The Graduate Collection

As graduation and leaving education for the last time is growing closer i thought whilst being surrounded by young talented creatives i should make the most of the opportunity and collaborate with people who's work i admire. Once i graduate i will be working full time on my clothing brand The Prawn Shop, which started during the summer after my first year at university, and so it feels like the right time to work on a new collection for the brand so i can release it once i've graduated. 

In the past year and a half of running the brand i've released 3 collections consisting of around 10 pieces each, with one of pieces being released on occasion. Whilst thinking about the theme of the next collection i want to release to my audience, i came up with the idea of 'The Graduate Collection' a 12-15 piece collection featuring exclusive collaborations with my fellow classmates and soon to be fellow graduates. I intend the clothing side of the collection to not be about graduation, rather to subtly communicate the feelings myself and the people who i'm collaborating with are currently experiencing, as this is the last time a lot of us are going to be education, the final few months before we go out in to the working world. 

However the 'Graduate' theme comes in to the promotional side of the collection, in each collection i've previously brought out there has only been one photoshoot, with these images being used for the website and for social media, however this time i wanted to make this collection the most ambitious, well thought out collection The Prawn Shop has ever produced. 

As well as the 12-15 piece collection, there will be a 

• product image photoshoot (digital)  (images for the website) 
• lookbook photoshoot (film photography) (i intend to create a brand lookbook to send out to future potential stockists, press and collaborators 
• lookbook video (more like a short film, to show the collection moving and to communicate our concept behind it) 

After having the concept for the collection down, i decided to contact classmates Jay Vaz and Amin Fouari and ask them if they'd like to be involved, they both said yes (examples of work can be seen below). 

Jay's work uses a lot of collage and overlaying which i think could translate really well to clothing, whereas Amin illustrates in a similar line quality to my self which i feel will work well once we collaborate on designs, further to this he has knowledge in motion graphics which will bring a new dimension to the promotional side of the collection. 

I created the above moodboard before the initial meeting with Jay and Amin, in order for them to see my vision for the collection, The Golf Autumn Winter 2018 collection  was a very big inspiration for my vision for the lookbook video, the use of a split screen with one side showing the details with the other showing the outfit as a whole is an element i think could be really effective within the graduate collection as it allows the customer to see the potential small embroidery details.
I intend for the whole photography/filming side of the project to show a narrative of almost a cliche 90's highschool, with the video creating a narrative of school picture, with each of the models walking on screen, sitting down and having their picture taken then walking off.