Behind the Scenes of the GUESS Summer Campaign Shot in the Hamptons

When the GUESS creative team first sketched out the mood board for the 2025 summer story, every reference pointed to long, golden afternoons, salt-tousled hair and the kind of effortless denim cool that has defined the brand since its earliest beachside editorials. The Hamptons, with its weathered shingle houses, hedgerows of hydrangea and miles of pale Atlantic shoreline, offered the perfect backdrop for that vision. Photographers, stylists and talent flew in from Los Angeles, New York and Milan to spend two weeks crafting a visual narrative that would travel from the dunes of Long Island to screens and shop floors around the world.

Australia sits roughly on the opposite side of the calendar from the Hamptons. While cast and crew were bundled into knits for sunrise shoots in August, readers in Sydney and Melbourne were already planning their December getaways to Byron Bay or the Mornington Peninsula. The disconnect is exactly what makes the campaign interesting. By capturing a North American summer at its peak, GUESS is offering Australian shoppers a glimpse of the season they are about to live, photographed with a wistful, end-of-summer softness that reads like a postcard from the future.

The Hamptons location also gave the team a chance to lean into the quiet, old-money glamour that has made the area a fixture of fashion films since the 1990s. Think polished stone patios, vintage convertibles, barefoot walks through wildflower meadows. The contrast between that East Coast polish and the bronzed, beachy pieces being styled on set was the entire point. Campaign director Marisol Vega described the look as "Sunday lunch in August, but make it denim."

What follows is a closer look at how the campaign came together, from the first location scout in Montauk to the final frames captured at sunset over Gardiner's Bay. Along the way we will touch on the casting choices, the styling decisions, and how the same pieces photographed in the Hamptons are already landing in wardrobes from Perth to the Gold Coast.

Picking the right stretch of coast

The location team spent eleven days driving from Westhampton down to Montauk before committing to a shortlist of four properties. They wanted a house that felt lived-in, with peeling paint, a wraparound porch and at least one dramatic view of the water. The winning estate, a 1920s shingle-style home near Amagansett, had all of that, plus a private path to the dunes that the cinematographers immediately claimed for the opening sequence.

The coastal palette of the house, with bleached cypress, weathered cedar and faded sailcloth, dictated a lot of the wardrobe choices. Stylists pulled pieces in chalk white, washed indigo and butter yellow, with the occasional punch of marigold to echo the late-afternoon light. The decision to avoid heavy prints kept the focus on silhouette and texture, which is why the campaign reads as breezy and modern rather than overly thematic.

Set element	Hamptons reference	Australian equivalent
Weathered shingle house	Amagansett estate	Heritage fibro weekender in Byron Bay
Atlantic surf	Dunes at Amagansett	Pass at Broken Head, NSW
Pale neutrals	Chalk whites, washed indigo	Bone linen, sun-bleached denim
Vintage convertible	1965 Mustang on the backroads	Restored Torana on a coastal drive
Sea breeze styling	Salt-sprayed hair, knotted shirts	Esplanade strolls from St Kilda to Brighton

Casting the faces of the season

Casting director Lena Aru made a deliberate choice to mix established GUESS faces with fresh talent. Longtime campaign favourite Sofia B. returned for her fourth season, joined this year by Australian-born model Tilly Reeve, who flew in from London where she is currently based. Rounding out the principal cast was up-and-coming New Yorker Malik Carrington, whose breakout casting for a luxury denim label earlier in the year had made him the obvious choice for the late-summer hero story.

On set, the dynamic between the three leads was loose and generous, which translated directly to the final images. Tilly's experience on European beaches gave the team a slightly different take on the typical Hamptons pose. Where the American cast might turn their shoulder to the sun, she instinctively leaned into it, a habit she picked up from summers spent between Margaret River and the Northern Rivers. Her casting is also a small signal that GUESS continues to invest in talent that resonates with its global audience.

Styling the summer wardrobe

Wardrobe lead Priya Naidoo arrived in the Hamptons with twelve steamer trunks, each one organised by mood rather than by garment type. There were trunks dedicated to "afternoon at the country club," "first dinner out after a beach day" and "late-night drive home with the windows down." The range allowed the team to build looks from the same denim and knit foundations while moving easily between settings without ever changing the underlying tone of the campaign.

A handful of hero pieces appeared in almost every setup. The high-rise wide-leg jean in vintage indigo was photographed on the porch, on the dunes and again at dusk in front of a bonfire. The cropped denim jacket in chalk white appeared on every principal cast member, layered over slip dresses, ribbed tanks and, in one memorable frame, a vintage tee Priya had picked up at a Sag Harbor flea market. Accessories were kept understated, with rope-soled sandals, gold hoop earrings and a single silk scarf that rotated between the cast.

Footwear choices moved with the locations. On the sand, the team relied on bare feet and simple rope sandals. For shots involving the vintage car, they switched to the new season's leather low-tops, which will feature in the autumn collection alongside the new fall booties hitting stores later in the year. The booties are photographed here in their summer context, paired with slip dresses and rolled hems, a styling trick that softens their heavier silhouette.

Capturing the light

The shoot hinged on a narrow window of natural light each day, typically running from 4:30 a.m. for the cooler sunrise setups through to the golden hour before sunset. Director of photography Daniel Keuneman, an Australian who has spent the past decade working between Sydney and New York, was insistent on shooting into the light wherever possible. His reasoning was straightforward: backlit hair, lens flares and soft halos around the talent read as cinematic on a phone screen, which is where most of the campaign would eventually live.

The crew worked through one full week of unbroken weather, followed by two days of Atlantic fog that completely changed the mood. Rather than fight it, the team leaned into the mist and rebuilt the day's schedule around softer, more atmospheric looks. The fog sequences became some of the most shared images from the entire shoot, particularly a series of Tilly on the dunes in an oversized knit that doubled as a beach cover-up.

Bringing the Hamptons to Bondi, Byron and beyond

The campaign launches globally with a coordinated rollout across digital, print and in-store channels, but the Australian activation carries a few local touches. Windows at GUESS Sydney Westfield, Melbourne Emporium and the Pacific Fair store on the Gold Coast have been dressed with weathered cedar panels, dried hydrangeas and vintage rope accents to echo the Amagansett set. The visual reference is not just for show. Australian shoppers have always had an appetite for the brand's American heritage, and many of the denim silhouettes that performed well on set are already proving to be the strongest sellers in the first weeks of the season.

Pricing is presented in Australian dollars across all channels, and the seasonal denim drop includes a local exclusive: a high-rise mom jean in a sun-faded ecru, dyed to match the bleached driftwood of Australian beaches from Bondi to Lorne. Under Australian Consumer Law, every garment carries clear fibre content and country-of-origin labelling, and the campaign pieces meet the voluntary product stewardship standards administered by the Australian Fashion Council for denim recycling.

The team has also acknowledged the reality of an Australian summer. With UV levels regularly climbing above twelve through December and January, the campaign styling leans into long sleeves, generous hems and UPF-rated knits for outdoor shoots. The Therapeutic Goods Administration classifies broad-spectrum sunscreen as a regulated therapeutic good, which is why every GUESS beach bag distributed as part of the local launch ships with a sample of SPF 50+ that meets Australian labelling requirements.

Loyalty, drops and what comes next

For members of the GUESS List, the campaign rollout unlocks a number of early-access windows and exclusive offers. Sign-ups through the Australian site receive first refusal on the limited denim capsule, plus an invitation to in-store styling sessions at the Brisbane Queen Street location in late November. Loyalty members also gain access to the brand's ongoing series of brand experiences, including the J.Lo x GUESS launch featured recently on the journal, which arrives in Australian boutiques shortly after the summer rollout concludes.

Beyond the summer story, the autumn content roadmap includes a dedicated guide on how to transition your summer wardrobe into the cooler months without losing the laid-back feel that defined the Hamptons shoot. There will also be styling notes on layering slip dresses under knitwear, keeping cropped denim in rotation, and getting the most out of the new leather pieces. Subscribe to the GUESS Journal newsletter and follow the brand on social for the first look at each new chapter.