What better way to showcase Leeds College of Art fashion talent than to team together with an uber ‘hip’ menswear store in Leeds. A collection of students from the BA (Hons) Fashion programme at Leeds College of Art collaborated with the men’s boutique store – Hip, in their recently opened branch in Leeds Trinity shopping centre.
The students were set a live brief to create a communication package for the independent store in the run up to Christmas, which included a zine to advertise their products, a new window display and an event to launch the package to the public. Projects like this help prepare students for a career, helping them build industry links and their aspirations.. The window display is currently on display over the Christmas period at The Hip Store, Trinity Leeds.
Students Gabrielle MacCarron, Shona Northey and Clare Goldsmith who worked on the collaboration commented: “The Hip Store is a good match because it’s independent as is Leeds College of Art and it’s good to work with a smaller brand as well. The whole process has been very personal and interactive with the owner. It’s good to keep things locally based. We’re giving Hip a branding communication package whilst they’re supporting us with our live brief.”
“We came up with the initial concept through brainstorming ideas and decided on going with the concept of water and ice. It’s a Christmas window display but we didn’t want to make it obvious with Santa hats. The idea of ice and water is quite wintry and fits with (The Hip Stores) clothes, as they have a lot of outdoor wear.”
Hip store owner Everton Campbell comments on the collaborative project: ‘This is really the first time we’ve ever done something like this, to me it makes me wonder why we’ve never collaborated like this before, it just feels like the right thing. It’s great to have met the students personally, you can see that they just want to work and make the most out of it. It’s been a really good positive feeling about what I’ve actually got from the students I’ve met. They are the next generation in fashion’.
The live launch event brought together all the work that the students have compiled over the past few months. Work on show at The Hip store includes a striking zine, an inventive window display for the Trinity Leeds store, along with a film featuring an interview with The Hip Store’s founder, Everton Campbell.