Etro reveals its Fall Winter 2023 Men and Women’s Advertising Campaign shot 1700 miles north of Italy in Inverness, Scotland. Etro’s Creative Director Marco De Vincenzo creates a dreamlike vision that is softly romantic and soothing — but also environmentally-aware in a humanist sense.

Featuring Argentina-Belgium model Nathaniël Ortiz and Israeli Sun Mizrahi, they are at one with nature and specifically water. The mood is one of great serenity and we can hear the soft ripples of the water — but there is also a disruptive undercurrent in both the images and the film. Gabriella Karefa-Johnson styled the campaign./ Hair by Pierpaolo Lai; makeup by Ammy Drammeh

Stellar photographer Zhong Lin [IG] is known for creating images that are both dreamy and simultaneously unsettling. Her January 2022 fashion story for Vogue Taiwan called ‘Heat Wave’ remains one of AOC’s most read and shared stories.

For the Fall 2023 collection Marco De Vincenzo worked diligently to mine and better understand the irreplaceable Etro archives. He is digging deep until he’s satisfied that he understands the very roots of the Etro vision.

In today’s world, such a search becomes a Radical Vision and the Fall Campaign is called ‘Radical Etro’. There is a visible difference between his first collection and this one, in which the designer understands that the Etro heritage is one of heritage pattern-mixing and boho-dressing.

By contrast, the spring 2023 collection was full of more structured, geometrically-precise, repetitive and kinetic patters he has favored. With heritage and craftsmanship being so high-value in this fashion moment, it was disruptive to think of Etro walking away from that treasure chest of meaning and con temporary relevance.

“I feel like an archeologist who has to confront the past, while bringing its finds to the light of today,” is De Vincenzo’s self-articulated mission.

Now that’s he’s drawn into the Etro story and brand heritage that is so critical to 21st century, progressive values, working with the concept of lightness is totally new for the designer.

“I’ve never done flou before, for me it is a completely new territory. But that lightness! All those yards and yards of airy georgette are mesmerizing, I’m hypnotized by the potential of all that nothingness,” De Vincenzo said at the time of his show last spring.

The designer articulated the concept of “duty” to give more importance to Etro’s magnificent history and then interpreting it in his own terms. The decision of Gucci to set out on an entirely-new design vision, also leaves an opening that Etro can fill.

In comparing the new Gucci campaign — and specifically the most recent Gucci Valigeria campaign video with a very different one from RIMOWA — I put this Etro campaign in the RIMOWA camp.

That’s a compliment. They both evoke heart, not haughty, which is a critical emotional element as our world and even our liberal, western civilization is at risk in America.