This post originally appeared on British Vogue.
“It’s literally a dream come true,” says Hari Nef on being the face of JW Anderson’s autumn/winter 2022 campaign. “I remember when I first met with IMG [the modelling agency]. Jonathan Anderson and Juergen Teller were among the top names that I said I wanted to work with.” Now, the 29-year-old actor, model and writer is living out her best fashion fantasy with the names she’s long wished to creatively collaborate with.
As JW Anderson’s latest collection focuses on fashion as a means of transformation, the shoot – which took place at Anderson’s studio in London – sees Nef take on a wild mix of personas. Shot by Teller – who’s known for his avant-garde, tongue-in-cheek approach to image-making – the visuals show the model wearing an incredible array of larger-than-life wigs, while throwing all sorts of dramatic shapes in the fantastic clothes. “The first time I shot with Juergen, I told him straight away that I’m familiar with his work, and that if he wants to try anything weird, I’m totally all for it,” says Nef. “This shoot was so much fun – it was all about fashion with a capital F, and embodying these characters with theatrical gestures. I love everything Jonathan does, so I wanted to deliver.”
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Nef and the British label’s creative director have been friends for quite some time. “I instantly bonded with Jonathan when we met years ago, and we’ve had so many great times together since. People have this perception of him as a serious, cerebral designer, but he’s also a big goofy sweetie,” explains Nef. “I’ve always loved his work, down to the very first collections. One in particular was autumn/winter 2013 menswear; the way Jonathan mixed men’s codes with women’s struck a chord with me. This was way ahead of gender fluidity being a hot topic on the runway, and it rocked my world so much. It changed the way I looked at fashion entirely.”
JW Anderson also joined forces with the French filmmaker Loïc Prigent to shoot Nef in a faux documentary entitled Hari Nef Is Falling For Fall. The film sees the actor walk spectators through the collection in the brand’s atelier, while comedically (and rhythmically) falling over continuously throughout, only to get up each time in a different look. “I’ve read every Vogue Runway and Style.com review of JW Anderson ever, and I’ve watched interviews of Jonathan talking about his work in the genius yet mischievous way that he does, so it was incredible to be able to pull all of that knowledge together for the video,” says Nef of the experience filming.
When asked what it was like seeing campaign images of herself across vans in Milan, she says, “I was at a house party in LA at 1am when the pictures started rolling in. It was amazing to see and I’m so proud, because these are the fashion moments that I live for. Even though I’m not able to be in Milan this season, it was nice knowing that I was still in Milan.”
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