Parody of fashion: Kenzo film makes its mark

Paris – LVMH-owned fashion brand Kenzo has released a film called Watermarked to accompany its autumn/winter 2012 collection. Kenzo is now under the creative direction of Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, who founded Opening Ceremony.

The film parodies corporate promotional video styles with sweeping shots of clean-cut, male models laughing, waving and embracing against epic architectural and natural landscapes. It also uses stock music, listed in the closing credits as Power Lunch 2.

The way the film mimics Benetton’s signature style makes it a great example of the Brand-jacking trend. The use of models from different races looking happy together references Benetton’s advertising campaigns and the editorial style of Colors magazine, both defined by photographer Oliviero Toscani.

The two-minute film was produced by DIS, the multimedia platform that organises its content into sections including Disco, Discover, Distaste and Dystopia in order to ‘explore the banality and novelty of product and image-making’.

Look out for our forthcoming review of the five defining fashion films of autumn/winter 2012.