G-Star RAW Fall campaign

Normally, the new face of a brand is a pretty predictable and boring choice that only really registers if you think whoever it is, is hot. G-Star, though, likes to do the unexpected. Their choice last year of world number one chess player, 19-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, to front the G-Star RAW men’s campaign proves that.

Their selection for G-Star RAW’s A/W 2011 womenswear campaign, 24-year-old British actress Gemma Arterton, is maybe a bit less controversial, but the company’s reasoning is just as insightful. Gemma is, on the surface, a super-glamorous actress who often plays 'posh', yet in reality she was brought up by her single parent mum, a cleaner. This contradiction makes sense when you consider that G-Star RAW's campaign theme is RAW Elegance.

Iconic rock photographer and video director Anton Corbijn—who directed Joy Division biopic Control—shot the Arterton campaign. G-Star has also made a series of films to mark the launch of the campaign and Arterton’s leading role. This second film in the series, G-Star RAW New York Fashion Week, was shot at G-Star’s NY RAW A/W 2011 show at New York Fashion Week. The film features the runway show and includes backstage interviews with Gemma Arterton, Rosario Dawson, and Jared Leto, and footage of G-Star’ RAW's high-end 3D denim collection with people like Gemma Arterton, Magnus Carlsen, Rosario Dawson, Chris Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, Jared Leto, Mena Suvari, Yaya DaCosta, Danny Flaherty, Kiko Mizuhara and Sofia Black D’Elia on the front row.