Images courtesy Tanya Taylor

Tanya Taylor’s Fall 2020 Campaign Features Comedians as Models

They also star in a tongue-in-cheek video series titled #FASHUNWEEK.

Yesterday Toronto-born, New York-based designer Tanya Taylor unveiled her Fall 2020 collection on Instagram, featuring an unexpected cast of models. In a series of videos released steadily through the day, female comedians Michelle Buteau, Gillian Jacobs, Sasheer Zamata, Zosia Mamet and Jane Krakowski parade around New York City wearing Taylor’s effervescent, colourful designs.

“Just like the women featured in our films, the collection urges you to find joy and humour in the everyday, starting with your outfit,” explains the brand’s official Instagram account. Titled #FASHUNWEEK, the video series explores the various over-the-top aspects of fashion week, from the street style peacocking outside show venues to the red carpet theatrics of post-show events to the influencers who yearn to be in the right place at the right time.

“We always want people to smile when they wear our collection. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and we wanted to bring that same joy and optimism to these videos,” Taylor tells FASHION. “I have always had a sense of humour about fashion and fashion week and suspected our customers did as well so we posed the question to them on Instagram: ‘What do you think is funny about fashion/fashion week?” The answers made us laugh and we decided to use some of the ideas and bring them to life through videos.”

To do so, Taylor turned to some of the funniest ladies in show biz for a five-part series. In #FashunFitting, Michelle Buteau, a stand-up comedian and host of Netflix reality show The Circle, plays the part of a hard-to-please client, brimming with ideas for how the collection could be made better. In #FashunInsider, Gillian Jacobs, star of cult shows LOVE and Community, is a wannabe fashion influencer streaming videos from her apartment, staged to look like she’s backstage at a fancy show rubbing shoulders with A-listers.

#FashunShowOff sees Sasheer Zamata, a former castmember of Saturday Night Live, trying to craft the perfect elaborate outfit that’ll get her noticed at NYFW. In #FashunFriends, Girls breakout star Zosia Mamet plays a fashion editor bursting to discuss the latest shows and trends with anyone who’ll listen, while 30 Rock alum Jane Krakowski tries to coach a lesser-known celeb on how to work a red carpet at fashion week afterparties in #FashunMentor.

“I’ve always been inspired by female comedians as I feel they embody the spirit and mission of the brand – colourful confidence, high energy happiness, and bringing joy to people’s lives,” says Taylor of her decision to cast comedians as models in her Fall 2020 lookbook and campaign. “We also realized how frequently we dress comedians, whether on stage or in their daily lives. Rashida Jones was the first celebrity to ever wear us; Aidy Bryant, star of Saturday Night Live and Shrill, inspired me to extend our size range up to a size 22 in 2017; and Chloe Fineman currently wears us on the opening credits of SNL every Saturday night.”

Catch the rest of the hilarious video series on Taylor’s Instagram account.

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