Negli anni ’80 Jenna De Rosnay era una delle piu’ belle windsurfiste professioniste. All’epoca la NeilPryde realizzo’ con lei un servizio fotografico per una campagna pubblicitaria in cui Jenna compariva a dorso nudo e con un bodypainting che “la copriva” come se avesse una muta super aderente addosso.
Quest’anno, per lanciare il nuovo brand NP, NeilPryde ha deciso di riproporre la stessa campagna pubblicitaria con Susi Mai.
Qualche mese fa ne abbiamo visto il video, oggi pubblichiamo in Versione Originale l’articolo di Alex Zenovic, direttore Marketing & Creative, a proposito del backstage del lancio di questa nuova linea di mute.
Di seguito l’intervista a Susi Mai.
Photos courtesy NP
For the launch of NP, NeilPryde’s new range of waterwear and accessories, we decided to dig into the archives and reference one of the most iconic wetsuit images ever – the Jenna de Rosnay “birthsuit” advertisement.
Jenna de Rosnay was (and still is, to some) windsurfing’s brightest and sexiest star. Born in California and raised in Hawaii, Jenna learned how to surf before she could virtually walk. In early to mid 1980’s she dominated the windsurfing scene, setting speed records and winning a number of World Cups. The accompanying publicity opened doors. Jenna was asked to lend her image to some of the most prestigious names in the fashion world: Dior, Celine, Nike and Sports Illustrated, and appeared on the covers of Vogue and Elle amongst many others.
Being a sponsored rider, Jenna posed for NeilPryde numerous times but one advertisement stands out – Jenna with only body paint made to look like a NeilPryde wetsuit. Helped by Jenna’s iconic status, this visual was seen by millions of people and kept on shop walls in thousands of windsurfing and surfing shops worldwide.
Forward to 2012…
I thought it would be a fitting introduction to NP to recreate the Jenna ad. It cements our heritage in wind and water sports and a long experience in champion waterwear. The question was: who could match Jenna?
Susi Mai is one of the most recognisable faces in kiteboarding today. Aside of her kiteboarding skills, her charismatic personality and stunning beauty opened her reach to audiences far wider than her sport. Born in Germany and brought up on the beaches of Dominican Republic, Susi is the undisputed queen of wind sports at the moment. It only made sense to ask her if she would be the new Jenna…
I called Susi one morning, feeling a little nervous about asking her to pose (effectively) naked. I briefly (and nervously) introduced her to the idea, careful to guarantee that her privacy would be protected as much as possible. But none of that was really needed. She said yes, without a pause, before I even finished! She liked the idea and was excited about the shoot.
Thing went quickly after that. We only had a window of a few weeks in Susi’s busy schedule so I called up Timon Wehrli and Jon Tadashi-Martin from Red Dog Studios in Hong Kong to arrange the shoot. “You want me to take a photo of a naked Susi Mai,” I believe Jon asked. “Hum, we can definitely make time for that.” I also briefed Karen Mok, an amazing makeup artist with a lot of body painting experience. Karen took all the wetsuit patterns and logos so that she could faithfully recreate the new NP suit.
We flew Susi out from San Francisco a day before the shoot. Susi has a crew of friends who live in Hong Kong that she goes to the Burning Man with every year. She stayed with them and knew her way around town which made it easy.
The team gathered next day in the Red Dog studio – Susi, Timon, Jon, Karen, Boris (videographer) and myself. Karen started painting straight away and that took up the next three hours. It was incredible watching her draw the wetsuit outline and then meticulously fill in the details. The NP wetsuit used as the basis has a very intricate tone-on-tone pattern on the shoulders which Karen had to paint using a stencil she prepared. She spent a while mixing her colours to achieve the flourescent orange and then carefully applied it to Susi’s body using a variety of brushes. It was a real work of art.
What was even more amazing is that Susi didn’t have any problems sitting there topless for hours while it was being done. What a star!
In the mean time, Timon set up and tested lights to get the feel that I was going for. I wanted to have an update of the sepia-toned image of Jenna. Something a little more modern and colourful to match the upbeat NP mood.
The actual shooting only took two hours. We tried a number of different poses but, in the end, settled on the original Jenna pose. Susi was very involved in the shoot, reviewing the photos as we shot them to see how we can improve. The lighting was good, the body paint was great and it all went pretty smoothly. Boris Burgess, our videographer, captured the whole process on film.
I believe it took Susi hours afterwards to get the body paint off. Just in time to jet off to New York.
So there it is. One icon recreated by another. We enjoyed working on this and we hope you enjoy the results, too!
Susi Interview
NP: How did you feel when we first approached you to do this body paint shoot?
Susi: I thought it would be fun to try something new, and even thought it was going to be hard to get anything as awesome as the original that Jenna did all those years ago, I was excited and love the challenge.
NP: How long did you spend in Hong Kong for the shoot?
Susi: About 20 hours. I flew in from San Francisco, slept, got painted, did the shoot, had a shower and got back on a plane to NYC. I felt like a true professional model, complete with the jetlag and everything :).
NP: Was it the first time you have had your body painted?
Susi: Yes it was the first time. It was pretty fun because even though you’re not wearing anything you don’t feel naked, if that makes sense.
NP: You didn’t trick us!
NP: How do you feel about the whole world seeing you with just a layer of paint on?
Susi: I didn’t really think of that very much at first. Now it’s all over the place I guess I can’t change my mind anymore. All i know is that when i’m old I’m gonna be able to embarrass my grandkids by showing this pic to their friends when they are being awkward teenagers. 🙂
NP: That ought to be memorable for the boys.
NP: What is your schedule like for the rest of the year?
Susi: I’m scheduled to keep my clothes on in public for the rest of 2013.
NP: We look forward to 2014.
