For the Very Sexy fragrance collection, we partnered with Victoria's Secret to develop the creative direction for the line's refresh. Working from the brief collaboratively, we established the visual language, color palette, texture references, and photographic tone — that would guide the campaign across social, product, and lifestyle photography. The direction was approved and moved into production.
The palette was built directly from the scent composition, moving from the deep obsidian of black plum and sueded woods, through the rich wine of vivid rose and rich orchid, into a saturated crimson lifted by the brightness of pink pepper. Shadow and heat in deliberate tension. Grounded in darkness, pulled forward by desire. The same logic carried into the texture references. Petals and patent leather, warm skin against cool glass, softness cut with edge. Each image was chosen to give the fragrance a physical presence, something you could almost feel before you ever opened the bottle.
The social photography direction was built around a simple idea: the product should feel like it belongs in someone's life, not on a shelf. References pulled from luxury fashion editorial to establish a world where the Very Sexy bottle sits naturally alongside a patent heel, a gold chain, a tube of red lipstick. Aspirational but lived in.
Close-crop product shots were framed to emphasize weight and texture over branding. On social, that kind of image stops the scroll because it reads as art direction first, advertisement second. The goal was content that a woman would save to her own board before she even registers it's an ad.
The Original opens with a surge of pink pepper, captivating from the first breath. Mimosa flower settles into the heart, opulent and refined, with a lavish orchid adding a creamy warmth that makes it impossible to ignore.
Very Sexy Scarlet is a passionate fall into a bed of vivid rose petals, as immediate as it is lingering. Jasmine sambac blooms in the heart. Silky ambrette closes it out with an elegant sensuality that leaves something behind long after you've left the room.
Very Sexy Night is the city at midnight. Succulent plum sparkling against a dark floral sky, iris blooming at the stroke of twelve. Velvety woods underneath, warm and inviting. The kind of scent that belongs to the hours after everyone else has gone home.
Lighting borrows from 90s Italian fashion photography: deep shadow, warm skin against near-black lace, nothing overlit. The product is never held so much as worn, appearing against skin and near the waist as if it belongs to the body's geography rather than an ad. Seductive, powerful, and completely confident.
Dramatic red lighting, deep shadow, and tight angles that make glass and liquid feel heavy and intentional. The Very Sexy bottle needed to command a frame without apology. Less product shot, more still life.
Three scents, three distinct worlds, one cohesive direction. What started as a moodboard became a full visual language where color, texture, and attitude all pulled in the same direction. Scarlet burns in saturated crimson. Night settles into deep plum and shadow. The original stays warm, confident, unapologetic. Each one distinct, but unmistakably part of the same story. The creative foundation carried all the way through to production without losing what made it compelling in the first place.
©2022 bono studio LLC.
All rights reserved.