Movement Director Ryan Chappell Defines Fashion’s Flow

So often, models are asked to contort their bodies in ways that make static images and everyday products come to life. Movement director and choreographer Ryan Chappell is usually tasked with helping the process, bringing a quietly radical precision to fashion’s visual language. Chappell shapes bodies not only into gestures but into stories, with a background that threads through musical cinema reveries, Vogue Italia archives, and the intimate spaces of global fashion sets. The Australian-born creative has emerged as an essential behind-the-scenes force, whether sculpting the silhouettes of Kendall Jenner for POP, guiding Selena Forrest’s line of sight in an Isabel Marant campaign, or manipulating spatial illusion in campaigns for Jacquemus or Dazed Magazine. His work is rooted in a choreographic sensitivity to nuance, where a shoulder tilt or head angle can redirect the viewer’s entire focus. A former dancer steeped in the traditions of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, Chappell channels movement into a visual medium where form, emotion, and fashion come alive. Models.com spoke to Chappell in Paris about balancing the energies of a diverse cast, amplifying storytelling, and grounding fantasy within the precise architecture of the body