Great love for Guess

When I peeked around the corner of the 1980s at the last moment, I didn't yet know what a cool decade I had been brought into. Madonna on the left, Prince on the right, Michael Jackson in front and Sting behind, the best music videos, the most outspoken fashion, and of course, there was the Guess empire. I wanted everything from this brand: the jeans of course, the short skirts, the watches, and in the meantime dreaming of being at least as beautiful as their top models.

Especially in 1985, it took off when Paul Marciano from Guess created the iconic black-and-white campaigns to bring their clothing and accessories to women. The funny thing is that he wanted to shape unknown models to fit his brand. It was more about the personality of women than about fame. The interesting thing about this fact is that all the models he cast for that purpose became top models one by one. Think of Carla Bruni, Karen Mulder, Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzigova, Anna Nicole Smith, and our own Marvy Rieder and Frederique van de Wal. The campaigns became so recognizable that you didn't even see the jeans in the advertisement of Claudia Schiffer for the brand. It wasn't necessary to convey the Guess feeling.

This year, Guess honors the golden era of the brand with a new line, Guess Originals. And of course, that calls for a top model from that time: Naomi Campbell. 30 years later, you see in the new Guess Originals the DNA of their brand reflected, so jeans, strong independent Guess girls, and the large black-and-white-red logo that needs no further explanation. And I'm glad about that because now I can afford it better than when I was four years old.