Jacob Elordi Stars in Bottega Veneta’s New Dreamy Campaign

Bottega Veneta has launched a new campaign titled “What Are Dreams,” featuring actor Jacob Elordi and created by acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Duane Michals. The project explores the tension between reality and imagination, a theme central to Michals’s lifelong fascination with surrealism.

A Vision Between Reality and Imagination

Shot in black and white at Michals’s New York home, the campaign captures Elordi in a series of twelve ethereal photographs and a short film. The imagery includes recurring surreal motifs such as drifting curtains, convex mirrors, and suspended feathers—visual elements that echo Michals’s distinctive artistic style.

“I’m very much interested in the realm of the invisible. My problem is, ‘how do I make the invisible visible?’” — Duane Michals

Throughout the project, handwritten lines from Michals’s 2001 poem “What Are Dreams” appear across the visuals, enriching the narrative with introspection. In the short film, Elordi recites parts of this poem, reflecting on the “midnight movies of the mind… where things look familiar, but not at all the same.”

Artistic Collaboration and Meaning

Michals described the collaboration as an attempt to capture “magic and mystery,” likening filmmaking itself to the act of dreaming. He praised Elordi’s intuitive understanding of the project’s ethereal concept and his ability to embody both its mystery and wonder.

“Of course movie making is also a dream, and Frankenstein is a scary dream. Jacob understood exactly what I was trying to do with the project. He was right there for the magic and the mystery of it.” — Duane Michals

About Duane Michals and His Style

Known for merging text with photography, Michals’s work often explores invisible emotions and imagined worlds. Through this collaboration with Bottega Veneta, he continues his artistic exploration of the unseen and the surreal.

Author’s Summary

The campaign “What Are Dreams” by Bottega Veneta unites Jacob Elordi and Duane Michals in a poetic dialogue between imagination and reality, blending surreal imagery and introspective emotion.

CR Fashion Book — 2025-11-04