Hari Nef Lives Out Her Fashion Dreams As The Star Of JW Anderson’s AW22 Campaign

Nef and the British label’s creative director have been friends for quite some time. “I instantly bonded with Jonathan when we met years ago, and we’ve had so many great times together since. People have this perception of him as a serious, cerebral designer, but he’s also a big goofy sweetie,” explains Nef. “I’ve always loved his work, down to the very first collections. One in particular was autumn/winter 2013 menswear; the way Jonathan mixed men’s codes with women’s struck a chord with me. This was way ahead of gender fluidity being a hot topic on the runway, and it rocked my world so much. It changed the way I looked at fashion entirely.”

JW Anderson also joined forces with the French filmmaker Loïc Prigent to shoot Nef in a faux documentary entitled Hari Nef Is Falling For Fall. The film sees the actor walk spectators through the collection in the brand’s atelier, while comedically (and rhythmically) falling over continuously throughout, only to get up each time in a different look. “I’ve read every Vogue Runway and Style.com review of JW Anderson ever, and I’ve watched interviews of Jonathan talking about his work in the genius yet mischievous way that he does, so it was incredible to be able to pull all of that knowledge together for the video,” says Nef of the experience filming.

When asked what it was like seeing campaign images of herself across vans in Milan, she says, “I was at a house party in LA at 1am when the pictures started rolling in. It was amazing to see and I’m so proud, because these are the fashion moments that I live for. Even though I’m not able to be in Milan this season, it was nice knowing that I was still in Milan.”