Paz de la Huerta @ Agent Provocateur | Clooney in Venice | Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for M&S SN Living

More stills from the Fall 2011 Paz de la Huerta campaign for Agent Provocateur are in release. I love the campaign, because it taps into social mores around sexuality as usual. The more I study Agent Provocateur versus Victoria’s Secret, I see the deeply psychological relationship AP has with the viewer — and especially the woman viewing the brand marketing.

VS is focused on making us bombshells — and for sure, I like their newer ads better. But Victoria’s Secret gave up its psychological connection with the woman — which we owned in America during my 10 years there — to pursue the Angels. It’s all very Sex and the City now — at a time when SATC is fading.

Again, my point is not to criticize Victoria’s Secret, which I’ve done with abandon. VS is having a great year and there are major improvements in the marketing.

Paz de la Huerta for Agent Provocateur

Agent Provocateur pushes the sexual envelope in ways that VS can’t. They have too many stores in malls to run not-such-good-girl campaigns as this one with Paz de la Huerta.

For me, Agent Provocateur is more honest about what women face in America — and worldwide, although not as strongly in Europe — in terms of the conflict between being virtuous and being sexual. This is a big theme at AOC, one that spilled into Sensuality News this morning, with the Westboro Baptist Church protests at New York Fashion Week.

Westboro calls Fashion Week the biggest SlutWalk of all.

I love AP for challenging these ungodly stereotypes about female sexuality, and goodness knows, ‘Boardwalk Empire’ bad girl Paz de la Huerta is the woman to do it.