Italian photographer Julia Noni has journeyed to Nairobi to shoot Nike's Run The Way You Wear Meant To campaign. The images promote the Nike Free 2014 performance running collection and star Kenya’s elite runners leaping and bounding through colorful landscapes.
Noni’s cinematic fashion editorials have featured in magazines around the world and she is famed for shooting black beauty especially well. Recent examples include Jeneil Williams for Vogue Germany, Solange Knowles for Harpers Bazaar, Ataui Deng for Fat magazine, and Grace Bol for the New York Times’ T magazine. She told Hypebeast that her Nike images, currently being exhibited at the X158 concept store in Shanghai, were inspired the Kenyan athletes’ “special way of running and the freedom of being barefoot.”
Kenya is no stranger to interest from global brands. Thanks to the UN’s Ethical Fashion Initiative, which connects international designers to African artisans, the likes of Venturini Fendi, Sass & Bide, Stella Jean and Stella McCartney have produced accessories in the region and Vivienne Westwood and Karen Walker have both recently shot beautiful campaigns here too. In addition, the production hub SOKO is used by ASOS, Suno, LaLesso and Choolips. Read more about Kenya’s local fashion scene soon on KISUA.
Images: copyright Nike / Julia Noni
