Bartels since 1920
Campaign
Since 1920, the Bartels family has been creating beautifully handcrafted shoes in Italy. For this campaign, we wanted to bring that heritage into a cinematic and dreamlike world.
Inspired by a classic Italian garden on the shores of Lake Como, the concept draws on the atmosphere of Great Expectations and the 1998 film adaptation, a story of longing, distance, and searching for someone who always seems just out of reach.
The creative direction was built around this sense of mystery. Muted greens, soft light, a pale pink dress, and the shoes themselves became the visual anchors of the story. Each scene was digitally constructed image by image, creating a quiet and refined universe where reality and imagination begin to merge.
AI-assisted image-making was used as part of the creative process to explore atmosphere, materiality and composition. Through careful art direction, curation, retouching and refinement, every detail was shaped to feel distinctive and true to the Bartels universe.
The result is a luxury footwear campaign balancing heritage with a contemporary visual language, familiar yet dreamlike, romantic yet restrained, while keeping the craftsmanship and character of the shoes at the centre.
