LAURA HOLLY ADCOCKGRADUATE PORTFOLIO

strong printsmultiple fabricationsbold colourtailoringfur.

...now that our smartphones and tablets and pocketbooks have made us wireless and have set us free we are able to work everywhere and anytime we want;As a result we no longer need a desk or an office and are able to completely reinvent our existence and timetables. Borders of working time and leisure time have

faded as we decide on our own timetables and priorities. We are free to roam and wander...Under this influence we will again become nomadic

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LAURA HOLLY ADCOCK

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

FASHION STYLING & PHOTOGRAPHY

"We're a leading and uniquely British brand.

We mix up one-off antiques with high quality tailoring: the chair you sit on when you buy a suit is for sale and we can wrap the suit and have the chair waiting for you when you get home." (Paul Smith, 2015)

“The Department of Silly”

HISTORYAs a teenager with a passion for cycling, from a young age, Paul Smith’s main ambition was to be a professional cyclist. This was until a traumatic accident at the age of 17 left him hospitalised and injured for six months. During his recovery time in hospital Smith developed friendships with other patients who happened to be design students, open-ing his eyes to a new world of fashion and art. Following his recovery Smith was provided with a job at a clothing warehouse by his father, which together with his newfound admiration for art and popular culture lead to him building his own fashion empire. (Smith, P, et al., 2013)

ORIGINSmith’s first boutique store opened in 1970 in his hometown of Nottingham; nowadays it is an internationally successful brand, retailing globally in 66 countries with a dominant

PAULSMITH:THE BRAND

consumer audience in the Japanese market (over 200 stores in Japan alone).

Central to the brand is Smith’s office, in which lies an array of quirky and kitsch objects collected during his travels or given to him as gifts from annonymous admirers. Ranging from a giant fluffy chicken covered in stamps, to a walking stick, waterskies, a cowbell and a tricycle, the office is ‘a cabinet of curiosities’ and a reflection of Paul Smith as a designer. To many, the office objects are simply seen as clutter, however the endless objects, books and magazines are sources of inspiration for Smiths eccentric and unpredictable fashion collections (Paul Smith: Gentleman Designer, 2012). VOICEThe brand encompasses a genuine sense of humour and mischief, mixed with his love of

tradition and the classics. Described as heritage meets style, the brand has become synonymous with the catch-phrase “True Brit”. The brand is seen as an unpretentious and exceedingly ordinary company, which reinforces the notion of authenticity and genuineness - “Not the kind of designer to ask for picture approv-al”. This makes the brand accessible and within reach for a wide target audience. Paul Smith himself is described as polite and respectful which adds to the authen-ticity of the brand (Smith, P, et al., 2013).

“He has the authenticity, that has given a generation or two of British men the permission they thought they needed to wear clothes that have more sophistica-tion than they would otherwise have been comfortable with” (Smith, P, et al., 2013).

BRAND

SOFTPOP:SS16 FORCASTED TRENDS

BRIGHT & BOLD

COLOUR BLOCKING

KITSCH

CASUAL

FUN

SIMPLIFIED

LAYERED

VIBRANT

Kitch sheds its throwaway reputation to become a relevant source of inspiration for sophisticated design, elevating novelty and pop-culture references while focusing on subversive colour and texture (WGSN, 2015).

MOOD + INFLUENCE

“A sense of softness, created by using subtle texture as well as colour, underpins this playful and energetic summer story. Pop culture and youth-led blog references are stripped-back and sharpened for a grown-up and intelligent new approach to the teenag-er’s bedroom-inspired world of saccharine cuteness.This simple and preppy styling direction has a flattened, almost-2D appeal, with details emerging like paper that has been folded or cut out and overlaid. Cartoon-like influences continue with graphic panels of pattern and black outlines, updating colour-blocking for these fresh, contemporary tailored looks.Modern retro florals have been cleaned up to remove some of the vintage cuteness, cut out and repositioned on plain grounds to encourage a more confident and simplified approach to print. Vibrant screen-prints are blocked,

layered and striped together, moving graphic looks away from geometric design.The novelty postcards, tacky souvenirs and playful beachside styling synonymous with holiday kitsch trans-late into a resort look that feels sharp and modern, but refuses to take itself too seriously. This contemporary preppy direction combines clear, relaxed lines with synthetic-looking colours and surfaces.By bleaching out colour, new combinations of tradition-al and modern materials used to create sports-inspired basics feel contemporary, elevating street fashion styling to a premium level. Subtly exaggerated detail and oversized silhouettes emphasises this toned-down take on high-end casualwear (WGSN, 2015).

“Refuses to take itself too seriously”

WGSN TRENDS

Colour Palette

Reference to bold clash of prints and

contrasts

SHADOW:STYLES/TECHNIQUES

Using shadows in photography creates interest within the photos; the light and shadow contrast can be used to create shapes or patterns and can also be used as the main subject of the image rather than a person to create variation within the photographs. Due to the loud nature of the brand, prints made from shadows could compliment the patterned clothing without distracting from the colour. The shadow can also be used to break up an existing pattern within the natural landscape. Capturing a shadow on a 3D surface can distort the shadow appealing to the surreal theme of the photo shoot. The lighting can also be altered to manipu-late the sizing of the shadows – thus creating a distorted reality, although this may be harder in an outdoor location rather than a studio (Masha-ble, 2013). I feel that this would strongly relate to the Paul Smith

brand as it creates the unexpected and uses a strong use of pattern, however it would be very much dependant on the natural sunlight when using an outdoor location and therefore would be best at midday when the sun is the strongest. Using shadows as a technique also strongly relates to theme of ‘accidentally on purpose’ as it can be used as a natural obstruction to the subject.

SURREALISM:STYLES/TECHNIQUES

The photography surrealism style can be created using varying methods and props, however the overall feel of the image is to create something that makes the viewer question what is happening in the photo and to create something unexpected. The photo-graphs shown here have been created using the camera rather than post-production editing, using techniques such as shutter speed and clever positioning. The surrealist style plays on the quirkiness of the Paul Smith brand due to its humorous nature.

SHUTTER SPEED

POSITIONING

SHADOWS

PROPS

ADVERTISINGMEDIA

The aim of the Paul Smith Spring/-Summer 2016 Womenswear Campaign is to promote the new womenswear collection in the iconic quirky ‘Paul Smith’ aesthetic. The images on the left are examples of Paul Smith menswear campaigns which both demonstrate the product and the overall atmosphere of the brand with a playful edge. Therefore this campaign aims to adopt this aesthetic into the womenwear campaigns, which are often less synonymous with the witty and

playful visuals seen in the menswear.

The Campaign would be promoted through popular womenswear maga-zines such as Harpers Bazaar, Another Magazine, and ID Magazine. These publications represent high-end products yet would allow Paul Smith to target a wide market audience, appeal-ing to his target customer. The publica-tions are renowned for exemplifying a combination of high-end fashion, art and culture, synonymous with Smith’s method of captivating consumers with

EXAMPLE CAMPAIGNS

PUBLICATIONS

the lifestyle of the brand. The imagery from the Campaign would also be used throughout Paul Smith social media, including the website, Facebook page and Twitter feed. This would be a good source of free promotion as social media becomes part of everyday modern life.

SPRING/SUMMER 16CAMPAIGN

PAULSMITH:From the initial brand research it is evident that there is a strong handwriting to the Paul Smith brand. Colour, British heritage, print and travel are the four main com-ponents that make up the brand and thus will become the focus of the advertising campaign together with the forecasted WGSN trend, ‘Soft Pop’. Some of the more recent collection lookbooks appear to lack the Paul Smith signature style which is so synony-mous with the Brand. It has become apparent that the womenswear department is a smaller subsection of the brand, which originally began as a menswear business and so will be the main focus of this advertising cam-paign. It has been reported that Smith is liaising with London designer Jonathan Saunders on his womenswear collec-tion to modernise the design. As the 70th aniversary of the brand, the Spring/Summer 2016 campaign looks back at how the brand began with Smith’s cycling accident and how the he became a designer by accident. The campaign theme, accidentally on purpose therefore is a reference to this, but is incorporated into the photo-shoot in the iconic humourous signature of the brand. The campaign will incorportate photographs whereby the subject is ‘accidentally’ obscured, or the image is ‘accidentally’ taken without the subjects knowledge, thus reverting back to the iconic quirkiness of the Paul Smith aesthetic.

Accidentally on purpose

APPLICATION:PRINT

DIGITAL

SOFT POP FORSUMMER

SHOP NOW

SOFT POP FORSUMMER

SHOP NOW

SOFT POP FORSUMMER

SHOP NOW

In a real-life context the images would be used in the aforementioned magazines as part of the Paul Smith Spring/Summer 16 advertising campaign. The images would work as a double or single page spread as a campaign, as they depict the mood of the collection in one strong image. On their own the images portray the simplicity of a modern womenswear brand, yet offer a fun, bold statement against competitor brands within the same magazine.

The images would equally work well accross digital media and would likely be used within the Paul Smith website and social media to promote the arrival of the new collection. They would work as an introductory image on the homepage of the website and furthermore as a shortcut for the customer to the new products available online via the ‘Shop now’ option.

SS16 ACCIDENTALLY ONPURPOSE

PAUL SMITH

SPRING/SUMMER 16

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