For Resort 26, Bianca Spender turned her gaze to Malta. A landscape where sea and stone meet in luminous balance. A place where light behaves differently, refracting through air and horizon to create a world both grounded and transcendent.
In conversation with our Brand & Art Director, we explore the creative intent behind the Resort 26 campaign. From the choice of location to the interplay of light, composition, and emotion. Together, they unravel how Malta became more than a backdrop and a part of the narrative.
Scroll on to come with us behind the Resort 26 campaign.
WHAT DREW YOU TO MALTA AS THE BACKDROP FOR THE RESORT 26 CAMPAIGN, AND HOW DID ITS UNIQUE LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE ALIGN WITH THE MOOD OF THE COLLECTION?
“Malta became the natural canvas for Resort 26. It’s a place defined by contrast – where sea meets stone, and the ancient coexists with the ephemeral. There’s a serenity to its strength. The island holds a sculptural stillness that mirrors the forms within the collection, yet there’s also a lightness in the way the water softens the edges of everything it touches. It felt like the perfect setting to explore this tension between structure and ease, between the grounded and the fluid.”
HOW DID THE INTERPLAY OF MEDITERRANEAN LIGHT INFLUENCE THE VISUAL LANGUAGE OF THE SHOOT – FROM TONE AND TEXTURE TO THE EMOTIONAL RESONANCE OF THE IMAGERY?
“The Mediterranean light was everything. In Malta, it behaves differently. Refracting through limestone and sea salt, it creates this luminous haze that feels both grounding and transcendent. We wanted to capture that sensation of air becoming light. It softened the palette and lent the images an almost dreamlike tonality, where the garments and landscape dissolve into one another. The light became the emotional core of the campaign.”
THERE’S A DISTINCT RAWNESS IN THE CAMPAIGN. HOW DID WORKING WITH ELEMENTS OF VINTAGE VIDEOGRAPHY AND FILM GRAIN CONTRIBUTE TO THAT SENSE OF INTIMACY?
“We wanted the imagery to feel lived-in, as if the viewer had stumbled across a fleeting, beautiful moment. The use of vintage videography and film grain brought imperfection, texture, and warmth. It stripped away polish, creating a raw intimacy that felt very human. The slight flicker of vintage film, the grain in the frame – those details invite you in closer, to feel the sun, the air, the quiet breath of the scene.”
HOW DID THE CONTRASTS WITHIN MALTA – ITS ANCIENT TEXTURES AGAINST VAST, OPEN HORIZONS – SHAPE THE COMPOSITION AND STORYTELLING OF THE IMAGERY?
“Those contrasts became a visual metaphor for the dualities within Bianca’s design. Sculptural form and liquid movement, stillness and vitality. We played with framing that placed the body against monumental stone, or dissolving into endless sea or sky. The compositions were designed to feel suspended, to balance structure and openness, intimacy and expanse. Malta’s landscape gave us that dialogue naturally.”
WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT THE FINAL CAMPAIGN, WHAT EMOTIONAL TONE OR STATE OF BEING WERE YOU HOPING TO EVOKE FOR THE VIEWER THROUGH THE COMBINATION OF PLACE, LIGHT, AND MOTION?
“We wanted to evoke the sensation of being between worlds. That quiet, suspended space where renewal happens. The campaign holds a sense of calm and awakening; an invitation to exhale, to soften into stillness, to feel light on skin again. It’s about the feeling of resurfacing.”