Priyanka Chopra, the musician, actress and former Miss World, has been named a Guess Girl, the first woman of Indian descent to be so honored. She will appear in the fashion brand’s print ads for its upcoming Christmas season shot by a seemingly-unlikely photographer: Bryan Adams.
?“I didn’t know he was a photographer,” says Chopra, who was on her way to India for the release of her newest film “Krrish 3″ when she spoke to Billboard. “I was like, ‘Wait, what? The jeans and guitar guy?’ He’s a huge celebrity in India. He comes almost every year and plays sold out concerts. We love him, we know all his songs and all the lyrics.”
With Adams’ shutterbugging skills and Chopra’s beauty, she may soon join the pantheon of Guess Girl luminaries who have become household model names, including Claudia Schiffer, Adriana Lima, Anna Nicole Smith and Kate Upton. But with Priyanka’s triple-threat of singing, acting and modeling, she could even surpass them.
Chopra, who is co-managed by Anjula Acharia Bath and Troy Carter, is slated to release her third single this December or January on Interscope, Desi Hits and producer RedOne’s 2101 label. RedOne is producing Priyanka’s debut full-length and worked on her first two singles which featured collaborations with will.i.am and Pitbull. About the new track Chopra will only say that “It’s a different kind of song from what I’ve done before.”
Both Guess and Chopra are open to the possibility of further collaborations between the fashion brand and the singer’s music. “We didn’t necessarily approach Priyanka from a music standpoint,” says Amber Tarshis, SVP of marketing for Guess North America, “but we’ve become such fans of where she’s going from a music direction and as she’s releasing her album, we’re looking to do more with her as the album comes out.” Meanwhile Guess will stream Chopra’s music and play her Guess campaign video across their 1,700 stores worldwide.
Working with a musician is not unprecedented for Guess. The fashion house partnered last year with Tiesto on a limited edition capsule collection which included the Tiesto NYT LYF watch, which became the brand’s all-time best-selling timepiece. Guess expanded their relationship with Tiesto sponsoring his tour and club nights.
The Guess advertising campaign with Priyanka will run in the U.S. in the December issues of magazines including Harper’s Bazaar, Paper, Nylon, ELLE, Marie Claire, WWD Collections, Hollywood Reporter and WSJ Magazine. Though the brand declined to give details on its spend for Priyanka’s campaign, Guess spent $41.7 million on measured ad spending in 2012, according to Kantar Media. The overwhelming majority of that spend was on magazines and print, where they spent $37.1 million.
Chopra says she is currently working with a number of different brands, including Nokia, Pepsi and Garnier. She is also seen by millions every Thursday night as her song “In The City” with will.i.am is the official song of this season’s “NFL Thursday Night Football.”
All of which raises the question of how Priyanka came to be the next Guess Girl. “It happened within three seconds of meeting Paul [Guess CEO Paul Marciano],” Priyanka says of sitting down with the Guess co-founder in his office. “He just said, ‘Oh my God, you’re a Guess Girl I have to shoot you. Get your management to call me.'”
At the time, Priyanka confesses, she “didn’t quite understand the magnitude of it. Being the first Indian and the diversification of a global brand, is something that makes me so proud. And with Guess being such an iconic brand associated with such beautiful iconic women over the years, it’s amazing to be a part of that legacy.”