Dove Cameron Wears Her Shine in New Coach Campaign
Dove Cameron stars in Coach's new Wear Your Shine campaign for Autumn/Winter 2023.
Dove Cameron is making friends with her inner critic. Starring alongside Lil Buck, Youngji Lee, and Yanfei Son in Coach's new Wear Your Shine campaign, the singer is embracing personal empowerment while donning a selection of bold ready-to-wear pieces from the brand's Autumn/Winter 2023 collection. Photographed by Joshua Woods, the campaign focuses on overcoming self-doubt and finding personal empowerment. Accompanying the imagery is a stunning video directed by Lope Serrano and choreographed by Emma Portner in which the stars go head-to-head with their inner critic.
Cameron who admits to dealing with imposter syndrome, isn't ready to let go of that inner voice. Instead, she treats it with a gentle hand, while recognising that some thoughts are best left at the back of the mind. The morning after attending Coach's Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show, Cameron spoke to L'OFFICIEL about how she confronts her inner critic—or as she calls it, her younger self—and wears her shine every day.
L'O: Talk to me a bit about this Wear Your Shine campaign. What made you want to be a part of the campaign?
DC: Well, I've always been a really big fan of Coach. My very first adult paycheck that I got working in television at the ripe old age of 15, my mom asked me after we put some aside for savings and we put some aside for rent. She was like, “Well, what do you want to put this paycheck towards? What do you want to commemorate as the first special thing you do?” And I said, “I want to go get a grown-up purse and I want it to be from Coach.” My mom got in her little Camry car and drove me to our local mall and I went straight into Coach and I got a bag that I still have as my first-ever foray into adulthood. Coach was always a really special brand for me, and I still have this big backpack that comes absolutely everywhere with me. So when they reached out to begin this partnership, I was really excited because it was authentic. I really believe in working with brands that you have an authentic affinity for. When they presented me with the campaign, I was even more excited because it’s a very human concept. Wear your shine. Being in conversation with your inner critic. We all are every day and overcoming sort of the imposter syndrome and the voices that try to keep you where you are or the ego that tries to keep you safe and where you are. I just thought, What a beautiful kind of multifaceted, multilayered, meaningful message for a campaign to be based around. I thought that was really beautiful and I was really attracted to that as someone who definitely struggles with imposter syndrome and my own inner critic.
L'O: How do you wear your shine?
DC: I think it's an ongoing conversation, an ongoing evolution to becoming who we truly are and getting out of our own way and allowing ourselves to shine. The person that holds us back the most is ourselves based on things we've internalised or things that we've assumed about ourselves or judged about ourselves or told ourselves we can never do or places we can never cross over into. I have this tattoo that says, “None of this is real.” I try to remind myself that the stories that I tell myself about all the negative things about myself or the things I won't allow myself to do because I'm built different than other people who deserve to do those things, I'll never be good enough, I'll never be one of those people—I definitely try to remind myself every day, either through writing about it, writing music, writing poetry, writing in my journal, how short life truly is. In the grand scheme of things, it's over in a matter of milliseconds.
The day that you save things for, the big grand celebration of the special day or whatever. Every day can be that special day. Every day can be the thing that you decide is the best day of your life. Today is going to be the best day of my life. Today is the day that I wear the thing that I think I can't wear or I light the candle or I say the thing to the person that I maybe talk to every day, but I don't truly express myself to. It's making the most out of every single day. And I definitely think that that's a worthy endeavor.
L'O: I liked what you said earlier about it being a conversation with your inner critic. What has your journey in that conversation with your inner critic been?
DC: I guess I would call them my inner critic. I would also call them my sort of young self. It's a self that develops at a really young age. So I think that rather than demonizing that part of ourselves that I think everybody truly has—I think you would have to reach pure enlightenment to not have that voice—I think [you should have] compassion for your inner worrier. It's really somebody who's trying to protect you just in all the wrong ways. I think having a really intimate conversation, being very loving, teaching, talking to that part of yourself—they're a child and approaching them with gentle love and care and saying, I understand why you're here. I understand what you're trying to do. I know you're trying to be helpful, but we don't actually need these conversations to be at the forefront and I love you and I accept you and I do not reject you. I think that's the best way to make friends with your inner critic and to honor what it is that they're trying to do. Because it's still a part of ourselves. It might've just started when we were really young, when we were in survival mode or late-night conversations with ourselves. It's the shadow self. What we're really talking about is shadow work. And in order to live a full, authentic life, we have to embrace that shadow because it truly is a part of us and I do believe it does love us. So I try to be in conversation with that part of myself every day.
L'O: Another part of the campaign is personal empowerment. I feel like so often we seek empowerment by external forces, but what do you do to empower yourself in your daily life?
DC: I think even though this is a little bit broad or ephemeral, I have a few pillars of things that empower me that are nonexternal, kind of non-linear. I feel like the whole “none of this is real” thing really empowers me because it reminds me that reality is subjective, therefore, my reality can be whatever I position it to be that day. I can either tell myself stories that the world is terrifying and things have gone wrong, therefore they will go wrong and the possibilities are endless and I never know what's going to happen and everything is out of my control. Or I can tell myself stories exactly the same thing, that things have gone so right, so therefore they will go right. The possibilities are endless and I never have control.
And so isn't that gorgeous? And can't I then relinquish the need to try to control? And if I have such a brief life on this earth, then I want to spend every day celebrating rather than worrying about how short it is. And truly, those things empower me. They make me feel limitless, and they make me feel like one day I could wake up and feel like the walls are caving in, or one day I could wake up and feel like I have magical powers. It's all in the stories that we tell ourselves. I'm really big on talking to myself. I have an external little voice recorder that I'll sometimes leave myself voice notes to listen to because I'm an auditory learner, because I'm a musician. I just find that to be really empowering.
These are little drops in the bucket that feel like I can put effort into and see myself changing my own world, like molding clay. It's not to say that everything is in my control, but obviously the old adage of “we can't control everything, but what we can control is how we react to certain things.” That's definitely a tried and true adage for a reason. I find it really empowering to be able to be in conversation with myself and work on being my own ally, because I've definitely not been my own ally in the past. And I really admire Coach's approach to this campaign. I find it to be a really apt partnership for this point in my life. I'm excited to be growing with them as they grow as a brand. It feels very like kismet and destined.For
