The Art of Being a Creative Director in the Fashion Industry

Whether you are familiar with creative direction or not, there's no doubt that we all see it, whether it's when we endlessly scroll on our phones, on television or when we are out and about, often in the form of campaigns and moving image productions, all in efforts for the company to market their product to the general public. It often involves working with the creative team to create a strategy that will hook their target audience.

Stella McCartney Campaign, Winter 23

One of the most notable creative directors for me is Stuart Vevers, who has had several projects with some of

the most famous brands which we all know and love, currently working with Coach as creative director. However, previously he has worked with brands such as Calvin Klein, Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton.

After taking a peek at his Instagram I noticed the latest pieces of work he has produced are very much Y2K.

To understand more about Vevers' Creative process, I watched a few interviews, his story starts in Yorkshire, where he was born, he stated he found his passion for fashion rather late compared to the typical person working in fashion but still kept up with and read magazines and would follow the fashion world. He enjoyed Art at school which he was encouraged to do and it further became his favourite subject.

Fast forwarding to more current times, he started working for Coach back in 2013, at the time, the brand was going through a rebirth making it the perfect opportunity for Vevers to bring his flare to Coach. He stated that he used Coach's archive as a reference as it was what felt right about the brand, pointing out the classic Coach bags which are arguably Coach's best inventions. He continued to use inspiration from their Archives but moved it forward, keeping it modern and relevant. He gave Coach a brand, an identity which he claimed to be optimistic, free-spirited, and joyful along with a New York attitude, bringing Coach back into the fashion game. After Stuart joined Coach, they reached many milestones due to his creative direction, for example, they had a show at New York Fashion Week for the first time.

To go back in time slightly to just his second job at Bottega Veneta, he expressed that it was his first time to unleash his aesthetic. Following on from this he was asked how he would define his aesthetic and he responded, that he has never had his own label so it's difficult to define but he used the word straightforward to describe his approach to creative direction, he likes to be down to earth and have fun within his work which is portrayed in his many campaigns. He always made sure that his studio was a fun atmosphere for example, with the use of music. His approach is to create material that is sexy, bold and youthful mixed with real, respected craftsmanship. He voices that sketching ideas and brainstorming with his creative team is one of the best parts of the job and the challenge is when having an idea in your head, sticking with it through the whole process and being diligent about making it work. Overall, it's important to have confidence in yourself within this career, as well as to feel strongly about your ideas as you also have lots of people to persuade along the way.

He stresses the importance of moving with the times as otherwise it is nearly impossible to stay relevant, for example, he states that his perception of 'extreme luxury' used to be having every colour involved in the photo, but as he has gained more experience it has changed with the focus on subtle colour combinations and how the product feels when you touch it.

@Stuartvevers on Instagram