techniques, the campaign was conceptualized and composed by art director Tim Kottmann, who processed the photography of Andrew White through analog image reproduction and multiplication devices – sometimes to a point beyond recognition. The results have been rendered as ads and billboards, alongside video content directed by Paul Hermann, which brings a sharpness that perfectly complements the rugged stills.
Despite its fragmented nature, the Spring/Summer 2024 campaign speaks to an overarching narrative, meditating on the loss of quality that comes with the relentless circulation of ripped and remixed data. Yet, at the same time, exploring how new layers of meaning can be added, when an image is situated in a new context.
The campaign seeks out incoherent interpretations, fractured and flexible temporalities, whirled up in a flow of information. It is about processing problems, alienation and appropriation; displacement activities, nervous zapping and technical breakdowns. Xeroxed pages, zeros and ones. In short, it’s about back then just as much as it is about now.
Downloads
Contact
Federica De Carlo
fdecarlo@carhartt-wip.comAbout Carhartt Work In Progress
Carhartt Work In Progress (WIP) is a clothing brand that adapts and modifies the core products of the pioneering American workwear brand Carhartt to create its own collections. Established in 1994 by Edwin Faeh, the brand’s audience is just as likely to associate its iconic yellow C motif with late 90s hip hop videos or skate clips, as they are with factories or manual labor. This distinction is key in defining what Carhartt WIP does. Carhartt WIP engages with different cultural spheres: from Detroit and Berlin’s symbiotic techno scenes, to skateboarding and its communities that span Paris, New York, and Seoul, to the contemporary art world. The brand channels these influences, representing the culture which has formed around it. This can be seen and felt in its collections, its imagery, and its choice of partners and collaborators. Today, Carhartt WIP operates over 100 brick and mortar retail stores across Europe, Asia, and the US, as well as working with select wholesale clients.
Credits
Art Director: Tim Kottmann
Photographer: Andrew White
Director: Paul Herrmann
Producer: Johannes Bottge
Stylist: Aya Takeshima
Models : Fidelis Munir, Fanta Fofana, David Michael
HMU: Julia Barde
Editor: Matthias Graatz
Music: Konstantin Grissman