Moncler’s Latest Campaign by Annie Leibovitz featuring Liu Bolin.

This isn’t the first time Moncler, the Italian fashion brand synonymous with puffer jackets and sportswear, has teamed up with renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz. Together with Chinese artist Liu Bolin, the pair has given Moncler’s new FW17 campaign a surreal edge. It’s somewhat of a disappearing act. Now you see it, now you don’t.

Invisibility, however, requires a master magician and in the case of this disappearing act, Liu Bolin was employed to create the trickery. He put on his invisibility cloak, a painted one no less, to create the visual illusion. Aptly known as ‘The Disappearing Man’, Bolin is famous for his body painting and chameleon abilities.

The campaign, shot in Iceland, was the perfect backdrop for the dreamlike imagery captured skilfully by Leibovitz. Chilly and tinged with a blue-white light, the marbled black and grey glaciers all but hide the peak-a-boo form of Bolin. Moncler’s snowsuit, worn by Bolin, is the perfect accoutrement to this icy snowscape. Bolin is but a ghostly silhouette disappearing into the arid grey and white landscape.

Previously, Leibovitz and Bolin worked together creating a world of illusion for Moncler’s Spring Summer collection, again using Bolin’s sublime illusionary painting skills to great effect. Bolin eerily disappears into a pile of books in a library, or camouflages deftly into a lush forest landscape.

This new Winter Fall collection is no less powerful. It’s the type of wonder that is created when you bring outstanding artists from different realms together. It’s the blend of their visionary chemistry that creates the magic.

[Images & video courtesy of Moncler.]