Mejuri, known for turning fine jewelry into an everyday luxury, has partnered with director Gia Coppola (The Last Show Girl, Palo Alto) and The Directors Bureau in Los Angeles, for the first time reimagining the brand’s story as episodic content. In a series of microfilms, co-created by Coppola and premiering following New York Fashion Week, Mejuri eschewed a typical celebrity campaign and cast us as voyeurs to a group of aspiring young women–real people, not actors–at the crossroads of their adult lives against the backdrop of New York City.
Titled “A New York Minute,” the series features five real-life friends, who include one perfectly imperfect heroine named Emma. The women celebrate ordinary moments and interactions which reveal, sometimes retrospectively, the extraordinary within the mundane. Adjacent to the brand’s own community, the 30-something year old cast includes Laura Love (Emma), Rebecca Ressler, Natalie Vall-Freed and Rozzi Crane. Mejuri’s jewelry makes an appearance as the best supporting actor.
“When I met with Gia and The Directors Bureau team, there was instant creative and personal chemistry and a natural alignment on the desire to push and blur the lines between marketing, storytelling, and the construct of what a ‘campaign’ could be,” said Jacob Jordan, chief brand officer, Mejuri. “Gia was able to push that idea into something that truly feels new and artful, with a realism and relatability that almost feels jarring. Gia was such a perfect collaborator and partner, someone I had complete trust in to be a catalyst for Mejuri’s values of celebrating women as their truest selves. I can’t wait for us to continue to tell the next chapters of this story.”
To land the relatable performances, Coppola introduced the characters to situations and scenarios that provide the framework of life’s moments which create the scenes. Instead of a script, the stories convey real-life situations, and as with life there is no context or resolution, just a yearning for more. She drew from her grandmother’s short films for inspiration which were meditations on the ordinary that let the subjects breathe. With cinematography by Jody Lee Lipes (Dead Ringers, Manchester by the Sea), the microfilms were shot on 16 mm to emphasize artful realism.
“It was a blessing to have such a collaborative experience working with Mejuri and Jacob,” Coppola said. “We made something artful and nuanced, therefore challenging the advertising space. I love getting to work with my family and friends, and pay tribute to my grandmother’s experimental films. This is only the beginning.”
This piece, “The Grocery Store,” is the first episode of the series. It premiered this week on the Mejuri site. “The Grocery Store” depicts a group of five girlfriends doing their shopping before a celebratory weekend getaway. The story represents the peak of a vacation, all promise, zero let down.
The second and third episodes will be released September 23rd and 30th. “Tote Bag” considers that sometimes we hear and see what we need to in the least expected ways. Emma talks on the phone with her therapist and digests her therapy session as she walks through the busy streets of New York. And “We Need to Talk” offers an honest portrait of Emma getting ready for too long. She talks to herself in the mirror, rehearses a conversation and re-affirms with herself that it’s time to move on.
