Tzenkoff believed the art director’s intended vision for Cerruti’s menswear advertising campaign could be most successfully realised with collaboration from one particular photographer: Judy Linn.

Her seminal images of New York’s 1970s most creative downtown denizens, such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Sheppard and, of course, Patti Smith (Linn shot covers for Smith’s 1972 book, Seventh Heaven, as well as her Radio Ethiopia album in 1976), have been widely admired and emulated throughout the subsequent decades.

Linn was the ideal candidate for this project, as her archive of starkly-shot subjects resonated perfectly with the brooding themes underpinning designer Nicholas Andreas Taralis’ work at Cerruti. Having been invited to participate, Linn’s inimitable interpretations of the contemporary Cerruti man proved pivotal to the power and credibility of the resulting campaign.