What do a remote island in the Arctic Ocean, a small town in South Africa, an island in Indonesia and a tiny town in Ohio, USA have in common? They all share the name Amsterdam. Whilst developing the Scotch & Soda Fall/Winter campaign for 2017 and planning to shoot on ‘Amsterdam Island’, the team discovered that there is actually 12 places in the world named after Amsterdam, and so they were inspired. We are excited to share with you these behind the scenes images from the campaign trip as well as one of the fashion films.
Playing homage to their hometown and also the liberal and global spirit of Amsterdam, they titled their campaign ‘World Atlas of Amsterdam’. Most of the campaign was photographed on the remote Arctic Island of Amsterdam, which is located between Norway and the North Pole and it’s a place that doesn’t even exist on Google Maps Yet. With no roads and no electricity, the island is simply populated by walruses and polar bears. A far cry from the beautiful canals of the Amsterdam we are more familiar with!
Amsterdamøya or ‘Amsterdam Island‘ encompasses an area of 16.8 sq.km with its highest point being Hiertabreen 472 m.a.s.l. All too often, people look at a fashion campaign and don’t realise the time, hard work and creativity that went into it. In this case, the 26-person crew flew first to Oslo, then caught a flight to Longyearbyen Svalbard, the main island in the archipelago. From there the crew boarded the Gamle Mårøy to make the 17-hour seaward journey to the northwestern tip of the archipelago – Amsterdamøya.
Creative Director of Scotch & Soda Marlou van Engelen explains their choice for such a remote location ‘We want to call out our City’s free-thinking; it’s stubbornly curious spirit – pay tribute to it. That’s our Amsterdam spirit – one defined by resourcefulness – we resist easy if it makes for something more beautiful.”
The campaign was photographed by Elisabeth Toll and filmed by Fleur Fortuné with styling by Scotch & Soda’s Creative Director Marlou van Engelen. There are six models featured including Jessica Luostarinen, Justine Geneau and Ty Ogunkoya. Looking at the behind the scenes images and the results of the final campaign images, we applaud Marlou and the team for their significant efforts.
To see the final campaign, visit Client Magazine plus view a 2nd video directed by Fleur Fortuné.
Written by Ian Cole for Client Voyage
