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Here’s The UnSkinny, For A Change

By: Briskman Stanfield

If the va-va-voom fits, Sam Edelman and David Lipman make the perfect pair. Similar to removing five-inch spikes for more comfortable kicks, AdMan Lipman and (shoe) designer/division brand president Edelman have changed their campaign footing.

They have pushed the expected image limits by replacing couture model Charlotte Kemp Muhl with the voluptuous (swimsuit) model Kate Upton. Although this is no footnote for women to divorce their Spanx, it certainly hints that the curvaceous bod might be resurging.

David Lipman claims to have chosen Upton because "she wasn’t stick thin" while Sam Edelman, who was "ready for change," also favored Upton for reasons of (often) being photographed wearing "his equestrian boots!" No joke, but perhaps a genius thinking outside the shoebox ploy for Ms. Upton’s upward career move.

Apparently, not long ago Kate Upton represented a model example “snubbed by much of the industry,” including major runway campaigns and Victoria's Secret. Yet a twist of fickled fate turned this 20-year-old model’s career around, further proving molds can be broken even in a biased image market..

Whether it was kismet or coincidence last year that when Upton told Vogue she aspired to do a "big, glamorous ad campaign,” David Lipman conceived the very idea to fashion a more American Girl/Hollywood campaign for Edelman is anyone’s guess. But what is certain is that nothing ever remains constant in advertising and it takes a maverick to move beyond the typical.

Changing shoe models from stick-thin Charlotte Kemp Muhl to new indie girl Kate Upton is as bold as the urban black-and-white ads filmed in an undisclosed location in New York City chosen by photographer Lipman. Shot in an effort to pay tribute to Edelman’s urban heritage, it was also produced with the intention of moving the brand into a different category: lifestyle player.

Change is part of the inventive process. However, the question remains: Can a campaign that is loaded with hopes by two innovators (Lipman and Edelman) go viral, sell diverse licensed merchandise (outerwear, fragrance, accessories, plus more in the works), become a shoo-in by following the curve of yesteryear? Only time will tell where the shape of this campaign is headed based on whether more is to love or to reject.