"There was a loose story about a swamp and a woodsy feral girl," smiles Barbie Ferreira about the mysterious and eerie campaign images that accompany her multi-piece capsule collection for Levi's. When I speak to the American actress on Zoom, it's morning in L.A. and a gloomy and stormy evening back home in the UK, but Ferreira feels far more connected to the not-so-dry weather in London. "I wanted to do the shoot at night, in the wet," she says, laughing.
The New York native, who was the face of Levi's 501 Originals in 2021, says that she spent her high school years in a Canadian tuxedo and, as a teenager, fancied light-colored cottons, skinny and bootcut jeans. For her Levi's Capsule Collection, which is available in all sizes, the Euphoria star wanted to create the "silhouettes I dreamed of".
Ferreira's style is characterized by an imaginative sense of storytelling. When she curated the "7 Days 7 Looks" series for Vogue in 2022, she designed eclectic ensembles with pieces from Miaou, Collina Strada and Mirror Palais, inspired by a "snotty schoolgirl look" or a "Renaissance fair, but in a cute way". Her Levi's clothes for this shabby dream world? There's a "not-too-short" pleated skirt in chartreuse, a flared coat in washed black denim, a lace-up corset with smocked details "to touch," and a pair of bleach-splattered 501s that reflect Ferreira's penchant for things that "look chewed up."
When Ferreira met the Levi's team at the brand's San Francisco headquarters, she arrived with an iPad full of sketches from the first collection. "I'm not an artist by any means, I do the silliest sketches just for fun," she laughs. The hand-drawn theme continues with a cartoon-like "demon bunny" graphic that glows in the dark on an oversized black T-shirt. This graphic was inspired by one of Ferreira's own tattoos and designed by artist - and her best friend - Ben Evans.
For Ferreira, it was of utmost importance to design a collection that wasn't just limited to regular sizes or "plus sizes". "I tried on all the pieces and we tried them on different models and body types," she explains. "The collection is not just for women, but for anyone who wants to play with it.
Working on it also proved to be a creative reunion of sorts, as Ferreira commissioned artist Petra Collins, who has previously photographed for Gucci and Blumarine, directed numerous music videos for Selena Gomez and Olivia Rodrigo, and shot an erotic storybook with another Euphoria star, Alexa Demie, to photograph the campaign. Ferreira began working with Collins as a teenage model, and the two have been collaborating for over a decade now. "She was the first person to photograph me when we were kids," says Barbie. "It's so nice to work together like a big family.
February 15, 2024