Bar Refaeli Takes a Roll in the Hay for Agent Provocateur

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The latest Agent Provocateur marketing campaign breaks this week featuring Bar Refaeli as a barn girl reclining seductively on piles of hay — and not looking like she rose at dawn to milk the cows.
Shot by Sebastian Faena in the countryside outside Paris, the campaign is meant to conjure a hot summer mood and a love of the great outdoors.

Inspired by films including “Paris Texas,” “Stealing Beauty,” “The Virgin Suicides” and “Last Tango in Paris,” it is also the brand’s first campaign shot on location outside.

According to creative director Sarah Shotton, the team was expecting sunny weather but got cloudy skies, rain and cold instead.

“There we were in our North Face puffer jackets, hoping for some sun,” said Shotton, adding that Refaeli, instead, was in AP underwear.

“Thank God for Bar — she was a really good sport, waiting in the stables until the sun came out. And she is really hot — you can’t look like that and feel the cold.”

Shotton added that she chose the model for her “film noir, feline quality,” and for the synergy she had with the collection and Agent Provocateur.

Refaeli wears some of the key looks of the spring season, including a black, high-cut bodysuit in stretch chiffon with a built-in bra and suspenders, and a cropped camisole top with inner support, and miniskirt that can be worn as lingerie, pajamas or clothing.

Shotton said she’s seeing a trend for women wanting their lingerie to multitask and to have a sporty element, too. “They also want to show off our lingerie and are looking for something that is out of the ordinary.”
The campaign will be used online, in-store and at AP points of sale.

The British company is on a growth trajectory, with sales in the year ended March 29 up 36.2 percent to 53.1 million pounds, or $86.6 million, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, rose by more than 50 percent to 9.6 million pounds, or $15.6 million.

Online sales were up 30 percent year-on-year, and international brick-and-mortar expansion continues to be a major focus.

Over the past seven years, Agent has expanded its offer to include a lower-priced line called L’Agent, which is designed by Penelope Cruz and her sister Mónica Cruz Sánchez.

The brand also has five fragrances with partners InterParfums.

Is Four Images Of Bar Refaeli Per Day Enough For The Home Page?

Pardon me, Mr. Home Page Editor? It’s Oded, Oded Shahar – I just started as an intern here last week, and, well – I just need to know as a general rule, is four images of Bar Refaeli enough for one day’s material on the home page?

I’m asking, obviously, because I’m new here, and I haven’t learned what sort of balance you go for in terms of news vs. lighter stuff and general human interest. I know you always maintain a certain minimum threshold of supermodels, actresses, or celebrities in bikinis as one of the featured items, so I’m trying to get a handle on the way that’s done. Do you want them rotated throughout the day, but keeping the same article and headline, or do we mix it up a bit? I’m asking today because while we have some good shots of her in various states of undress, there’s also the story of her upcoming wedding, and I need to know how to weigh this: do we maintain the same number of bikini shots on the home page – both in that featured item section and lower down in the celebrity gossip news – or do we count the wedding preparation articles and photos as part of the total? I’m new at this.

It’s not a technical problem, though, sir, I guarantee – I have the coding skills necessary for this. I just need guidelines on the content itself. For the regular news that’s not a big deal: just put in the headline and link to the article ion our database. As big news breaks, we change the headline and the link. But with this Bar Refaeli thing, there’s no actual news value – only an attempt to attract eyeballs with a famous beautiful woman in suggestive poses. Is there a rule for how long to leave a given image in place? And what is the proper ratio of Bar Refaeli to other half-naked female celebrities?

Gal Gadot and Adi Himmelbloi will always do in a pinch, but quantity isn’t a problem. I know if Gadot had another Wonder Woman movie coming out soon we’d be shunting Refaeli aside more, and whenever there’s anything to say about Eyal Golan we have to find a way to get some images of his wife Ruslana onto the home page. That much I gathered already. I guess what I’m asking is, how much of an all-Bar-Refaeli-all-the-time home page is this, really? Are we aiming for more or fewer images of Bar than on her own site?

OK, I’ll get back to you on how many we have for tomorrow. Apparently the Fitness Fluff Editor wants some bikini photos for a series on low-sodium diets.