Courtesy of Nili Lotan
Nili Lotan’s fall 2026 campaign reflects the continued evolution of the designer’s universe
In the ads, Lotan’s vision of modern Americana is paired with the brand’s new footwear offering, which has become a key growth driver and a natural extension of the wardrobe she’s spent more than two decades defining. Anchored by the Western Boot, the collection ties together heritage, utility and a modern attitude
Photographed by Gray Sorrenti in TriBeCa in New York, the campaign continues her longstanding creative partnership with Lotan. Having shot multiple campaigns for the brand, Sorrenti has helped shape its visual identity, capturing the confidence and tomboy spirit that define Lotan’s aesthetic
Courtesy of Nili Lotan
The fall collection is rooted in denim, leather, suede and heritage a with the Western Boot serving as the season’s defining statement. The brand has been worn by women such as Karlie Kloss, Jennifer Aniston and Sabrina Carpenter
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In an interview, Lotan said she chose the 25-year-old Sorrenti because she has a very interesting story and is an example of a young, determined woman. She wasn’t doing great in high school and began photographing in her teens and shot for Saint Laurent, among others. “I came to know her from her campaigns for Saint Laurent,” she said
“She has a very cool, fresh angle to her shoots,” said Lotan, the Israeli-born American designer who launched her brand in 2003. “And later on, when I got to meet her, I found all these things that connected us.”
Lotan said she’s never staged fashion shows and tries to communicate her brand voice through her own storytelling on her website, social media and through her nine stores. She said she’s done a few campaigns with Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, as well as Sorrenti. “Inez is a natural for me because she is a woman about my age. She’s my client, and she gets what I do naturally and she’s a brilliant photographer. So that kind of naturally works. Gray is on the young side of my clients, but I like the idea of alternating between the two because she brings something slightly off, that I like,” Lotan said.
Lotan said she went with Sorrenti because she had previously photographed the rock band The Kills for the designer’s fall 2025 fashion campaign. The 1970s-inspired rock ‘n’ roll campaign highlighted black leather jackets, leopard-print shearling coats and the designer’s new handbag line
Courtesy of Nili Lotan
“For me in order to authentically express my brand, I either go to music, rock ‘n’ roll, Americana, which is deep in my design references, and midcentury, which is the house that I live in and the life that I surround myself,” she said. “In this particular shoot, she shot with The Kills, [Sorrenti] captured the brand so honestly and authentically, that I came out of the shoot and I was like, ‘wow,’ I was thrilled. I really felt that it was communicating me in such an honest way
“This time I went back to her, and when I shoot a campaign, I don’t really want to talk about my collection necessarily. Obviously, I’m shooting the collection, but I wanted it to be bigger than that. I wanted it to be a moment of the brand. I wanted it to be a moment where I’m communicating the brand in general and not just the collection. That said, obviously the looks are from the latest collection.” She invited Sorrenti into her studio, where she shared the collection, alongside the books, images, vintage pieces and mood boards that have long informed her work.
“When I came to visit Nili and talk about where we wanted to go with the campaign, we were so on the same page,” Sorrenti said. “It was Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, [Robert] Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. It’s that kind of just march to the beat of their own drum. That’s the vibe. Like do whatever you want to do.”
Lotan has lived in TriBeCa for decades and Sorrenti, who’s the daughter of Mario Sorrenti, grew up in TriBeCa. Lotan said Gray Sorrenti came up with this idea to photograph herself in TriBeCa growing up and what did it feel like. “It’s a very downtown attitude vibe, kind of very polished and back in the days, and obviously she couldn’t shoot herself, so she chose three friends of hers — Blue Lindeberg, Luca Apple and Anna Francesca — all these young people are her age, like in their 20s,” Lotan said.
Courtesy of Nili Lotan
She said she shot them running in the streets of TriBeCa and driving a car and walking freely as if they were back growing up in the neighborhood. “And it captured them, but it captured that kind of free spirit and rock ‘n’ roll, freedom and authenticity, which I love and I think she’s done a great job, without really making this just the collection,” Lotan said
The fall collection started with the Western high boot and the Wayne belt, which is a Western belt, and Lotan built the looks around them rather than the other way around. There was a vest over a button-down, under a blazer, kind of a men’s version like John Wayne in a saloon, she said
She said they also did a video of the three people running on the streets of downtown Manhattan
The campaign will roll out across print, out-of-home, paid social and digital. It will first launch across Lotan’s owned channels, including web, email and social, on Monday, followed by the primary launch on Sept. 7, with an out-of-home push across New York, Los Angeles and Paris
Turning to business, Lotan explained, “I brought my business to a pretty big scale without fashion shows. About a year and a half ago, I started to put my emphasis on increasing the voice of my brand. The campaigns become a big movement in communicating it.”
Last fall the company launched bags, and this past July it introduced its first dedicated footwear collection, releasing seven core Western-inspired boot styles, with the potential to expand into additional styles in future seasons. Earlier, it unveiled small leather goods and belts. The brand already has swimwear, and is looking into eyewear possibly, she said
Lotan called current business “phenomenal.” This summer, they opened a permanent store in Southampton and already have a permanent store in East Hampton. “It [Southampton] is doing great. I’m in the midst of renovating TriBeCa, which is my flagship store [that] will open in a week or so. A few more are coming up,” she said. Overall, she has eight stores and is looking at stores overseas in London and Paris
Lotan said her brand’s appeal is ageless. She said because of the price points, the collection leans more toward financially independent women. “There is enough for a 25-year-old who may be not earning enough to buy pieces, but especially [she can buy] the denim.” She said her Shon jean, which she’s had in the line for 15 years, is a bow-leg shape of a pant which became her signature style
Citing anticipated bestsellers this fall, she said, “The Shon in suede is definitely going to be very attractive. I have a great leopard coat that I think is going to be super cool and probably sell out in two seconds. I also have a lot of color in this collection, which I normally stay neutral. There’s a lot of burgundies and reds and I mixed all the reds and burgundies together. I think this is probably going to sell out very quickly. The boots are doing phenomenal. We were shocked how quickly they sold. The boots are between $990 and $1,390. We already went and reordered. We’re doing everything in Italy and Spain.” Lotan designs them and works with a technical team.
Direct-to consumer represents 58 percent of the overall business. Wholesale accounts for less than 50 percent of her business, led by Net-a-porter, Saks and Mytheresa. She said they also have a shop at Bon Marche in Paris, which just launched. She said they have opened a bigger shop at Bergdorf Goodman and sell Nordstrom and Elysewalker, which has carried her line for 20 years. The company sells 300 store locations in the U.S. and Canada and 187 doors internationally. Twenty-five percent of her business is online. “It’s growing and getting stronger and stronger,” she said.
Seventy-three percent of her clients are returning ones. “So I focus when I design on those special pieces that enrich her existing wardrobe,” Lotan said
For spring, she will show at her showrooms in Paris and New York, where she hires models during market week. “I’m the sole owner of my business, which is very unusual. So I am very careful about how I invest my money to remain always profitable and at the same time to grow my brand. So I’ve kind of reserved my money and didn’t put it in big shows. But now I probably could do it, but I keep thinking to myself, I’ve done it without. Then why bother?”
She said she can open stores with the same amount of money she would spend on a show and can make it a successful and profitable business in no time. Right now, she has about 120 employees. “I really like the idea of developing everyone that’s with me, and trying to have really strong people. I built a really strong management team here so I can remain focused on the design and the social media and the marketing component, and let them focus on the operations side, the production side and the logistics side,” she said.
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