Everything comes together remarkably well in Chloé’s new campaign by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. Perhaps it is the combined effect of Raquel Zimmermann, bohemian dresses and wildflowers, a combination that is difficult to place in a single frame without producing something beautiful. Or perhaps it is because the photographers did not attempt to recreate the paintings mechanically. Instead, they borrowed their atmosphere, colour and compositional logic, then filtered them through the language of contemporary Chloé.
The campaign is dedicated to the Chloé Winter 2026 collection, created under the direction of Chemena Kamali. It was photographed across wild coastal landscapes, where the light constantly shifts and the wind moves through the models’ hair, the grass and the long dresses. Raquel Zimmermann, Jacqui Louise, Thalita Ferreira and Sarah Isaksen appear in the campaign. The House itself describes the images through ideas of freedom, humanity, intimacy and a connection with nature.
The first image clearly recalls the composition of Joaquín Sorolla’s 1906 painting Promenade by the Lighthouse in Biarritz. In the original work, women stand on a slope above the sea, their pale dresses and hats almost dissolving into the strong coastal wind. Chloé’s version makes the scene brighter and slightly wilder. The white garments are replaced by saturated red, green and blue, while the quiet promenade becomes a meeting of four women in the middle of a flowering meadow.
The resemblance is not limited to the arrangement of the figures. In both works, silhouettes, wind and the feeling of standing at the edge of the land matter more than the women’s faces. Inez and Vinoodh preserve the airiness of Sorolla’s painting while adding density, colour and the kind of bohemian sensuality that has become central to Kamali’s Chloé.
The second reference is Claude Monet’s Springtime from 1872. The painting shows a woman in a pale pink dress reading beneath a tree, with the fabric spreading across the grass like a pool of light. In the campaign, a model in a white Chloé dress takes a similar pose. Yellow wildflowers surround her, while the handbag resting on her lap immediately brings the scene out of the nineteenth century and back into contemporary fashion advertising.
This image best explains why the campaign does not feel like a cheap reconstruction. The photographers do not copy Monet’s palette or attempt to transform the model into the heroine of an Impressionist painting. They preserve only the feeling: silence, soft light, solitude among the greenery and the sense of a long summer moment, even though this is technically a winter collection.
The third pairing is built around John Roddam Spencer Stanhope’s 1860 painting Thoughts of the Past. A young woman lies in the grass, surrounded by scattered apples and flowers, while the entire scene seems suspended somewhere between sleep, exhaustion and an almost fairytale-like trance. The meaning of the work remains ambiguous, and its imagery is often associated with the Pre-Raphaelite fascination with saturated landscapes, symbolic details and complex female figures.
In Chloé’s version, the model also lies in tall grass with her eyes closed. Her pale blouse, long hair, flowers and dark leather details echo the overall rhythm of the painting without repeating its narrative. She does not appear as a vulnerable heroine from a Victorian story, but as someone who has simply allowed herself to collapse into the grass after a long walk.
The entire campaign operates along this boundary. Its references are recognisable, but it never turns into an art history quiz. The paintings provide a compositional framework, while the clothes, movement and women themselves remain at the centre.
For several seasons, Chemena Kamali has been returning Chloé to the image of a free, slightly dishevelled and intensely alive woman. She wears sheer blouses, heavy boots, lace and dresses that need wind and space around them. That is why the painterly references feel so natural here. The romantic women of Sorolla, Monet and Stanhope seem to have entered the same landscape, exchanged their corsets for soft bohemian silhouettes and finally walked wherever they pleased.
The Raquel Zimmermann effect is also very real. She has appeared in Chloé campaigns before and remains one of those models capable of making even the most decorative image feel convincing. Beside her, a red ruffled dress in a field of flowers does not resemble a costume from a pastoral production. It looks like something one might naturally wear while walking above the ocean.
Perhaps that is why the borrowing does not feel irritating this time. Inez and Vinoodh do not use art as attractive wallpaper for an advertisement. They create a dialogue between painting and Chloé, leaving enough space for both. The references remain visible, but the campaign does not hide behind them. It has its own rhythm, its own colour and the same romantic freedom that makes us look once again at bohemian dresses among wildflowers and think: all right, this time it really works.
