Christmas campaigns can be hit or miss, let’s be honest. The fashion industry is known for its pomp and prissiness during the festive season, with sickly sweet ‘heartwarming’ spiel shoved down our throats in the form of a holiday-themed gift bag or ribbon-wrapped store card.
Fear not – some brands DO get it right at Christmas. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite Christmas campaigns throughout the years, from a 2017 Miu Miu ASMR treat all the way to a 2012 ‘Ebeneezer Snoop’ cameo. So sit back, play a cringe Christmas song and enjoy these blasts from the fashion past.
2022: A HOLZWEILER HOLIDAY
Holzweiler said ‘nah’ to tacky Christmas campaigns this year and opted for a stylish alternative. For their 2022 campaign ‘See the Light’ starring hip-hop superstar A$AP Nast and actress Lera Abova, the brand spared no expense enlisting some of the greatest talent on the creative scene, including photographer Dexter Navy and music producer Kelvin Krash.
2021: TIFFANY ‘TABLE MANNERS’
“When unsure which fork to use, throw caution to the wind and take your food airborne”. Behold: just one of the many quotes taken from Tiffany’s ‘Table Manners for Teenagers’ Etiquette book. The accompanying campaign, starring everyone’s favourite chaotic legend Ms. Julia Fox was a whimsical take on throwing a festive dinner party with modern manners. Watch the full video here.
2020: RETRO BY GUCCI
In 2020, Gucci dazzled high-fashion lovers and bemused the general public with their retro, nineties themed office party campaign. During the year that knocked the socks out of us, this playful story about club-going, conga-lining Gucci-clad office workers was a wonderfully kitsch distraction from reality.
2019: COACH ‘WONDER FOR ALL’
What happens when you throw Megan Thee Stallion, Kate Moss and Spike Lee on set together? The Coach Christmas campaign, obviously. Pizza, drag queens, and a running karaoke machine are all present in the 2019 festive video, as Coach invited you to “bring yourself exactly as you are”. Honestly, same – we’d rather be there too.
2018: BURBERRY ‘CLOSE YOUR EYES & THINK OF CHRISTMAS’
You can’t get much more festive than a snowy setting, a frosty forest and a batch of A-listers moodily smizing at the camera. Featuring Matt Smith, M.I.A and none other than THE Naomi Campbell, Burberry’s eerily beautiful 2018 campaign found the perfect blend of Xmas-meets-high-fashion.
2017: MIU MIU ‘WHISPERS’
In Miu Miu’s 2017 Holiday campaign, global superstars such as Dakota and Elle Fanning, Julia Garner, Chloë Sevigny and Sadie Sink gathered together to delight us with a soft, beautifully lit video that is quite literally ASMR heaven. If you come back to this after a hard day’s work at some point in the future just to hear Elle Fanning whisper to you, we won’t judge you. Indulge yourself within the full experience here.
2016: LACOSTE HOLIDAY
Lacoste knows how to give holiday energy. Their 2016 Christmas campaign, shot by renowned fashion photographer Jean Paul Goude and styled by Alex Aikiu, features classic Christmas shrubbery snipped into the iconic Lacoste croc silhouette.
2015: COACH’S HOLIDAY PUPPIES
In another fan-favourite Coach campaign, the luxury label took to Instagram to showcase a gallery of adorable french bulldogs straddling their 2015 Winter bag collection. We’ll disregard the ‘puppies aren’t just for Christmas’ narrative in this case, and this case only.
2014: CHANEL ‘REINCARNATION’
Directed by the late Chanel visionary Karl Lagerfeld to accompany the CHANEL Paris-Salzburg 2014/15 Métiers d’art collection, ‘Reincarnation’ was a work of art. Starring Cara Delevingne and Pharrell Williams (who also composed and wrote the lyrics to “CC The World,” the song featured in the video – is there anything this man cannot do?) we were treated to a fairytale campaign in classic Chanel fashion.
2013: HARVEY NICHOLS “SORRY, I SPENT IT ON MYSELF”
Luxury retailer Harvey Nichols touched the hearts of Scrooges everywhere with their “Sorry I spent it on myself” campaign. In the words of the retailer itself, “There’s something for everyone; an Elastic Band Gift set for Mum; Genuine Wire Sponge for Dad; and nothing quite says Merry Christmas like a packet of Authentic Lincolnshire Gravel.” Festive!
2012: ADIDAS X SNOOP DOGG
In perhaps the greatest Christmas collaboration to ever occur, we were given the gift that was adidas’s “The Cautionary Tale of Ebenezer Snoop”. Featuring the man himself, Snoop Dogg (smoking a ✧ festive ✧ pipe) the campaign became the second most viewed Winter advert on Youtube in 2012. We highly recommend watching this with a drink in hand. It’s a wild ride.
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