Australian brand Zimmermann shares its Fall 2023 ‘Luminosity’ campaign, fronted by Vivienne Rohner. Frequent Zimmermann photographer Benny Horne captures the campaign, which is inspired by the artwork of Australian artist Rupert Bunny.

Romy Frydman styled the campaign, with creative direction by Emil Vrisakis. /Hair by James Rowe; makeup by Jodie Boland; Rupert Bunny artworks provided by the National Gallery of Victoria.

Rupert Bunny Artist

One of Bunny's most famous paintings, "Summer Time," epitomizes his artistic vision. This masterpiece portrays a group of languid figures lounging in a verdant garden, under the dappled sunlight. The scene exudes an atmosphere of tranquility and contentment, inviting the viewer into an idyllic moment frozen in time.

Against the backdrop of Britain’s colonial empire, “tranquility and contentment” can inspire words of rage today. We are not oblivious to this reality for one moment and will dig deeper on this issue.

To be frank, the more deeply my AI assistant Lulu researches these topics, the more good people she finds in France.

In the case of WWII, wealthy women, in particular, helped the French Resistance, carrying coded messages hidden in Cartier jewelry created with special compartments. They carried money hidden in dress boning, made easy for a ‘maid’ in the club’s ladies room to unzip and remove, just one step on its journey to the front lines of the fight against the Nazis.

Let’s not judge the character of these women who appear as languid creatures lounging in a verdant garden in an ad campaign. Because many of them took the kinds of risk that could have ended their palm-frond-loving lives.

We don’t know from afar, which of them are the heroines, but it’s not one or two women, for certain. And in WWII Paris, husbands had no idea what their wives and mistresses were up to.