Portraits Off the Runway

Actress Zoë Kravitz reclines across a tangerine-colored canvas, wearing a ruffled, sheer turquoise blouse, a burgundy pencil skirt, and two oversized gold bangles. Her legs are kicked up, with one foot clad in a high heel and the other bare, as she raises a red brocade jacket the way a matador signals a bull. Painted by Francesco Clemente, Saint Laurent’s Spring/Summer 2025 campaign stars the actor alongside Isabella Ferrari and models Penelope Ternes and Ajus Samuel. 

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Set against monochrome, colored backdrops, the muses wear tailored suits, ruffled blouses, lace skirts, and oversized jewelry, interpreted through Clemente’s neo-expressionist style. In another painting, Ferrari gazes slightly to her left in a broad-shouldered suit as she stands straight and holds her chest with bright red fingernails against a pink background.

Since the 1970s, the Italian artist has been known for his expressive paintings reckoning with identity and the balance between the spiritual and material. After moving from Italy to New York in 1980, Clemente began collaborating with artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, poet Allen Ginsberg and filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón in the following years.

The commission continues the Parisian brand’s history of collaborating with artists. In the past it has staged an experiential gallery with Sho Shibuya during Art Basel Miami in 2021, and presented an exclusive exhibition for Vanessa Beecroft’s polaroids at the label’s boutiques in Paris and Los Angeles in 2023.