Inside the EssenceMediacom campaign for eBay and Vogue's Timeless Collaboration

EssenceMediacom has concepted a new campaign for eBay that was produced by Vogue to champion sustainability in the fashion industry.

Fast fashion contributes to 92 million tons of textile waste every year, which is more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. With such alarming numbers, eBay, one of the largest online marketplaces and home to millions of authenticated pre-owned, vintage and rare fashion pieces, wanted to encourage people to shop circular.

The idea was to revive an archival Vogue shoot from the past and recreate it today, sourcing the exact same vintage accessories from eBay.

EssenceMediacom scoured through over 100 years of Vogue archives and landed on one of the most famous Vogue shots, with the most timeless model; Twiggy.

EssenceMediacom invited Twiggy back to Vogue to recreate her iconic Vogue photoshoot from 1967, 56 years later…with the exact same vintage, and pre-owned luxury accessories from eBay.

Twiggy’s recreated Vogue image appears as a double page spread in the current US and British Vogue magazine October 2023 editions. On the left, we reprinted the original archive image from 1967 and, on the right, we printed today’s recreation. Vintage lovers will recognize the Louis Vuitton papillon bag, the Vacheron Constantin Watch and the Tiffany chains.

In early Spring, EssenceMediacom introduced Creative Futures, merging Creative Systems, which was MediaCom's former creative transformation division, with Essence Experience, the previous digital innovation division at Essence.

The joint effort between eBay and Vogue gained substantial attention, with over 50 million viewers tuning in to the Vogue World launch experience. At its core, the collaboration aimed to showcase eBay's extensive vintage fashion collection, highlighting that nearly anything from the past to the present could be found on the platform. This led to the idea of reviving archival Vogue photoshoots by sourcing authentic vintage accessories from eBay.

The team, guided by Condé Nast's Photography Director Ivan Shaw, sifted through over a century of Vogue archives. Their search culminated in the selection of one of Vogue's most iconic shots featuring Twiggy, one of the world’s most famous 60’s fashion Icons. Twiggy enthusiastically embraced the concept and agreed to recreate her 1967 Vogue photoshoot using authenticated eBay-sourced accessories.

Readers were invited to shop the looks, where eBay auctioned off Twiggy’s accessories from the reshoot with proceeds from the auction going to the Canopy Planet Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to transform unsustainable linear supply chains to protect the world's forests, species, and climate.

“What goes around comes around,” Twiggy says as she takes us through her bold recreation in this 5 min Behind the Moment Vogue video. And finally, it all came full circle, when Twiggy stepped onto the red carpet, at VOGUE World: London, her hometown, on September 14, wearing her recreated look from 1967 with eBay accessories.

The response to the campaign has been very positive, including coverage from many publications like The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Times, British Vogue, and The Fashion Spot.

This campaign is the latest in a series of ongoing campaigns that Vogue produced with eBay, in collaboration with EssenceMediacom. The now year-long partnership is aimed to elevate eBay’s fashion equity by producing content with Vogue. Just a few months ago, eBay made its debut on the Met Gala red carpet, and was recognized for championing circular fashion. The campaign, in partnership with New York City’s most stylish rapper; Ice Spice, was mentioned in the Washington Post as an effort to go back to vintage at the Met Gala.

When it comes to creating breakthroughs for clients, this experience is a prime example. “In the new communications economy, the opportunity is to reach audiences in more organic and culturally relevant ways. The pages of Vogue represent decades of fashion and eBay is a repository for authentic vintage accessories. It’s the perfect symbiotic partnership,” says Benjamin Vendramin, EssenceMediacom’s Global Chief Creative & Content Officer.