Gigi Hadid knows a thing or two about hotels. Having traversed the globe for work and pleasure, the supermodel is used to living out of a suitcase during fashion month or jetting off for some well-deserved relaxation post-season. Still, her wildest trip to date took her to a destination only accessible in fantasies.

As H&M’s newest campaign star, Hadid serves as concierge at Hotel Hennes, a fictional resort dedicated to madcap adventures. Host to a who’s who of talent, she guides Jill Korteleve, Precious Lee, Devyn Garcia, and more through a surreal setting filled with campy humor and affordable fashion. The film, directed by Bardia Zeinali, focuses on the joy of travel, a subject Hadid found timely after the coronavirus pandemic’s years of restrictions and isolation. “I knew whatever world Bardia was taking us to would be incredible,” she shared on the phone from New York. “[There’s] this message that everyone can be motivated to get back out in the world and find those moments that make life magical and unexpected.”

Bringing the concept to life meant returning to the scale of extended, multi-location shoots, which had been impossible during the pandemic. “It’s been a long time since you could even have a huge production like this,” says Hadid. “[Being on set] felt fun and like getting back to normal.” Filmed over two weeks, the project gave Hadid, who was on-site for several days, the opportunity to spend time with pals like Lee. “Precious and I are close, so when she filmed her part, we had a wonderful weekend of working, dancing, and doing karaoke,” says Hadid. “What you see in the final video is genuine. It captures the feeling of us all having a good time together.”

Everyone couldn’t share a scene with dozens of performers included in the final cut, but Hadid enjoyed seeing her friends in action. “Everyone had to come and do their parts separately, so I didn’t get to work with everyone who appears in the final video, but that made watching it a fun surprise,” says Hadid. “I got to see the whole story come together and what they were working on during the days I wasn’t there. I didn’t get to see Olivia [Vinten] filming, but I loved her moment as the housekeeper who gets caught chilling and skipping work.”

Collaborating with Zeinali, who she worked with on projects for Vogue, added a layer of ease to the process. “Once you have a relationship with someone where you’ve worked with them, [and] know how they edit, it’s like stepping into their mind,” says Hadid. “You could do the same project with a different direction and have it take on a completely different mood. I love the humor of Bardia’s work. My favorite part—and the most Bardia moment of the entire shoot—was when we had a fully choreographed lineup of dancing waiters in these perfect outfits all at the pool to serve Jill a peanut butter sandwich. Then there’s me as the hotel owner who obviously did nothing, but that’s the comedy of it all. Bardia has a way of taking the smallest detail and romanticizing it until it grows into an entertaining bit.”

All the talk of travel does have her thinking about how we engage with our wardrobes. While visiting her favorite destinations like Tahiti and the Mediterranean, she finds herself drawn toward expressive fashion. “[Tahiti] is a place where you can have so much fun with your clothes because the colors are beautiful, and anything you put in front of them just comes to life,” says Hadid. “I love to pack fun accessories. The pieces in the collection spoke to me; I think they took the campaign to a whole other level.”

Of course, Hadid’s appreciation for H&M isn’t limited to starring in its ads. At the start of her career, she used the brand’s many stores in New York City as a means of discovering her tastes. “I had a lot of days with castings and test shoots where I was just walking around the city, and I’d duck into H&M,” she says. “Sometimes I would buy basics or something louder that I thought I could wear to a cool party. It was wonderful because it allowed me to find my style and discover what I liked in a way that felt accessible.”

Fine-tuning her fashion perspective has given Hadid the confidence to take on her latest endeavors: the new series of Netflix reality competition, Next in Fashion, and a forthcoming clothing line. “I’m so excited about both,” says Hadid. “We’re working with the production team right now, finalizing guest judges and episodes with the hope that the audience feels how much fun and love we’re putting into everything. Then working on my clothing line has been incredible because it’s a different setting, where I get to be involved in team-building and design. I’m just trying to be creative all the time, and keep coming up with ways that I can put that into the world in a way that touches people.”

 

 

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Originally posted from “VOGUE” by Janelle Okwodu