Brian Atwood Casts VS Angel for First Ad Campaign, Plots First Store

By Erin Donnelly 07/30/12 at 12:00 PM

Photo courtesy of Women’s Wear Daily

The major fashion campaigns just keep rolling in for Candice Swanepoel.

Last seen looking very ladylike in Oscar de la Renta's Fall 2012 ads, the Victoria's Secret Angel is, shall we say, embracing her wilder side in the first-ever campaign for footwear designer Brian Atwood.

Vamping it up in a black corset and garter stockings, the South African stunner stretches her mile-long legs—clad in killer thigh-high boots with whipstitched details—across the lap of a (nude?) male model in the steamy shoot lensed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. Bare-chested babes surround the couple, suggesting a kinky rendezvous in a dominatrix's lair.

Want more? According to Women's Wear Daily, a series of "sexually charged" short films inspired by the theme of "the sex is in the heel" will be launched on The Vault, an invite-only section of Atwood's newly revamped website aimed at devoted shoppers.

“[The Vault] has the craziest, most exuberant, exaggerated designs—like python thigh highs," Atwood, whose label was just acquired by the Jones Group, says. "I wanted to make something really special. It’s all about making a woman desire that shoe more than anything. If she didn’t get it, I want her to not be able to stop thinking about it and go get it the next day. I always say my job is done when a woman can’t stop looking at her feet.”

You're preaching to the choir, pal. Besides the launch of his first official ad campaign, Atwood has other big things in store, including the September opening of his first brick-and-mortar store (at 655 Madison in New York City) and a Spring 2013 collection inspired by a woman's ankle.

“There is something so sexy about this part on a woman, and these shoes celebrate that,” he says, revealing that mixed metals, colored pythons, and wood finishings will be on display.

“I’m using colored lace that we haven’t seen in a while. It has a kind of retro, '80s, ‘Like a Virgin’ Madonna vibe, [but] I think there are cool ways to do this. I’m really not afraid to make more daring or bold statement shoes—like using five different colors of python in one style.”

Be still our heart!