{"id":11003,"date":"2025-02-24T15:59:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T18:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abest.com.br\/?p=11003"},"modified":"2025-05-28T11:54:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T14:54:58","slug":"oliviero-toscani-e-a-desafiadora-tarefa-de-comunicar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abest.com.br\/en\/noticias\/abest\/oliviero-toscani-e-a-desafiadora-tarefa-de-comunicar\/","title":{"rendered":"Oliviero Toscani and the (challenging) task of communicating fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The fashion market is one of the most demanding within the Creative Industry \u2014 not only due to the seasonality of products and sudden shifts in direction, but also because of the ongoing challenge to communicate fashion with intelligence, innovation, and yes, commercial purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying the strategies of major brands can bring valuable insights, and that\u2019s why today\u2019s topic is the (controversial) visual language of Oliviero Toscani, one of the most influential advertising photographers of the 20th century, who passed away in January of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To talk about the Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani is to talk about extremes \u2014 about fashion communication that pushes social concepts to their provocative limits. His photography is a crucial part of fashion\u2019s visual history: bold, shocking images that confronted prejudice and sparked debate. For those who lived through the \u201990s, it\u2019s impossible to forget his photos \u2014 such as a man dying of AIDS or a Black woman breastfeeding a white baby, among countless others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But where was the fashion? The glamour? The beautiful clothes and attractive models? That\u2019s precisely the point. Even while working for Benetton, Toscani chose a purely conceptual path. The Benetton logo was always there, but actual looks? Almost never.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toscani wanted to provoke \u2014 and did so intensely \u2014 in a pre-Internet world, using print ads that consistently crossed into the realms of politics, religion, and ideology. The message came from Toscani, but also from the brand, in a strategy that still resonates today: brand positioning. If a brand stands for something, the consumer who identifies with it will buy into the message \u2014 and the clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though some accused him of sensationalism, Toscani\u2019s work also became a reference point for others. Diesel\u2019s campaigns in the \u201990s, for example, followed a similarly provocative approach, albeit with more sarcasm and humor. One idea that emerged at the end of that century was the notion of indirect selling \u2014 offering concepts and abstract images rather than the product itself. It was, in many ways, a response to the excesses of the \u201980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, it\u2019s easier to understand that fashion is not just about clothes. It is a market that moves taste and emotion within the creative industry. \u201cMy goal is to communicate beyond beautiful dresses,\u201d<\/em> said the late Franca Sozzani in a 2012 interview (with this author). Franca knew that \u201cfashion\u201d exists in many forms \u2014 from the design of a couch to the cover of a notebook. Clothing, of course, holds a large part of the lifestyle market, and it has the potential to be one of the most innovative in the way it communicates with the 21st-century consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, what we often see in the digital world today is sameness: vertical photos of \u201coutfit of the day\u201d looks, isolated product shots, repetitive poses, repetitive bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Toscani\u2019s passing in January, a major event for the global fashion and communication industry, a timely question resurfaces: how can we create fashion communication that is effective, but also fresh, intelligent, and engaging? How can we speak to our consumers in a more thoughtful way \u2014 delivering not just a product, but content, connection, and identity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each brand will have its own answer and strategy. What matters most is to never stop searching \u2014 and to avoid falling into sameness in a market as dynamic as this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Juliana Lopes \u2013 fashion journalist and consultant. <\/em>Instagram: @j.u.lopes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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