Fashion and smoking have been inextricably linked for decades. Models smoke on catwalks (and not just when wearing Yves St Laurent’s iconic Le Smoking trouser suit) and in fashion spreads. Supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss appear in the celebrity press smoking in “real life”. And some fashion designers are happy to associate their brand and products with smoking, such as the ads for Gucci handbags that appeared in several top European fashion magazines last autumn showing cigarette ash “stylishly” scattered across their expensive bags. The graphic qualities of the cigarette are compounded by its associations. Fashion loves the idea of smoking: think of Yves Saint Laurent’s “Le Smoking” jacket, or the “cigarette” pant. For women – particularly young women – cigarettes have always had a connotation of independence. A cigarette creates an air of self-sufficiency: with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in another, a woman has no need of a man’s hand to hold. In real life, at social occasions when they feel on display, many women will light up a cigarette as a prop as much as for the buzz, echoing the function of smoking in fashion.
Whenever we look at behind the set photos at fashion events, many a times the models are seen with cigarettes in their hand. Many even say they smoke to fill a hunger void. However, as we’ve seen with Camel taking on the beauty angle with Camel No.9, Davidoff Cigarettes decided to promote its brand at a pre-fashion week party in Australia.