Making Moncler Mirthful With Jahved Crockett

Art doesn’t need to be complex. This has been proven by everyone from Andy Warhol to The Beatles. This year’s online videos for the Valentino X Moncler launch were drastically different than in the past, by calculated design. The iconic Italian fashion house reached out to Jahved Crockett, an artist with whom they have recently had several successful productions aimed at reaching youthful consumers as well as projecting some fun into their acclaimed designs. Crockett was given a blank slate to bring something new from the recesses of his own creativity. The result was highly successful, vastly deviating from the norm for a major name like Valentino, and could most certainly be considered art in a contemporary form.

Crockett has worked a number of times on projects for this famed Italian fashion house but the X Moncler launch was particularly exciting to him because it offered a chance to draw on his previous animation work. In the past, Jahved had collaborated with animator and illustrator Jo Ratcliffe on productions for Sneakerboy and Lady Gaga’s award-winning “Applause” video. Presenting his own concepts for the content creation and promotion of the videos, Jahved communicated personality correlating to the jackets’ fun aesthetic.

Rather than deferring to the more prevalent state-of-the-art CGI, Jahved used stop-animation and fishing wire. The jackets appear to move about, at times even unzipping to reveal more of itself as a living creation of fashion while images of lions, tigers, old sculpture images, and paintings (relating a sense of Italian history) surround them. The twelve videos created for this campaign combine to make a coquettish family that hints at the lightheartedness they offer.

Black jacket

  The adventurous mindset of a brand like Valentino is a kindred spirit to a professional like Jahved. What could have become mundane glamour shots of these jackets was instead a series of engaging photos and videos. The profoundly positive reaction and the enormous amounts of views which these received is proof that the creative common thread found in Lady Gaga, Sneakerboy, and brands like Timberland or Valentino is Jahved Crockett.

He points out, “Art should be interesting and exciting whether it’s involved in sales or entertainment. I really enjoy working with brands like Valentino because they take risks and want to diversify their business. Fashion brands like Valentino are on the cutting edge of trends and style. They are always looking to the new to develop their brand. It’s very exciting to work with new concepts as a designer. This is what drew me to the fashion industry in the first place. One collection can be completely different to the next, so creating content can be really interesting as there are no rules and it has to stay fresh and current.”