A Sly Exchange of Glances: Crafting a Spy Aesthetic for Cutler and Gross

Moody, monochrome, seductive. That's the aesthetic of eyewear brand Cutler and Gross’ Duālis SS25 collection, with creative direction from Aboud + Aboud and production from NM Productions. Taking inspiration from 1970s spy thrillers, the campaign plays with themes of identity and secrecy. Who’s looking and who is being seen? Shot in a former spice warehouse in Lewisham, it mixes London’s brutalist grittiness with quiet elegance, and makes the glasses a character in the sly game of gazes.

The brief was direct from the start, says the NM Productions team. “Alan Aboud, creative director of Aboud + Aboud, approached our photographer Boo George and us with a clear brief: to produce a shoot for the new Cutler and Gross Duālis: SS25 collection that pays homage to London in the 1970s – an era defined by secrecy, intrigue, and the art of deception. The visual tone was already set, giving us a strong direction to work with,” the team says.

Creative director Alan Aboud says that the original ‘Tinker Tailor Solider Spy’ TV series served as the initial inspiration which was subsequently built on. He adds: “Visually, it was the tallest benchmark in espionage storytelling ever produced. We subsequently were honoured to work as colour consultants for the cinematic film directed by Tomas Alfredson in 2011. Michael Caine’s ‘Ipcress File’ from 1965 was another cinematic release that we referenced.”

The campaign’s monochrome visuals are incredibly striking, highlighting the bold design of the glasses and the starkness of the shoot’s setting. “Working with Boo inevitably means you are torn whether to go with colour or work with his incredibly deep black and whites. Luckily our client, Sadie Watts at Cutler and Gross, was 100% behind us to release the majority of the campaign in black and white, as the structure of the frames in this seasonal release are effectively brutalist shapes that endeared themselves to black and white,” explains Alan. 

Boo’s style – raw and atmospheric – was complemented by Mike O’Connor’s, director of photography, cinematic eye in this campaign that brought understated elegance to stark spaces. “The two are always eager to execute a vision. They are quite similar in how independent yet incredibly collaborative they are.” NM Productions says. 

Finding the right location for this shoot was crucial to authentically evoke the cinematic inspiration Alan mentioned above. Specifically, “We didn’t want glamour, we wanted true grit and reality… a warehouse space that felt like someone was in hiding and didn’t want to be discovered, “ Alan says.

“Gary Oldman’s ‘Slow Horses’ was a series that used grim, shabby locations to great cinematic effect. Boo and his team at NM Productions took that brief and managed to find an old woodworking factory in Lewisham which was previously a spice warehouse. Now owned by a team that specialise in managing spaces for stills and video, the three-storey warehouse offered a wonderful location to imitate what we were looking for. The roof top also had industrial views all the way into the city.”

The glasses are just as much of a character in the film and stills as the people, playing on the idea of watching and being watched, weaved organically into the overall narrative. “The great thing about working with Cutler and Gross is that they really want  character in the imagery over specific product shots, as they create beautiful still life imagery alongside these images. Our job is to reinforce the themes of the collections within our shoots whilst showing the beauty of their frames on people in our themed world. The beauty of their product is the strength of design and shape of their products. It is very hard to take a bad photograph of the frames!,” adds Alan. 

Everyone agrees that, perhaps a little unusually, this production was challenge-free. “We hate to say it but… it was actually smooth sailing throughout! We had a very talented team that worked well together. Generally, when there are challenges, open communication and a willingness to adapt were key. Ultimately, there's always a solution!’ the NM Productions team says. 

As for the best of working on this stylish campaign? “Like most production companies, we’d say our favourite part is usually when  the call sheet goes out! But we thoroughly enjoy the location scouting part – it’s like putting a  jigsaw puzzle together as there’s so many pieces to the right location. James, our inhouse location scout usually finds himself down a rabbit hole for hours looking at cool places.”