The last time Spike Jonze made a narrative feature, he gave the world “Her,” the 2013 AI love story that felt wistful then and looks even more prescient now. A lot has changed since. Jonze still hasn’t returned to fiction features—though he did make the 2020 documentary “Beastie Boys Story”—and while the longer-form stuff has stayed out of reach, he has kept himself in motion through music videos, shorts, and commercials, spaces that still leave room for his playful, slightly strange sensibility.
That thread continues with “Shape of Dreams,” a new campaign film Jonze wrote and directed for On, starring Zendaya and built around her first co-created footwear and apparel collection for the company alongside American stylist Law Roach. It is branded work, sure, but it is also the kind of compact visual playground Jonze has always known how to bend into something a little looser and more alive than the assignment probably requires.
On places the short inside Zendaya’s imagined “Dream Lab,” where silhouettes shift and fabrics change shape before landing in their final form. On screen, the idea is simpler: Jonze turns the act of design into something elastic and faintly surreal, which is a better use of his sensibility than just pointing a camera at celebrity-product synergy and calling it a day.
The collection itself leans into versatile, easy-to-wear pieces. Zendaya said the goal was to create essentials that could move across different moments, while Vogue reported that she and Roach were closely involved in shaping the line with On’s design team, drawing from travel, vintage finds, runway references, and their own archives.
That hands-on angle is what keeps this from feeling like one of those empty celebrity tie-ins. Zendaya and Roach have been building a visual language together for years, and even in a campaign this polished, there is a sense of authorship. The campaign launched on April 9, and the collection goes on sale on April 16 through On, its stores, and select retailers worldwide. Watch the ad below.
