French fashion house Chanel has unveiled the first image of its new ad campaign for the Mademoiselle handbag collection, starring brand ambassador Blake Lively, reports Coco Perez.
The fashion shoot took place at Chanel headquarters in Paris, with Lively posing for Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s head designer, who photographed the campaign himself.
"She’s a kind of American dream girl," said Lagerfeld, of the blonde Gossip Girl star.
For Lively, landing the Chanel campaign was a dream of its own.
"I had other opportunities and I would say, ‘Thank you so much, but I am holding out for Chanel. That’s who I want to be the face of.’ And people would say, ‘Well, that’s unrealistic, they only hire Europeans,’ and I said: ‘Well, how great. I’ll be the first then,’" the star told The New York Times.
Despite her new position as fashion ingenue, Lively says she has no plans to begin designing herself.
"I have such a respect for fashion and such an appreciation for it that if there are people like Karl Lagerfeld out there designing, who am I?" the actress said to WWD. "I want to bow down to them and be a representative for them if they’ll have me."
The image is the first in a series of Mademoiselle ads featuring Lively scheduled to begin appearing in magazines in April, according to People.