Ningning Gets the Gucci Treatment in the New Beauty and the Bag Campaign

For its latest campaign, Gucci enlists Ningning’s cultural cachet to debut the Gucci Paparazzo.

Following Kate Moss and Emily Ratajkowski in the first chapter of the ‘Beauty and the Bag‘ campaign (no relation to Justin Bieber’s 2012 hit Beauty and a Beat), an advertisement spotlighting the label’s two most commercially successful categories, make-up and handbags, Gucci has launched its second drop with its next leading lady: Ningning of Aespa.

She’s clutching the Gucci Paparazzo, a softly structured top-handle crafted in black leather, chocolate suede, or monogram canvas, and finished with Horsebit hardware and the signature green-and-red Web stripe, lest anyone mistake it for anything other than Gucci. The Paparazzo arrives as part of Demna’s first wave of accessories, a category that will be closely watched by investors and fashion insiders alike as the designer attempts to reignite growth at Kering’s most important brand.

As Gucci’s newly appointed Global Brand Ambassador, Ningning represents a different kind of fashion star. At 23, she belongs to a generation that discovered luxury through screens before storefronts, building digital clout through personality as much as prestige. Beyond her success with aespa, she has cultivated a style that appeals to people beyond the K-pop sphere and into the mainstream, making her a natural representative for a brand looking to target consumers across Asia and beyond. 

Photographed by Mert and Marcus, the campaign symbolizes the intense grip material goods can have on the human psyche. Ningning appears in head-to-toe Gucci, enveloped in the House’s signatures and logos to create a world where fashion becomes identity, and where, perhaps, you are what you wear.