“We’ve got people coming out—cut!” director Michel Gondry shouts outside of the Astor Place subway station in Lower Manhattan on a blustery day in late October. In front of the Academy Award winner’s lens, A$AP Rocky, clad in silk pajamas, is on bended knee with a ring box in his outstretched hand, gazing up at Margaret Qualley.
Qualley, who wears a textured tweed jacket and wool trousers with Mary Jane high heels from Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2026 collection, seems unfazed by those who stop and stare as she stars in a short film featuring Chanel artistic director Matthieu Blazy’s new designs. “It’s New York City: You’re on display and invisible at the same time,” she tells Vanity Fair. “The city is a beast, ever-changing.” But the spot’s location isn’t without its perks: “I get to sleep in my own bed.” (Qualley and her husband, Grammy-winning music producer Jack Antonoff—whom she wed in Chanel—live in New Jersey.)
Rocky, a Harlem native, is similarly unbothered by the onlookers who gathered for a sneak peek of the campaign. “I usually walk around in my pajamas to go to the bodega, so this is pretty normal,” he tells me back at his trailer between takes. “There’s really no place like home. And this is the hub for creatives, artists: New York City…this is it.”
A$AP Rocky
Courtesy of Chanel.
A$AP Rocky
Courtesy of Chanel.
Set in New York City, the film sees Rocky and Qualley frolic around downtown Manhattan, a familiar playground for all involved. “Every place is special, but New York [has] a quality, a texture that you can see everywhere you look,” says Gondry. “It’s old and new at the same time and constantly bursting with life.”
Qualley, who first walked Chanel’s runway as a teenager in 2011 and has closed its couture proceedings as the “Chanel bride,” has starred in some other memorable short films, dancing her way through Spike Jonze’s Kenzo World (2016) and acting in Chanel’s The Button (2024). But working with Gondry made “a dream come true,” says Qualley, citing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which earned him a best-original-screenplay Oscar in 2005, as one of her “all-time favorite films.”
Margaret Qualley
Courtesy of Chanel.
Margaret Qualley
Courtesy of Chanel.
Back in his trailer, Rocky has similar feelings about collaborating with Gondry. “All of my music videos that I direct derived some inspiration from one of his films. I plan on directing my own feature. I look up to people like him,” he says, a grin stretching across his face. “I feel like a kid in a candy store. On a normal day, I’m usually perky, but today I’m fanning out. I hope I’m not annoying him.”
Rocky seems to have played it cool enough: Gondry calls directing the pair “easy and natural.” On set, Chanel’s newest leading man is also trying to keep warm as temperatures dip, rubbing his hands together when the black puffer jacket protecting him from the wind slips from his arms. “Summertime, summertime,” Rocky chirps quietly before another take begins. But fall makes itself known with the burnt orange leaves that scatter on the ground, whipping periodically into Qualley’s slicked-back bun as he proposes marriage again. She jumps for joy, prancing around Rocky’s kneeling position, then launches into his arms with a breathless “Yes!” Qualley gets lifted into the air as onlookers gawk from across the street.
