Nodaleto x Heaven by Marc Jacobs

When minimal retro meets girly grunge to create one of the most refreshing yet nostalgic collaborations of 2021.

On September 20th 2021 the Nodaleto x Heaven by Marc Jacobs collaboration went live, teased by a campaign shot in the Parisian La Fontaine lycee infused with an American teenage aesthetic, perfectly fusionning the DNAs of the two brands. If it is not directly the case here, Nodaleto, the luxury shoe brand founded in 2019 by Julia Toledano (daughter of Sidney Toledano, Chairman and CEO of LVMH Fashion Group) and Olivier Leone, has collaborated with artists or artists’ estates along its numerous campaigns since inception.

More than that, the creative direction of Leone always references artists, films, or elements of visual culture with an acute focus on elevating marketing and visual assets to the rank of art. “With an enjoyably minimal aesthetic, its spirit navigates through the Pop material of Warhol’s Factory, the contemporary boom of the Los Angeles art scene and the Brutalist style of Japanese architecture.” says their website. And the truth is most of their campaigns are masterpieces. Nodaleto is not at its first trial in terms of collaboration (Anissa Kermiche in 2020), but it is certainly the first time they collaborate with a world class designer like Marc Jacobs (in the LVMH family). By choosing to work with Heaven, his brand targeting young Millennials and Gen Z, Nodaleto is aiming at bringing a younger audience while staying true to its signature retro aesthetic with a modern twist.

According to the brands themselves, the campaign invokes a “hyper-realistic teenage dream” with references to Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant to name the big names of arthouse cinema. But more pop references like Tina Fey’s Mean Girls or any coming of age teen movie from the 2000s also come to mind. Riding the wave of the beginning of the century’s nostalgia, the collaboration presents chunky high-knee boots and mary-janes, designs that helped establish Nodaleto’s ethos, but with younger colors and rubber soles referencing Heaven’s grungier take on fashion, as well as Marc Jacobs’ 1993 grunge collection for Perry Ellis with tartan prints. For millennials, it is a refreshing and light flashback to the best times of high school and experimenting with questionable fashion. For Gen Z, it is the incarnation of what they imagine this time-period was like, before smartphones and social media.

If Marc Jacobs’s reputation cannot be more than established, the young Nodaleto has a lot to prove. This collaboration shows that the artistic direction they have been taking, especially online, is working. Nodaleto’s Instagram is a curated photo-album. Noteworthy are their 2020 California-infused Summer campaign inspired by David Hockney’s paintings or their 2020 fall campaign in collaboration with Harumi Yamaguchi.  In fact, Olivier Leone has established a special relationship with Japan’s refined culture as testified by his involvement as the co-founder of the Parisian restaurant Onii-San. More recently, their Instagram grid has been used for an homage to the American artist Ellsworth Kelly.

What is common to all these visual assets is their pop yet elevated retro references. Infused with vibrant colors, bold angles in conversation with the strong identity of the shoe designs, Nodaleto campaigns’ are more than marketing assets, they are an invitations to escape reality and dream about an intense yet light alternative world in which everything is aesthetically pleasing. The experience is not far from going into a museum or looking at art pieces. Artists, especially modern and contemporary ones, invite us to see their interpretation of the world through their unique eyes, which is exactly what Nodaleto does. More than creating a brand image, they create an identity and establish themselves as tastemakers and cultural icons, above and beyond the triviality of consumption. 

Critically, they are leveraging the power of social media, making grid-friendly campaigns and distilling their visual assets over several days to create a more intricate story than a one-time, single-message mass-advertising campaign. Social media is also the perfect place for them to make strategic appearances on celebrities’ feet. They indeed have a loyal fan-base ranging from Dua Lipa to Louane or Angele. This long-term marketing strategy goes hand-in-hand with the collectible aspect of highly desirable shoes as an object of fetishist fascination.

More than practical objects, shoes have a special status in women’s closets and Nodaleto is gracefully leveraging the high desirability of their perfectly crafted collectible creations. According to Sarah Willersdorf, younger consumers, set to represent 60% of the luxury market by 2025, do not care only about the craftsmanship and design. Indeed, cultural credibility is now critical, encompassing brand timelessness, emotional narrative, opinion leadership and social stance. “Equally important is a curated assortment of creative partnerships with culturally relevant authorities”¹, contributing to explaining Nodaleto’s success. This is a remarkable achievement considering how young the brand is. Marc Jacobs is certainly a great label to partner with, but it remains a young brand and Nodaleto still has to collaborate with luxury fashion’s behemoths. I cannot wait to see which one is going to be the next.

Sources:
1. Sarah Willersdorf’s LinkedIn post, 21 Sept. 2021. Accessed 22 Sept. 2021.