Chloé - Spring/Summer 2011

Photographer David Sims, following the Inez van Lamsweerde/Vinoodh Matadin duo, has just signed his name to the spring/summer 2011 campaign for the house of Chloé.

Last winter's oh-so-70s images may still hold their charm, but the photos for the upcoming season give off an upbeat zen harmony, giving the Hannah MacGibbon label a new freshness.

Top models, Iselin Steiro and Malgosia Bela, are luminous in the photos, and the well-lit, ultra minimalist clothes from the spring/summer collection are surprisingly desirable -- a far cry from the icy Balenciaga fall/winter 2008 campaign shot by the same photographer.

In front of Sims' lens, the neutral, calm colors lose their severity, exuding a contagious softness that makes you desparately want to become a Chloé woman. This is quite an accomplishment, given the lack of enthusiasm for the collection that the house presented last October.

Admittedly, after the Chloé spring/summer 2011 show, we did not expect to be tempted by the MacGibbon wardrobe: lacking in audacity, somewhat redundant and simplistic, it left us unconvinced, to say the least.

This campaign, rendered sublime by Malgosia Bela's smile, could well succeed in making us overlook the collection's faults, and even bring us to reconsider our decision to finish with Chloé mania. The only thing left to do is to visit the Chloé boutique (44 avenue Montaigne, Paris) in order to judge once and for all about this Parisian house's latest opus.