Bruce Weber is back shooting another Barneys campaign, and this time, it’s personal. The spring/summer 16 campaign is dedicated to Weber’s beloved New York City, and as Barneys prepares for the opening of a new Chelsea flagship store in the coming weeks, it feels like the perfect occasion to write a love letter to the city where it all began. The campaign is one giant celebration of the city’s most colorful, transgressive, and defining characters together in one place, aptly titled “Our Town.”
It stars legends like Patti Smith, Yoko Ono, and Lady Gaga alongside club kids and performers like Hector Perez, Ryan Burke, and none other than Ladyfag. Helmut Lang lounges in bed and young members gather on the sidewalk outside the LGBT Community Center. It even includes regular city heroes like the NYFD’s first female battalion chief Rocky Jones, a pair of female construction workers, and four of the brothers from The Wolfpack. If it seems wild or random, that’s because it’s a New York story.
In the middle of it all, model Ajak Deng flits across 75th Street and hangs out outside The Carlyle, decked in Paco Rabanne, Dries Van Noten, and Isabel Marant. A pair of Yohji Yamamoto boxing shorts, a white Azzedine Alaïa frock, and an R13 “Punk” tee are definite standouts.
Most importantly, each of the campaign’s main stars reveals what he or she loves about New York. Weber begins by recounting his days at film school at NYU and how he felt embraced by the city. Ladyfag remembers her first Barneys sale experience, Cyndi Lauper recounts Gay Pride 2001, and the Angulo brothers echo the excitement that all young New Yorkers feel.
Weber walks the line between iconic and real, playing with both the everyday and the fantasy elements that inevitably come with the New York experience.
Credits
Text Blair Cannon
Photography Bruce Weber, Courtesy Barneys