Why Does Roberto Cavalli's Spring 2014 Campaign Include a Look from the Resort Collection?

Commenters were confused. “I think this is the Resort 2014 campaign,” said Starry, to general assent.

But it’s not. The Italian fashion house has confirmed it: The ads are part of the brand’s main, Spring campaign — which you can see in the slideshow below, in full (there’s also a video component).

Many of the items (such as the metallic moto jacket and sheer multi-patterned dress) appeared on at the designer’s Spring runway show in Milan last September (the color of the garments is slightly different in the ads, but perhaps that’s a matter of lighting).

I couldn’t find anything resembling the bedazzled black cutout swimsuit (slide 8) in either collection, but the style is fairly similar to a Roberto Cavalli swimsuit available at the online shop of the Seattle-based luxury intimates retailer, Nancy Meyer.

In the few years that I’ve been closely following fashion advertising, I can’t recall another instance of a major label mixing two distinct collections in a single campaign. Of course, just because I haven’t noticed it, doesn’t mean it never happens — but even if this is (as I suspect) an unusual occurrence, it’s certainly not a surprising one. With the growing importance of mid-season collections and the pressure placed on designers to constantly churn out new creations, why wouldn’t fashion houses mix and match their strongest current items — no matter when or where they were first shown — in advertising materials?

We reached out to Roberto Cavalli for comment and will update when we hear back.

See the full campaign in the slideshow below, and keep scrolling for the video ad.

All images courtesy Roberto Cavalli.