Gigi Hadid Fronted Stuart Weitzman’s 40th Anniversary Campaign

By Runway Magazine Editorial Team

Misty Copeland shot this campaign months after hip surgery. Gigi Hadid returned to a brand she left nearly a decade ago, now as a mother. Yang Mi came back after seven years. Three women, three cities, one 40-year-old label trying to prove it still matters.

The Stuart Weitzman 40th anniversary campaign launched on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, starring Gigi Hadid, Misty Copeland and Yang Mi. All three fronted campaigns for the footwear brand during the 2010s. The commemorative images are set against the skylines of New York City and Shanghai, honouring the metropolitan woman the label was built around in 1986.

Who Is in the Stuart Weitzman Campaign?

Three returning faces carry it, and each represents a different era of the brand’s casting. Hadid was the face of five consecutive seasons from 2016. Copeland brought the American Ballet Theatre audience. Yang Mi anchored the label’s push into China.

Every woman wears fall 2026 product rather than archive pieces. Copeland appears in the Stuart Power Boot 75. Yang Mi wears the Vinnie Slingback Wedge 50.

The reunion framing is the point. Rather than book a fresh cast, the brand called back the women who defined its most visible decade, which is a harder trick to pull off and a clearer signal about what it thinks its equity actually is.

The Line That Carries the Campaign

Copeland’s contribution is the one worth reading twice. She described jumping at the chance to return, then corrected herself — not jumped, given it came only months after her hip surgery.

That correction, made on the record, does more for a shoe campaign than any tagline. A ballerina photographed in a heeled boot after hip surgery is not a metaphor anyone had to invent.

The Misty Copeland Stuart Weitzman pairing has always run on that tension between strength and precision. Consequently the 40th anniversary gave it a story rather than just a shoe.

Is Gigi Hadid a Stuart Weitzman Model?

She was, and now she is again. The Gigi Hadid Stuart Weitzman relationship began with the spring 2016 campaign shot by Mario Testino, and she stayed the face for five straight seasons.

The partnership went further than modelling. She designed the “Gigi” hiking bootie in 2016, with proceeds going to Pencils of Promise, then followed it with the Eyelove and Eyelovemore mules in 2017.

Hadid called the brand one of her first luxury partners and framed the return as a full-circle moment, coming back ten years later and as a mother. WWD published the campaign exclusively on Tuesday morning.

Yang Mi’s history is shorter but strategically heavier. The Yang Mi Stuart Weitzman connection dates to the spring 2019 campaign, shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin alongside Kendall Jenner and Willow Smith.

Who Owns Stuart Weitzman?

Caleres owns it. The St. Louis footwear group closed its acquisition from Tapestry on August 4, 2025, and the deal is the reason this anniversary campaign reads differently than a nostalgia exercise.

The Caleres Stuart Weitzman acquisition closed at $120.2 million, including $11.5 million in cash received, for a net price of $108.7 million. The brand was turning roughly $220 million in trailing 12-month sales at the time.

Jonathan Lelonek runs it as brand president. He joined Stuart Weitzman in 2012 and previously held senior roles at Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo and Paul Frank. He called the anniversary work deeply personal.

The Number Behind the Anniversary

Here is the context no celebrity outlet will supply. In its first full reported quarter inside Caleres, Stuart Weitzman contributed $45.8 million in net sales and an operating loss of $18.9 million.

Caleres has been explicit that it expects to return the brand to profitability after a period of transition. A 40th anniversary campaign starring three globally searchable names is what that repositioning looks like from the outside.

Forty years of heritage, and one quarter that cost nearly $19 million. Both facts belong in the same story, and the Stuart Weitzman 40th anniversary campaign is quietly answering the second one.

Why the Stuart Weitzman 40th Anniversary Campaign Lands Now

Timing is doing real work here. The Stuart Weitzman 40th anniversary campaign arrives days before New York Fashion Week, when footwear brands compete hardest for attention, and it arrives with the Stuart Weitzman fall 2026 collection already in stores.

The New York and Shanghai settings map directly onto the business. North America and Asia are the brand’s two strongest regions, and Yang Mi is the reason the second one works.

Casting three women across modelling, dance and Chinese film also spreads the search demand across three separate audiences. That is a deliberate choice, and it echoes the wider shift in how brands now decide which faces get booked.

What Comes Next for the Brand

Spring 2027 is the real test. An anniversary campaign buys attention; the season after it has to convert that attention into sales without a milestone to lean on.

Watch for whether Hadid stays past this single outing. Her earlier run lasted five seasons and produced two product collaborations, and a one-off return would look thin by comparison.

The broader question is where the label sits now. Quiet luxury reset expectations for this price tier, and the brands winning it have built campaigns around restraint rather than volume. For the designer collections coverage that follows what happens after the campaign drops, trust Runway Magazine.