Lady Gaga was the 2013 face of Versace. Her ads were totally blah – Gaga looked like a less death-eater version of Donatella Versace. Gaga spent most of last year trying to promote the brand, with pretty awful results. Gaga either looked like Lana del Rey, or she just looked like Donatella’s twin. So, obviously, Gaga wasn’t the best person to represent the brand. So Donatella replaced Gaga with Madonna for the newest Versace ad campaign. And you know what? I don’t hate these ads at all. The combination of the black-and-white photography and Madonna’s new face works well.
Even after 30 years in the industry, Madonna is still in hot demand. Indeed, Versace has snapped up the 56-year-old to be the face of its SS15 campaign. The iconic pop star replaces Lady Gaga, 28, to front the brand and was chosen because designer Donatella Versace believes she is a ‘true icon’.
The images, which were photographed in New York City by industry heavyweights Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, aim to focus on Madonna’s ‘unique and iconic image’. The campaign was shot to capture the unapologetic and timeless power of Madonna today, according to the luxury fashion house. Of course, Madonna is dressed head-to-toe in pieces from the SS15 Versace collection and showcases her toned body in the imagery.
Speaking about her new role, Madonna said: ‘It’s always exciting to be dressed head-to-toe in Versace and experience first-hand Donatella’s vivid imagination and passion that she has created for this collection.’
Designer Donatella added: ‘Madonna is one of the true icons of Versace. I am thrilled to have my friend and the most powerful and directional artist as the face of Versace for Spring 2015.’
This is the fourth time that Madonna has appeared in Versace’s advertising campaigns; her first was back in 1995.
As I said, I like it. Even though I’m pretty sure Madonna has gone through another round of extensive plastic surgery, I have to say… she finally got some quality work done, at long last. Plus, she’s got great hair in these ads! That’s a really flattering cut and color. Beyond that… it’s just nice to see a 56-year-old woman fronting a major ad campaign. Even if parts of Madonna were barely a glimmer in a plastic surgeon’s eye one year ago.
Photos courtesy of Versace’s Twitter.
So much photoshopping….
Especially on her hands.
Everywhere! She looks like Courtney Love. I really appreciate that they chose a woman over 50 for the campaign but why are they always photoshopped beyond recognition? Why are they not allowed to look their age? I think that photoshop is great for making teeth whiter, erase zits etc but why turn someone into something else? It is not inspiring at all…
Agree, Marie-France. As a woman over 50, I just roll my eyes. What we are seeing is not human or remotely real. And it’s certainly not inspiring.
Thank you, PunkyMomma! Exactly! Who did her hand transplant?
…looks good except for the bleached eyebrows, which make her resemble Donatella.
Exactly. With that amount of plastic surgery and photoshopping, I think most 50 year old women could front a campaign. LOL!
It’s the blonde eyebrows that are throwing everyone off. Of course her sculpted body is veiny and sinewy, and that is airbrushed. I wonder why her body became so veiny like a 1970s mechanic. Weird.
It’s from extreme dieting and exercise. You lose that layer of padding when you age. Look at this new generation of women in their 50s and 60s. Full of fillers…faces that look amazing, and sinewy bodies. There was just a great article in NY magazine about “the new new face” that is an excellent read.
I think Madonna looks pretty on these photos, although obviously photoshopped in extremis. But why did they photograph her in such odd positions, with her head ducked away? She looks like she’s trying to fit into a room with a low ceiling or something.
That’s high fashion for you, dahling. 🙂
Tyra: “Where is your neck?!?!” Eyeroll at non-models trolling for attention in print ads.
I absolutely love this. Madonna is twice Gaga’s age and though neither are professional models, Madonna gives great face and poses. Perfect for Versace. Now I wish I could afford the clothes.
Isn’t Lady Gaga just a poor man’s Madonna anyway?
Good choice. Lady Gaga is just not a fashion person. Everything she does is contrived. Madonna is stylish. Her Herb Ritts portraits are classic.
Photoshop: It’s a hell of a drug.
does she get steroids? why does her body look so masculine all the time?
it’s called using weights/working out.
She has put in 2-4hrs daily since her Blonde Ambition days in 1990. she has gone through entire spectrum of work outs. From weights to yoga to running to circuits. You name it, she’s probably tried it.
I have to say, I thought her body looked horrible during the Tracy Anderson years. She was all gristle. However, that period also concided with her marriage breakdown, so maybe she was also underweight due to the divorce diet.
She’s softened somewhat, and looks so much better without looking unhealthy.
If you wish to see untoned, soft flesh Madonna, you have to go back to the beginning, to her ‘like a virgin’ days.
Madonna has always taken care of her body. When Like A Virgin came out, I read a magazine article that said she swam 50 laps every day. She may be the Queen of Attention Seeking, but she never did drugs and lives a healthy lifestyle and for that, I commend her.
JM, Madonna has used drugs. She recently admitted it in Interview magazine:
“She added that she herself had dabbled over the years: ‘I mean, I tried everything once, but as soon as I was high, I spent my time drinking tons of water to get it out of my system.'”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2856334/I-tried-Madonna-speaks-candidly-drug-experimentation-poses-topless-edgy-photo-shoot.html?offset=900&max=100&jumpTo=comment-70289475#comment-70289475
There have also been reports of her getting drunk at pubs during the time she was married to Guy Ritchie.
These are just two of several examples of her words contradicting her actual behavior. I remember magazine interviews years ago where she said that she wouldn’t have plastic surgery because inner beauty was more important than surface looks, blah blah blah.
Cannot take this woman seriously at all. She tells people what she thinks they want to hear. She has hidden behind so many different personas to pander to the masses, instead of living as an authentic person. People are surprised she’s not acting closer to her age? I’m not. She was never emotionally mature to begin with and acted all “controversial” to feed her need for constant attention. Her m.o. of “pushing society’s buttons” is no more than a teenager in a perpetual rebellion stage so she won’t be ignored. Really, she’s the world’s most successful poseur.
I like these ads a lot better than Gaga’s. Nice to see Madge back in the spotlight doing something legitimate rather than trying to get attention by instagraming her hairy armpits (like that’s shocking these days).
WOOO HOOOOO!!!!!! loving this.
That third picture; the outfit looks just like the awful thing Heidi Klum wore not too long ago. I sill don’t like it.
In that first photo, she almost looks like herself again. Photoshop is amazing.
I guess since Gaga tried to take her career (and one of her songs) it’s only fair Madonna take her ad campaign.
Side note, I really do like her haircut here. I keep thinking about going a little shorter like that, but if I can’t pull it back in a ponytail, I may go insane.
Ah same here Lucy!
I chopped off about 6 inches recently and now have zackly what Madge has here (if you overlook mine being cut with nail scissors) It’s a fab length, esp for those of us at Madge’s age…..but like you I keep scraping it off my face in irritation.
Must learn to live with it though, it’s definitely more flattering than having it in a messy chignon the whole time.
Must agree with GNAT above…..it makes no sense to have Madge for Versace if they seek approval from this age range. (Quite the opposite, out of all the 50+ great dames around)
Madonna can’t add anything to any advert except her own (very considerable and fabulous, etc) image…..it means absolutely nothing else: no pull for the fab 50s, no hint that Versace is about anything sartorial in particular……tis just a heap of very good photos of Madge. (No change there, then!)
PS to my remarks ^^^.
She does look terrific, of course, and I’m not criticising her, per se ( I sounded mean….I was on about Versace really)
The photos in that ‘Interview’ piece too….from the purely visual angle, simply fab. (I really liked her outfits too….the button through green dress and ribbed stockings, just as much as the baroque-vibe lingerie: all so much more interesting than the tedious black lace.)
What *has* she had done differently? To me it looked like it was all about her top lip being much fuller, and less of that filler in her eye socket, but the lip seemed the most noticeable diff, and it changed the entire face very interestingly.
I’d love to know how she preserves her neck….whether lifting/tightening surgery suffices, or does it require some other approach?
Lucy2, I thought the same thing! She really does look like her old self, lol her original self. Which is so odd after seeing her recent topless pics in that magazine I can’t remember. She looked terrible in those pics. I think she looks great here.
I miss her eyebrows. She always had really great brow game—now not so much.
Madonna’s new face looks good, even with the photoshop.
I love it. Madonna has been doing Versace campaigns for years and she always looks great.
I actually love that first photo. The first photo for a photoshoot I’ve loved of Madonna in a long time. It actually looks like Madonna for a change and sexy in a good way. Her hair looks amazing. She doesn’t look try-hardy in these photos like she’s looked in others.
The photoshop is fine. They photoshop 20-something models heavily for ad campaigns. Big deal. She looks like a woman at least in these photos. Mert and Marcus did a great job.
Yes lots of photo shop, but you have to admit that for a 56 year old her body is amazing!!
How about a real model like Joan Smalls; Anyway, nothing will replace Johnny Versace and his ads from the late 80s to the late 90s with all the supers. Real fashion campaigns not greedy celebutards playing at fashion. SOme of those ads with Christy, Naomi, and Linda, etc. are classic fashion photogs, not just mere ads. There is no way around it; fashion was simply livelier and better done overall during that era.
In that last picture with her head down, she looks like a bull about to charge
She looks beautiful in these images.
Love the hair! Miss the brows!
Does she have scoliosis? Why can’t she sit up? I get some artistic shots, but she’s slumped in all of them
photoshopped to death.
In the 2nd photo it looks as if the photoshop-team used Christina Aguilera´s face?
ELIZABETH BERKLEY for Ver-sace!!! Who is with me???
Jesus , say what you will about her old face versus her new face. But her body is crazy amazing ….for ANY age.
Go Madonna ! She looks great, sexy and confident.
Eh. I don’t like her new face or the way she never deviates from the same luridly-sexy image she projected in her twenties, but I have to respect Madonna for having exactly zero f**ks to give about the judgments of people like me.
All the photoshopping and cosmetic surgery say that she’s DOES give a F***.