Whether it’s industry newcomers like Binx Walton and Natalie Westling or famous faces like Daria Werbowy, we can always count on the models in Céline’s campaigns to bring the fashion house’s effortless cool-girl vibe to life. After all, if there’s anything that will make you want to empty your bank account for Phoebe Philo, it’s a beachy Werbowy on a skateboard à la 2011, right?
This spring, Philo is taking things in an unexpected—albeit equally dreamy—direction. In addition to enlisting the label’s longtime muse, Werbowy (who has appeared in no fewer than seven campaigns over the years), the designer has plucked a new face: Joan Didion. Didion might be a literary icon and author of classics like Play It as It Lays and Slouching Towards Bethlehem, but the famously shy writer has stayed away from the fashion spotlight, until now (unless you count an early, pre-fame stint as a features editor at Vogue). The first image debuted today on Vogue.com and shows Didion wearing a black turtleneck, oversize sunglasses, and a gold pendant necklace. Not only is the look a sartorial throwback to her days as a young writer, but it’s proof that just like Didion, this uniform of stripped-down classics has a coolness—and a great style—that never fades.
—Liza Darwin, Style.com
