Miu Miu has announced the appointment of Kaia Gerber to star in its Scenique Eyewear campaign film. The Miu Miu Scenique eyewear collection launched this week.
When Balmain Creative Director Olivier Rousteing cast 49-year-old Cindy Crawford and the other original supermodels Naomi Campbell (45) and Claudia Schiffer (45) earlier this year, it felt that fashion had finally embraced the power of the 40-something woman.
But, true to it’s reputation as an industry obsessed with extremes, Miu Miu have just announced that their new campaign star is Cindy Crawford’s 14-year-old daughter model Kaia Gerber.
The model stars in a five-minute film for the house, which shows Gerber lounging around a pool in Scenique oversized sunglasses and pearl-encrusted pink pool sliders, the footage helpfully slowed down enough for us to suitably eye-up the set-to-be shoes.
It’s not the first time that Miu Miu – the more playful line by Miuccia Prada – has championed models and actresses on the rise. Elle Fanning, Lea Seydoux and Lupita Nyong’o all fronted campaigns for the house in the very early stages of their careers.
Gerber has been in front of the camera since the age of 10, when she began child modelling in a Young Versace campaign – a move her mother is said to be very supportive of. “When people ask me about my daughter, I feel like I could guide her in the right direction because I was able to navigate it. You can, it is doable,” Crawford told the Evening Standard about her daughter’s career choice.
Since then, Gerber has fronted a campaign for LA-based jewellery label Chrome Hearts, appeared in a group ad for Alexander Wang and on the cover of Vogue Paris alongside her supermodel mum.
She’s not the only one. Earlier this month, Kate Moss made fashion headlines when she starred on the cover of Italian Vogue alongside her 13-year-old daughter Lila Grace and Chanel have signed up 16-year-old Lily Depp as the new face of Chanel No 5.
Kate Moss started her career at 14 and Naomi Campbell at 15 – and Crawford herself thinks it makes sense for models like her daughter to start young. “These girls, because of social media, are able to craft their own image in a way we weren’t,” she’s said of the new host of models such as Cara Delevingne. These girls, even as they’re just beginning, they’re not as pigeon-holed by how other people see them. Someone like Cara, the reason she is so cool is she gets to be who she is on social media and have that direct relationship with fans.”
