Casablanca Paris AW24: A Timeless Odyssey

In its latest campaign, Casablanca Paris transports us through time, seamlessly weaving together the ancient and the modern in a visual journey that transcends eras. The campaign stays true to Creative Director Charaf Tajer’s original vision for the Autumn/Winter 2024 runway, celebrating the enduring legacy of ancient Greek culture and its profound influence on our contemporary world. This season, Tajer delves into the timeless ideals of classical beauty, creating a collection where historical grandeur meets modern allure in a harmonious blend.

The campaign video, crafted in collaboration with director Frédéric de Pontcharra, is a masterclass in time travel, tracing a path that echoes the epic odysseys of both Homer and Kubrick. As the narrative unfolds, viewers are swept along Athenian avenues, ascend temple staircases, soar above billowing clouds, and navigate through galaxies—all while models strike the commanding poses of Grecian gods and Olympian heroes. This voyage is not just a journey through time, but also a metaphysical exploration of the powerful, mind-expanding experiences once sought by ancient scholars and philosophers in the sacred city of Eleusis.

Eleusis, the legendary pilgrimage destination, served as a vital source of inspiration for Tajer’s designs this season. In antiquity, figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Sophocles, and Euripides made the pilgrimage to Eleusis, where they engaged in transformative, psychedelic rituals that expanded their minds and inspired their works. This sense of transformation and transcendence is vividly captured in the campaign, where each frame is infused with the mystical spirit of Eleusis, making the models appear as though they are deities, eternally poised between the realms of the ancient and the modern.

The campaign’s soundtrack further deepens this connection to the past while embracing the present. Tajer, working closely with de Pontcharra, blends an eclectic mix of musical influences, drawing inspiration from iconic ‘90s music videos, with a special homage to Björk’s 1993 single, “Venus as a Boy.” The collection, and its accompanying video, borrow their name from this hauntingly beautiful track. Tajer reflects on the lyrics, noting how they resonate with his own creative philosophy: a relentless pursuit of beauty and an ever-curious mind. This connection is made even more poignant by the fact that Venus, the Roman goddess of love, is herself a reimagining of the Greek goddess Aphrodite—an embodiment of the campaign’s overarching theme of recontextualization.

In Casablanca Paris’s FW24 campaign, time is fluid, beauty is eternal, and the ancient world continues to shape our modern existence. Through this collection, Tajer not only pays homage to the past but also redefines it, creating a new narrative where the classical and contemporary coalesce in a celebration of timeless elegance.