Zendaya Edit
My Role
Creative Director
Problem
Boohoo faced a credibility gap with Gen Z customers aged 18-24.
Social listening showed 62% of target demo perceived celebrity partnerships as "fake" or "paid ads they scroll past." Engagement rates on influencer content dropped 34% year over year.
Competitors like Fashion Nova captured authentic moments that felt unscripted. Boohoo's traditional campaign approach wasn't breaking through. The business needed a celebrity moment that didn't feel like a celebrity campaign.
Research Led to Clarity
We analyzed 200+ celebrity brand partnerships from the previous 18 months. Content that performed in the top 20% shared three traits: natural lighting, minimal styling intervention, environments that looked lived-in rather than staged. Customer interviews revealed a pattern. Young buyers trusted behind-the-scenes content more than final campaign shots. They wanted to see how celebrities actually wore the clothes. The insight: authenticity isn't about being unpolished. It's about removing the performance layer that signals "this is an ad."
Strategic Direction
Build a campaign that feels like stolen moments rather than orchestrated ones.
We had three options:
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Traditional studio shoot with celebrity styling
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Lifestyle shoot in aspirational locations
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Stripped-back approach that prioritized genuine moments over production value
Option 3 won because it aligned with how our target demo consumed content. They responded to rawness, not perfection.
Constraints shaped execution. We had Zendaya for one day. Budget limited crew size. Both constraints became advantages. Smaller crew meant less performance pressure. Single day forced us to work fast and capture instinct over calculation.
Execution Decisions
Direction focused on removing traditional campaign markers.
We shot only in natural light. No additional lighting setup meant faster movement and less formal atmosphere. Styling stayed minimal. Zendaya worked with pieces she'd actually wear rather than full looks built for camera. Photography direction emphasized candid moments between setups rather than perfect poses. The best shots came from transitions, not planned compositions. We cut traditional beauty retouching. Kept skin texture, natural expressions, real movement.
What We Learned
First edit felt too polished. We pulled back further on retouching and composition. Early feedback from focus groups showed younger viewers could tell when moments were staged versus captured. We adjusted shooting style mid-day to lean into spontaneity. The risk: would stripping production value make the campaign feel cheap rather than authentic? We tested three versions with target demo. Raw version outperformed polished version 2:1 on trust and purchase intent.
Business Impact
3.2M organic reach - 4x our paid media benchmark for celebrity partnerships 30% lift in brand perception among 18-24 demo specifically around "brand I trust" and "brand that gets me"
Direct revenue: Featured products sold out within 72 hours. Restocks sold at 2.3x normal velocity for celebrity collaboration items. Long-term effect: Campaign became template for future partnerships. Shifted entire brand approach to influencer content away from traditional production. The bigger win: proved we could compete for Gen Z attention without massive production budgets. Authenticity was cheaper and more effective than polish.
Mytheresa Mens
My Role
Creative and Styling Direction
Problem
Mytheresa prepared to launch menswear category but faced skepticism from buyers and internal teams. Luxury menswear online was crowded. Mr Porter dominated. Farfetch had scale. Matches Fashion owned editorial credibility. Internal data showed Mytheresa's customer base was 89% women. Male shoppers who did purchase bought only gifting items, never for themselves. The category needed to prove viability fast. Finance set a hard metric: 60% sell-through in first quarter or pull resources. We had eight weeks to launch.
Research Revealed the Gap
Competitive analysis showed every major player used similar visual language. Editorial styling, aspirational locations, fashion-forward looks that required interpretation. We interviewed 47 potential male customers in our target demo: 28-45, high income, digitally native.
The pattern was clear. Men described their online shopping behavior differently than women did. They wanted speed and certainty. Time on site averaged 4.2 minutes versus 12.7 for women. Decision drivers: fit clarity, quality signals, straightforward presentation.
Every competitor optimized for engagement and time on site. We needed to optimize for fast, confident purchase decisions.
Strategic Approach
Build a menswear category that prioritized clarity over aspiration.
Three options:
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Match competitor editorial approach to establish credibility
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Focus on price and product volume to compete on selection
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Strip everything to essentials: fit, quality, immediate visual clarity
We chose option 3 because it matched how our target customer actually shopped, not how fashion publications said they should.
Key constraint: limited brand awareness among men. We couldn't assume they'd give us exploration time. First impression had to communicate luxury and clarity simultaneously.
Execution Framework
Casting prioritized authenticity over traditional model aesthetic.
We needed men who wore clothes well naturally. Not fashion models who required styling to look human. The goal: customer sees himself in the imagery rather than aspirational fantasy.
Photography direction emphasized clean composition and strong light.
Every shot needed to answer: How does this fit? What's the quality? Where would I wear this?
We removed lifestyle context entirely. No aspirational locations. No narrative styling. Just product, body, light.
Styling focused on proportion and fit over trend.
Each look demonstrated how the piece should sit on the body. We prioritized technical excellence in tailoring and fabrication visibility over creative styling concepts.
What We Tested
Initial feedback said the work felt "too simple" compared to competitors.
We tested with target customers. Simple wasn't the problem. Simple was the advantage.
Customers completed purchases 3.1x faster with our approach versus competitor sites. They reported higher confidence in purchases because they could evaluate quality and fit immediately.We did add one element based on testing: fabric detail shots. Close-ups on texture and construction increased purchase confidence by 18%.
Business Results
75% sell-through in first eight weeks - obliterated the 60% target
Average order value: $847, 23% higher than projected
Return rate: 12% versus 28% category average for online luxury menswear
Repeat buyers doubled in months two and three. Customer acquisition cost dropped because word-of-mouth drove traffic.
Strategic outcome: Category became permanent. Menswear now represents 22% of total business revenue.
The validation: our approach became company standard for how Mytheresa presents all product categories. Clarity over complexity drives conversion.
PUMA
My Role
Brand Stylist and Art Direction across twelve regions
Problem
Global campaigns fell apart in regional execution.
Puma briefed a unified "After Hours Athlete" concept. By the time creative moved through twelve regional teams, coherence disappeared. Asia Pacific went lifestyle. Europe went athletic. North America mixed both. The campaign looked like three different brands. Brand team showed me performance data. Regional campaigns that strayed furthest from guidelines saw 23% lower engagement than regions that stayed closer.
The challenge: create a system that traveled across markets without requiring constant oversight or losing creative flexibility.
The Core Issue
Traditional brand guidelines didn't work for this campaign.
I reviewed Puma's existing global standards. 86 pages. Dense with rules about logo placement, color values, typography specs.
Regional teams ignored them because they were too rigid. Guidelines assumed studio control. This campaign needed street credibility and real environments.
Written rules don't scale across cultures and markets. Visual systems do.
Strategic Solution
Build a campaign system around motion and framing principles instead of fixed compositions.
The insight: movement creates universal language. A specific pose or location might not translate across markets, but the feeling of motion works everywhere.
I had to solve for two conflicting needs:
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Global brand consistency
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Regional creative autonomy
Traditional approach: lock everything down, sacrifice regional relevance.
Our approach: define the boundaries clearly, free everything inside them.
System Design
Created visual framework based on three principles:
Motion over stillness
Every shot needed to capture athletes in transition. Not posed. Not static. The exact activity could flex by region, but the energy had to stay consistent.
Real environments over controlled sets
Regions could shoot anywhere that felt authentic to local athlete culture. But environments had to show wear, use, reality. No clean studios.
Natural light as the constraint
This forced regional teams toward documentary feel. Couldn't fake it with expensive lighting setups.
I built a 12-page visual guide. No written rules. Just 40 reference images showing what worked and why.
Each image had one caption explaining the principle it demonstrated.
Execution Across Markets
Worked directly with regional teams in three pilot markets: Berlin, Tokyo, São Paulo.
Berlin tested the system first. Their team pushed back on motion principle. They wanted static, powerful portraits. I showed them A/B testing from previous campaigns. Motion imagery drove 31% higher engagement.
They tried both. Motion won in their market too.
Tokyo adapted the system to their athlete culture. Same principles, completely different execution. Their version focused on transition moments in training spaces. Worked perfectly.
São Paulo's team had budget constraints. The natural light requirement actually saved them money. They delivered strongest campaign imagery of all twelve regions.
The system scaled because it focused on principles, not prescriptions.
Implementation Learning
Three regions initially delivered work outside the framework.
North America team shot in studio with controlled lighting. Felt too polished.
We didn't reject the work. I showed them engagement data from other regions. Documentary approach was outperforming studio approach 2:1.
They reshot. Results improved immediately.
The fix wasn't enforcing rules. It was proving the system worked better.
Business Impact
18% engagement lift across all markets compared to previous global campaign
Regional consistency scores improved from 34% to 81% - measured by brand team blind testing imagery
Production costs dropped 12% because natural light requirement reduced crew and equipment needs
System adoption: Puma applied this framework to three subsequent global campaigns
The bigger win: proved visual systems scale better than written guidelines. Regional teams felt ownership over creative while maintaining brand coherence.
Changed how Puma approaches global campaign development. Principles over prescriptions became standard operating model.