Pamela Anderson continues her long running partnership with Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler in a dramatic new campaign shot by Juergen Teller at his home in Hydra, Greece for the spring/summer 17 Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood collection.
While Anderson has appeared in campaigns for Vivienne Westwood before, she suggests this time around was a spur of the moment decision: “I love the spontaneity. I was in London. Andreas asked me to come to Greece with them. This time we were shooting at Juergen’s home.” Of the shoot, Juergen Teller says, “Vivienne, Andreas, and Pamela are all just great people to work with. All three of them bring so much to the shoot. I love working with them. There is a trust between us and we explore and work quite freely.”
“I love the apocalyptic feel when we shoot,” Pam continues. “A warrior comes over me and it feels like life and death. How will we survive the climate and over-population? We may all become cannibals — or eat rocks,” she muses, adding, “I have learned from Vivienne that each day is an opportunity. That I cannot be silent. I must be specific and work very hard every day to engage in the world. As a reader and art lover — and activist”.
Kronthaler spends a lot of time in Italy, as that is where the collections are made, and explains that he has “fallen in love” with the Mediterranean. “I love the sea and being close to it … There is a similarity if you are in Italy or Greece, Spain or France — suddenly you are in front of this fantastic blue and time changes and your attitude to life changes and the way you look changes. It makes people look so lovely and healthy. It’s this Mediterranean way of life I adore and am inspired by. I love the light. I love women wearing hardly anything — going to the market in their bikinis, lunch with friends — a bowl of spaghetti. Things are simple.”
Considering the other, more dangerous side of the glittering European seas, Kronthaler adds, “But at the same time it makes you think — thousands and thousands of migrants moving across it every day — using the sea as a passage. Is it a coincidence that I’m thinking of Europe? I am not a particularly political person but I want the collection to be part of where I am, where we are.”
Though Andreas says he isn’t “a particularly political person,” the campaign does include another activist reference, with the text “Leonard Peltier is innocent” following the season credits. The website Friends of Leonard Peltier – Free Leonard Peltier Now explains, “Native American activist Leonard Peltier was arrested in 1976 in connection with the deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and wrongfully convicted in 1977. With no evidence whatsoever, the FBI decided to ‘lock Peltier into the case.'” The website has a countdown to the end of Obama’s presidency, hoping that he use his power to free Leonard Peltier, as he has done with Chelsea Manning.
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush