Michael B. Jordan admits that being the face of a fashion campaign takes some getting used to. “I do have to mentally say, ‘This is a character that I’m playing,’” he tells Vanity Fair. Doing so helps Jordan channel what he calls “that persona that you see on the billboards or in the magazines.” “You have a lot less limitations when you’re on a set or a stage and you’re in the middle of a scene,” he explains. “When you’re taking a photograph, you’re capturing one frame that needs to say so much. They say a picture’s worth 1,000 words—it really makes sense to me now.”
Jordan’s latest project is the result of a new partnership with jewelry brand David Yurman, which launches its spring 2025 men’s Chevron campaign on Wednesday.
“This campaign is really big on self-expression. It’s really [about] a pursuit of excellence,” says Jordan, who notes that Chevron itself is a play on the French word “chèvre,” meaning goat, or more colloquially, the greatest of all time. “I’m always trying to push myself to the next level, push the people around me, the work that I’m a part of, the narratives that I care about, and to find a brand that has similar values is rare nowadays.”
It marks the actor’s second collaboration with the label, following his debut as the face of its inaugural men’s high jewelry collection, The Vault, last spring. Filmed against the backdrop of Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park in New York City by fashion photographer Tyrone Lebon and filmmaker Frank Lebon, the imagery mirrors the Chevron collection’s motif of light and dark—and the seamless transition between the two.
Jordan senses that, like him, more men are “taking ownership” of how jewelry “blends into their fashion.” “It’s a symbol of power as well,” he says. “Jewelry sometimes represents status, and [these pieces] show class and elegance without trying to do too much. And that’s right where I like to live.”
David and Evan Yurman also designed a few key pieces of jewelry for Jordan’s next film Sinners, which reunites him with director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Black Panther, and Creed), out in theaters on April 18. Jordan plays twin brothers in the supernatural horror thriller, his return to acting since making his directorial debut with last year’s Creed III.
Stepping behind the camera strengthened the collaboration between Jordan and Coogler on Sinners, their fifth film together. “After directing, I think I was more of an asset to Ryan in the production. Understanding a bit more of what he was going through and how I can assist and help him wherever I could,” Jordan says. “One of the hardest things about directing is being everywhere at the same time and however I could make life easier, maybe when he was not around or preoccupied with other things, I always had my eyes out for anything that I could be helpful at. So, that really made our shorthand even stronger and allowed me to be more of a piece on the board for him.”
While there isn’t much that Jordan can divulge about the project just yet, he maintains that his onscreen characters don’t often influence his personal style once filming wraps, with the exception of Creed’s heroic prizefighter Adonis. “As he’s grown into world champion and becoming a businessman, coming from a more athletic background and being in more relaxed comfort wear, then graduating to finer designers and labels, that would probably be the closest to my overall arc and growth when it comes to fashion,” Jordan says. He then teases that his sophomore directorial feature, The Thomas Crown Affair, a reimagining of the 1968 and 1999 versions starring Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan, respectively, is a reflection of “my next evolution when it comes to fashion and where I’m at in my life as well.”
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The post Michael B. Jordan on Reuniting With Ryan Coogler, His Next Directorial Feature, and the Power of Jewelry appeared first on Vanity Fair.
