Dev Hynes takes creative control of Levi's®

With the aim of reinterpreting, in their own way, some of the pieces from the SS26 collection.

This season, Levi’s® has decided to focus on the tension between polished and raw, preppy and grunge. To do so, it has entrusted the creative reins to someone who understands this balance naturally: Dev Hynes.

Musician, producer, composer and mastermind behind Blood Orange, Hynes has built a career marked by contradiction and creative freedom. His approach to music—emotional, direct, unfiltered—is also reflected in his style of dress: honest, intuitive and unapologetic. It is no coincidence that the brand has chosen him to shape a campaign that celebrates precisely this clash of codes.

For this special project, Levi’s® sent the creative director a selection of garments from the SS26 collection and invited him to reinterpret them in his own language. Accompanied by his regular collaborator, photographer Katharina Korbjuhn, he took on the styling and creative direction of the project, which was developed in Los Angeles. The result is a series of images and audiovisual pieces that capture deliberately candid moments, inspired by “Somewhere in Between”, a track from her latest acclaimed album Essex Honey.

In the images, Hynes dismantles conventional dress codes: he wears the Authentic Button Down out of context, layers the Clayton Leather Aviator over the Hayes Boxy Full-Zip Hoodie, and pairs the 578® Baggy with preppy textures. Everything moves between two visual worlds. On the one hand, there are carefully crafted and precise studio sets; on the other, there are more raw scenes, like an impromptu rehearsal. This duality reinforces the central concept.

Beyond the editorial, the campaign is rounded out with spontaneous videos and conversational content built from Hynes‘ own reflections. An informal phone call—which ended up setting the tone and language of the project—served as a starting point for an unscripted conversation about style, contradiction, and the importance of unexpected combinations.