Lisa Rinna has always understood that family is the ultimate luxury, and her Express holiday campaign proves it. Bringing Harry Hamlin into the fold for his first fashion campaign was a quiet stroke of genius, the kind of move that feels less like a marketing decision and more like a natural extension of how she lives. We appreciate that she didn't treat the holiday shoot as a production to be managed but as a memory to be made, one that happens to involve argyle sweaters and a tinsel-covered tree. It's the same instinct for considered dressing that runs through our own thinking on Six skirts that carry the season beyond denim and The Quiet Power of Trousers That Move With You: the best style is the kind that lets you live in it. Rinna says everything she wore could already be in her closet, and that authenticity reads on camera.
What strikes us most is the ease of it. Hamlin, after decades in film and television, told his wife that modeling is "really easy," and there's something charming about a man discovering a new craft at this stage of his life. Rinna's instinct to put him in front of the camera, to the point of declaring "Get to work, buddy," suggests a partnership that still has play in it. The campaign captures the family in leather culottes, emerald suiting, and plaid blouses, but the real appeal is the mood: a mother and daughter laughing on a decorated staircase, a husband and wife sharing a frame for the first time. It's the same warmth we felt reading about Harriet Sperling Finds Her Royal Confidante in a Heartfelt First Interview, where acceptance and belonging carry more weight than any title.
The practical takeaway for our readers is straightforward: Express is positioning itself as a one-stop holiday shop, and Rinna's endorsement is credible precisely because she took pieces home. The black suit with razor-sharp shoulders and satin lapels has already been worn more than once, which tells you more about the collection than any campaign copy could. For those of us building a wardrobe that works across occasions, that kind of versatility matters. A sequined purple mini dress and a poinsettia red jumpsuit can coexist with a Fair Isle sweater and dark denim when the pieces are chosen with intention rather than impulse.
Rinna and Hamlin are now rehearsing for Broadway's It's a Wonderful Life in New York, their first holiday season away from Los Angeles. The campaign, then, functions as a farewell to the Decembers they knew, a family portrait taken before the traditions shift. We'll be watching to see whether Hamlin's second campaign confirms his wife's instinct that she had been overlooking her most natural collaborator all along. If it does, the lesson is one worth borrowing: the people closest to you are often the ones who make the picture complete.