The desert is both an ancestral and galactic place; it belongs to yesterday and to tomorrow. It is a very distant yet present world; a land of everyone yet of no one. The desert is the backdrop of the latest Etro campaign, shot by Henrik Purienne in Palm Springs. Or perhaps in Los Angeles, or then again in Mauritania, or maybe on Mars? The geographic coordinates, in the desert, are of little use. The scene is burnt as colors are consumed by the sun, and all around the effect is amplified, as far as the eye can see.
Having arrived in the desert aboard a Corvette, Mica Arganaraz and Sam Mallos move between the arid landscape, dressed in clothes that echo other moments of idealism and connection, away from the city, in worlds where men have no authority and where nature has a wild power. Everything in the images, from the analogue grain to the wild and tactile textures, escapes a precise definition of space and time, while the nomadic personality of Etro finds a compelling expression. Is it past or future, already happened or about to happen? It is useless to point out, it is meaningless to classify. What matters is the peace that emanates from it: a message of calm and serenity, tinged with palpable desire, warmed by the burning light of the sunset.
The campaign sets forth a journey, in time but also out of time, in contact with the rough purity of the elements, which once again defines the wandering spirit of Etro, in its nomadic and poetic universe, with an ardent but subtle sensuality.
“This campaign, our last as Etro's creative directors, is a journey to a place that is in time, but also out of time. It is our road to nowhere towards faraway worlds, sun-drenched as far as the eye can see, strong in the nomadic and curious spirit that has always pushed us forward, because it is never the destination that counts, but the journey itself “ Kean and Veronica Etro
