Bruce Weber’s (PNSFW) YSL Short Film
‘Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing’

“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” a 7-minute film by Bruce Weber debuted today in Paris before the YSL Men’s show. True to Bruce Weber style, the film features several gorgeous male models, music by Weber’s “champion of soul,” Marvin Gaye, and includes a special digital-cameo by fashion photog and former pinup girl, Bunny Yeager.

The film begins with male models dancing shirtless. Weber does a voice over with French subtitles where he explains that many of his “new friends” always feel they must first ask someone else (a boyfriend, girlfriend, or grandmother) if they can be shot topless or nude. Weber’s response? “if you don’t want to be nude, wear a suit.”

Later the film moves into a classic Bruce Weber nudes emerging from a river: an image slightly remanisent of Thomas Eakins’ famous panting “The Swimming Hole.” Seconds later, we’re introduced to Bunny, and as Weber promises, she is “really pretty.” Photos and footage of hers are inter-spliced with images of naked boys carousing — one model even kisses a wall full of black and white pinups photographs.

Then, a bunch of naked models begin wrestling and they end up in a huddle with a baby in one boys arms. As the boys wrestle, we see more images of nude pinups. “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,“ is a lyric from Gaye’s famous 1968 song of the same title. What does it say about Weber’s ideas about men, women and sexuality — considering all the women in the film are confined safely to photographs and vintage video footage? They aren’t the real thing the film suggests, perhaps? The men are indeed real, that’s for sure. And after all, a Weber film wouldn’t be a Weber film without the homoeroticism.

So, what does this at all have to do with YSL? One fashion insider, who chose to remain nameless said this about the film:

“YSL always has a film to go with their runway collection. This time they had Bruce Weber do it. It’s very Weber and not very YSL. Has nothing really to do with the clothes. It’s a marketing strategy.”

Well, there you go.

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