Fashion Ads Are Embracing the Saying "There’s No Place Like Home"

About two years ago, a pattern started to emerge in fashion campaigns: models standing in settings that appeared to be bedrooms, kitchens, and other living spaces, looking straight into the camera with languid poses that made it seem as though they’d been hanging out there all day, or maybe even their entire lives. "Calling this [art direction] style ‘grandpa's lake house’" tweeted Elizabeth Goodspeed in August 2022, attaching campaign images from Bode, Nike, Aimé Leon Dore, and J.Crew, all of which featured similar backdrops with dark-wood wall paneling and vintage-inspired decor like quilts and chess sets.

As a graphic designer and art director, as well as the U.S. editor-at-large for the creative platform It’s Nice That, it’s Goodspeed’s job to notice visual patterns such as these. But a full two years later, the fashion campaign style she calls Grandpa’s Lake House just won’t quit—and has evolved to include interiors that feel decidedly more like the everyday living setups of the average millennial consumer. Last year, for example, Goodspeed shared photos of a Bandit Running campaign shot in a Greenpoint, Brooklyn, apartment that she described as a "trickle down" from the Poconos cabin vibe she’d noticed earlier. Chess set? Check. (Situated atop a vintage trunk, no less.) But the model poses in the brand’s athletic gear, looking like she’s just returned home from, or is gearing up for, a run, on a generic, West Elmesque couch, with an Ikea Rotsund mirror, an array of houseplants, and a radiator and window air-conditioning unit visible in the background.

Since then, a number of other brands, including luxury fashion houses, have taken us inside the home. Last year, Puma released its 75th anniversary Forever Classic campaign, shot in a midcentury living room setup with lots of warm-toned wood and carpets, and white-painted brick walls. In January, Balenciaga released a shiny campaign shot in Kim Kardashian’s closet; Frame denim had Gisele Bündchen roll around in a bedroom that could have been hers, and ads for a Miu Miu x New Balance collab showcased models in sneakers sprawled on frameless mattresses similarly dressed in crumpled, white bedding; while Ferragamo and MCM went for somewhat sparse but luxurious, vintage-feeling living spaces. On the runways, Rick Owens showed his latest menswear collection at his Paris townhouse, and Louis Vuitton’s FW23 men’s show featured a set meant to look like a deconstructed suburban house, complete with a child’s bedroom.

Of course, there are obvious logistical and financial advantages to building a world inside the home. The pandemic proved to many brands—and Harry Styles, who shot the cover of Harry’s House in an upside-down living room furnished with modernist pieces—that they didn’t have to jet off to some far-flung destination to create a narrative or a sense of voyeuristic allure. A Zoom backdrop can say a lot about a person, and meticulously placed props, like a vintage poster or a chess set, can have a similar effect. But now that travel isn’t restricted, why stay inside?

According to Eliza Brooke, a freelance fashion and design writer who coined the term "finished basement core" in a December 2023 newsletter post inspired by Jacquemus and Miu Miu holiday campaigns, the answer is nostalgia. "If you’re hanging out in a finished basement, you’re a teenager again," Brooke writes. Interior spaces, particularly those in the home, like a bedroom with posters on the wall, can instantly take you back to your childhood. For brands like Miu Miu, which have been leaning into the whole quote-unquote "girlhood" trend lately, a specific sense of time and place helps bring the aesthetic to life.

"It does feel like we're having a heritage resurgence—I jokingly call it ‘trickle down Bode,’" says Goodspeed, noting how an increasing number of fashion brands seem to be "taking a page from Bode’s playbook" when it comes to ads, specifically. The brand’s latest campaign, for example, was shot at a nondescript East Coast cottage complete with a wood barn and a garage with a vintage car inside. "I think it connotes a certain level of authenticity," says Goodspeed. "It’s postured informality, but in contrast to a seamless backdrop, it looks unstyled." There’s an "unfussy coolness" to the whole thing, she adds, as well as the underlying "quiet luxury" of having something like a family lake house or a New England cottage in the first place.

As Goodspeed and I chatted over Zoom, I became acutely aware of what my own backdrop says about me. Now that I spend so much time working from home, I joke that I’ve become like one of those dog owners who looks like their pet—only instead of a poodle, I’ve got a red designer couch and a lamp that reminds me of my curly hair. Where does my closet, which is full to the brim with the color red, end, and my home begin?

For many influencers and celebrities, they are one and the same. Every time someone like Leandra Medine posts a mirror pic of an outfit, or Molly Baz films a video in her kitchen, their followers catch a glimpse of their home in the background. It’s part of the appeal—creating a sense of parasocial intimacy while also emphasizing their aesthetic—and brands are catching on. "User-generated content is looking more like commercial photography, and commercial photography is looking more like user-generated content," says Goodspeed. The Kardashians were some of the first to invite us into their homes, so it only makes sense that luxury brands would find themselves in Kim’s closet now.

But where do we go from Grandpa’s Lake House? If you look at recent campaigns from The Elder Statesman, Reformation, and Marc Jacobs, the answer is: it’s back to the office.

Top photo courtesy Puma

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