Staged in a setting mystified by the sun’s magic and surrounded by the mystery by the sea, Milan-based GCDS’ latest campaign is a dose of adventure for those itching for the summer. 

In collaboration with the infamous Japanese anime series One Piece, characters from the show are studded throughout GCDS’ signature of eccentric to bring mythology to life. Shot in Madrid by Javier Ruiz, Arón Piper, the German-Spanish actor, singer, and model known for playing Ander Muñoz in the Netflix teen drama Elite, is joined by other rising Spanish talents who make up the bubbling cultural hub such as Rebeca Solana, Emmanuel Yebe, and Hernán Cano (who recently was featured in our Spanish V: La Nueva Movida digital issue!

All dressed in glittering tops, scaled-body suits, and macramé tops, GCDS makes sure that they are always serving a true fantasy to be worn on the streets, and the bounds of the sea cannot stop the brand, as creative director Giuliano Calza stated to V’s Kevin Ponce about the Southern Italian mythology that inspires Calza to this day, saying “I used to go on summer vacation every year in a place where many stories were told about the Leucosia mermaid and that the island was her shelter. Everything felt so tangible and believable. I still feel the same emotion thinking of it, like a child waiting for something mysterious to happen at night. I want to believe in magic. It is what inspires me the most. I want to think of a mermaid with no tail but with eyes that speak their magic. That’s where my girls and boys on the runway come from. I think [this collection is] what I’d pack in my luggage, flying to a crazy trip to Asia or for a premiere in the US. For me, fashion has always been fun—a celebration [with lots of] enjoyment. It is part of this ‘dolce vita’ where you have to glam up and go out. If my friends would go to Capri Island today, those [pieces] would be quite an accurate look for [our] summer.”