LEVI CAMPELLO

When I started talking to Levi Campello, I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect that three different stories and the birth of a brand could be woven together. Act 1,2,3 tells the story from three different perspectives, Chris Fucile, Taylor Horne and above all Levi Campello. Watch from the top down or the bottom up, but don’t miss the interview with Levi Campello, a New York based menswear designer.

Hey Levi, can you tell me a little about your brand? How did you come up with the idea and make the decision to start a bran?
When I started my design career, I never intended for “Levi Campello” to ever be a brand, so the entire idea is still new to me.

But as I developed my skills and furthered my creative journey, I found that the brand of Levi Campello began to shape itself out of an exploration of my selfhood and my coming-of-age story.

This encapsulated a lot of aspects of the kink and fetish communities, and questions and experiences born from that. My brand image is one that lures, challenges, shocks, questions and pushes the viewer into engaging with atypical subject matter to create a reaction whether positive or negative—the most important part is that you feel something!

What is the hardest part of turning a concept into an actual brand?
Concepts are a dime a dozen for me and come and go easily, however execution of a concept is a lot more challenging in practice. Personally one of the most challenging parts of having a brand is making sure the brand image develops and grows but still stays true to the original intention of the concept I’m exploring.

What inspires you?
This current collection was inspired by an amalgam of references that range from a painting of a 19th century clown, a photograph of two gay lovers dancing, a sculpture of a mutilated angelic figure, and so much more. However what truly inspires me is the stories that objects can tell you, and how things that seem so radically different are actually closer to one another than they might seem.

How do you describe your brand in one sentence?
I can do it in a phrase, “Beautifully Fucked Up!”

Can you tell our readers something funny or interesting that happened during the making of the lookbook/video shoot.
Oh, where to start. Between all the collaborators being friends of mine and them seeing me fully naked, or the fact that they needed to dress me and had to apply nipple clamps onto me was pretty amusing. Another interesting thing about the shoot was having a dead rabbit on set that had to be massaged with fake blood to get the desired “fresh” color. However, I think the biggest thing that sticks out in my mind is when the stylist, Alex Riddle, who went through design school with me, interjects mid-shot and says that I need to pull my shorts down and have my dick out. It was definitely the right call and I think it’s bad ass—definitely one of my favorite images!

If you could dress any celebrity/famous person in your clothes who would it be?
Truthfully I don’t really follow celebrities too closely so this is sort of a hard question, however if I could choose anyone right now I would love to dress FKA Twigs. Her music is just otherworldly, she creates incredible narratives lyrically but also visually and isn’t afraid to push the boundaries of art and performance, which is what we try to do with our brand.

What should we expect from you in the near future?
I’m currently working on a handful of projects at the moment ranging from crazy editorials, custom looks, and starting work on the next collection. You can for sure expect a lot more coming your way!!!

Where can we buy ‘Levi Campello’?
You can purchase some of the pieces from the most recent collection on our website – Levicampello.com – each piece is handcrafted and made in New York City.

About the series

Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 is Levi Campello’s first solo collection after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019. The collection was initially born out of a reflection on paintings of dancers by Edgar Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso. Deeply inspired by the beauty of the dancers and what kind of lives they lived in the late 19th century, Levi wanted to explore the untold stories of the women and their suitors off stage that aren’t depicted in the paintings. He uses exaggerated female silhouettes and merges them with male suiting, reconfiguring the body and subjecting it to the male gaze.

The collection is broken into three acts as if each were their own performance, each telling dramatically different stories with different performers.

ACT III.

Model: Levi Campello @levicampello
Produced by: Bolex Studio @bolexstudios
Photogragraphs by: Chris Fucile @chrisfucilephotography
Styling by: Alex Riddle @oftenconfusedwith / Styling Assistant by: Andrew Kim @akimnable / Hair by: Marin Mullen @marin_renee / Makeup by: Gilbert Bolden @dancerdude56 Production Assistant: Matt Seidenwurm @matt4462f

Act 3 is the final performance where Levi himself turns into the performer and reveals himself to the camera. Within the bleak set, there is a hanging piece of meat brutally pierced with a hook. He is aware of the viewer, enticing them with his body and provocation like another dangling piece of meat to be consumed.

Through examining the untold stories of late 19th century performers as inspiration, the collection seeks to make visible the contemporary and political notions of performance in relation to sex work.
We encourage all viewers to checkout and if possible donate to The Sex Workers Project website to learn more ways to support the sex work community: swp.urbanjustice.org/donate

ACT II.

Model: Taylor Horne @taylorhornestudio
Photogragraphs by: Clifton Mooney @gauchecowboy
Hair & Makeup by: Gilbert Bold @dancerdude56

Act 2 recreates the iconic “Murder Shower” scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960’s thriller Psycho. All shot on black and white polaroid film, the performer is not only the victim within the scene but also the executioner in drag. It is with intention to queer the scene even more by making the male the victim and perpetrator that simultaneously subjects himself to his own power and violence

ACT I.

Model: Connor Storrie @connorstorrieofficial
Photogragraphs by: Levi Campello @levicampello
Video Produced by: Bolex Studios @bolexstudios

Act 1 shows three different characters placed in front of brightly painted signs that are disheveled and weathered. Each character matches and rivals the absurdity of the signage while reframing the connotations of a “streetwalker” and referencing the performance aspect of being on the street revealing the body.