Abercrombie & Fitch ran a nationwide design challenge, Sophomore Summit, and selected roughly 80 students (3.0 GPA minimum, portfolio required); we were handed a brief to build an original clothing campaign for A&F and Hollister.
My team's work spanned trend research, visual identity, marketing collateral, a community mechanic, and a product strategy.
Concretely, that meant I personally built: in-app promotional layouts, email blasts, social assets, and the Instagram challenge framework, including the #HollisterDarlin community mechanic. I also consulted on overall design choices throughout the process of fashion design and brand collateral.
Working with fashion designers and UX designers gave me a clear picture of the energy they wanted the collection to carry, and my job was amplifying that energy.
We started with social media research, specifically Instagram and TikTok. Denim was everywhere, and there was a western energy tied to the Beyoncé Cowboy Carter trend that was popular at the time.
Early sketchbook research
WGSN ↗ flagged Rodeo Renaissance and Cartoonification as trends for Spring/Summer '25, and Runway coined "Denim for Days". These forecasting sources reinforced the same vision we were seeing online, and we felt more comfortable committing.
"Focus on a pastoral or rodeo direction and be mindful of your storytelling when referencing cultural patterns. Apply to graphic tops for the young market, and invest in crafted elements and embroidery for the mature market."
Since youthful, nostalgic, denim-forward was the direction, a Blue Ivy (Beyoncé's daughter) angle came up early, but we pivoted away from it quickly, since if we had to work that hard to make a reference land (especially with an audience that might not even know it), the campaign wouldn't land.
We wanted something that felt western-inspired without screaming cowboy or western-costumed.
Before we developed anything visual, we created two personas based on A&F Co.'s central customer demographic.
We also mapped the influencer ecosystem around our customers. The goal wasn't just reach/follower count, it was demographic fit. We wanted one creator for each end of the Hollister spectrum.
Body positivity and youth empowerment. Her content works because she makes every viewer's body feel important and valued, not the exception.
Fashion content built for Gen-Z teens (hauls, unboxing, Get Ready With Mes). She's already featured Hollister organically.
We started with an open brainstorm, which is where the original pivot from the Blue Ivy collab happened: we kept the feeling of western-wear, but removed the dependency on her specific reference.
Direction 01: editorial flat lay.
Direction 02: brand tags & collateral.
The identity had to read as western without feeling like a costume, something someone could reach for on a regular day without making a statement. To achieve this, the palette leaned into a warm and familiar "Americana" quality.
The final moodboard.
Fashion designers focused on fabric, silhouette, and what would work across the clothing pieces; marketing and UX worked on brand identity at the same time. We checked in between the two groups regularly, which is where we could identify when the clothing and the brand were starting to tell different stories, and course-correct.
Better Cotton Twill Denim and Better Cotton Denim gave the collection its backbone: weights that feel like something quality, that hold an intended crease, and that don't read as fast fashion. Linen and Cotton Jersey were brought in for lighter seasonal pieces.
The palette pulled from WGSN's S/S 25 colors: dusty blue, navy, crimson, cream.
The finalized color palette and material selections for the Denim Darlin' collection.
Prints were part of the brief from the start, tied to the 2008–2018 print revival we'd already flagged in trend research. Before landing on a final pattern, we sketched early ideas to test the visual language: how bold, how abstract, and how far to lean western versus something more graphic and nostalgic.
Early draft: print pattern exploration.
We were looking for a typeface that held the collection's western reference without tipping into cliché, something legible in a social feed and still expressive on a physical sign.
Early type exploration.
The finalized type direction for the website and digital campaign.
Other synthetic fibers require 342 million barrels of oil and release 8 million tons of plastic annually. That context gave the campaign a layer of integrity that extended past the visual.
By sourcing exclusively from natural fibers and ethically proven suppliers, the collection could speak to Serena without losing JaNa. Not only was it an ethical constraint, it was a signifigant brand story worth telling.
Better Cotton Initiative certification: the sourcing story made visible on the product itself.
The idea I'm most proud of from this project is the charm bracelet concept (people love collecting things, and they love personalizing things). The #HollisterDarlin hashtag and the pop-up photobooth already gave customers a way to physically enter the campaign, but the charm bracelet extended that into something you could wear and carry with you.
The #HollisterDarlin social campaign.
Pop-up photobooth activation and printed photo strip.
15% of each charm purchase going back to farms and agricultural spaces gave the campaign a charitable layer; the exec directors responded to it specifically. They thought it was a strong way to integrate community and conscientiousness into a campaign that could have easily just been aesthetics.
If this campaign were real, I'd want to push the photoshoots further away from farm settings, getting JaNa and Serena into the settings our actual customer lives in (concerts, on the street, schools/universities). You don't have to want to be a cowgirl to reach for these pieces, and I think the imagery should say that as clearly as the clothes already do.
The community layer: collectible charms, charitable giving, and IRL activation.
JaNa and Serena's identities largely shaped specific components of our campaign.
She lives her life in front of cameras and in crowds, so the #HollisterDarlin hashtag campaign and the pop-up photobooth became the centerpiece of how customers engaged with the collection.
She reads the label, shops secondhand, decides which trends she trusts, so the collection runs entirely on natural fibers.
She's why the charm bracelet mechanic included a 15% charitable donation to Flying Horse Farms rather than just being a branded collectible. She needed the campaign to mean what it said.
