From an early age I have always had a love for art and storytelling through visual aesthetics. As I grew older, I became interested in how fashion is used as a medium to visually communicate ideas and attitudes. It wasn’t until I began to study at AUB that I was able to apply my creativity and love for storytelling into fashion communication and develop my subject into a strong passion.
As a BA (Hons) Fashion Communication student, my creative process is multifaceted with areas of branding, marketing, fashion photography, styling, creative direction and editing combining to create my projects. When presented with a creative brief, I begin by researching around the subject and identify what is happening within the industry and the world around us to inform my creative direction.
My creative vision for my projects is often inspired by a wide range of resources including anywhere from Pinterest, trend forecasting websites, brands, magazines, news articles, galleries and the world around me. My projects often consist of, firstly, creating mood boards and mind maps, followed by colour palettes, branding and logos, then using camera and lighting equipment to produce fashion photo shoots and editing into final products. For me, it’s important to experiment with ideas and take on feedback to refine my projects.
The wide range of resources available at AUB including the Library for research, equipment for fashion photo shoots and films and the creative community for collaborations, has allowed me to fully realise my projects and expand my creative limits. My course, BA (Hons) Fashion Communication, has allowed me to explore my love for visual storytelling through fashion and to think outside the conventions of the subject.
Last year, I was lucky encourage to work on the Size? Syllabus project, where we were asked to create a multimedia marketing campaign for Size? to promote Salomon shoes. My initial idea for my campaign was to market these to university students as an ideal shoe for clubbing, paired with a reflective shoe charm that I designed, which glowed up under club lights. My ideas for the campaign changed a lot throughout the term due to crucial feedback received after presenting my initial idea to Size?, as well as more research into both the Size? and Salomon consumers and where they both aligned. After further investigation, I wanted to expand my shoe charm range to cater a wider range of consumers. This led me to create my final campaign, in which I created a series of functional trainer charms that aided the Salomon wearer within their daily trails. This included a miniature clock charm, compass, light, reflective and karabiner charm. The campaign highlighted the Salomon shoe as the ultimate shoe for any occasion, whether that's for work, hiking or running around the town.
For this, I created a campaign video showing how to wear the different charms, campaign photoshoots, billboard mock-ups, in-store display, packaging, social media posts and shoebox booklet explaining the different charms. My project was nominated for a Size? Syllabus award and I attended the awards ceremony at The Box, Soho, where my project won the Research and Development award. I am incredibly proud of this project, as it emphasised the importance of taking on board feedback, extensive research and not being afraid to be creative.
My Final Major Project, which I am currently creating this year, is called Reworn Stories, where I am uncovering the untold stories of pre-loved clothing by interviewing people who have items of clothing that they can’t throw away and discovering the stories behind why they kept them. This will take the form of a series of short films and a publication exploring the different reworn stories. The aim of my project is to change people’s perceptions around pre-loved, and encourage people to continue to extend the life cycle of second-hand by creating their own memories in the clothes as the previous owners have. I am currently in the process of researching and collecting stories for a series of short films and photoshoots, which will be taking place over the next couple of weeks. This project is particularly important due to the growing climate crisis and the need for more circular solutions and outlooks within the fashion industry.
Outside of my creative studies, I enjoy searching charity shops and car boot sales for unique vintage items. This has led me into reselling vintage clothing and has become a small side hustle alongside my university experience. My love for pre-loved and vintage items has influenced the direction of lots of my projects, as I am drawn to vintage aesthetics and get a lot of my inspiration from the things that I find while searching. As well as this, my love for second-hand has influenced my thoughts around sustainability and circularity within the fashion industry and how I can adopt more sustainable approaches within my projects and creative process.
Looking ahead to my future career, I would love to continue to develop my passion for art direction and fashion photography further and expand my industry experience by completing internships and collaborations to make connections – and hopefully one day becoming a creative director.
Discover more of Molli’s work on Instagram and her full projects below:
