Fashion week is a competitive landscape, especially for younger labels ready to make their mark. Enter Tanya Taylor, who for Fall-Winter 2020, launched a video series that put fashion – and humor – centerstage. Taylor assembled an all-star cast of female comedians, including Jane Krakowski, Michelle Buteau, Gillian Jacobs, Zosia Mamet and Sasheer Zamata, for this digital campaign. We got the inside scoop from Taylor herself!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ANgkeZqMII
Why did you decide to opt for a digital campaign as opposed to a physical activation this season?
For the last eight years, I’ve shown at New York Fashion Week in different formats. After returning to the calendar in September, it became clear that our customers weren’t able to fully participate in the experience in the same way that industry insiders were. The team sat down and we challenged ourselves to think of a new way to engage both the fashion community and our consumer audience at the same time. What we came up with was a video series that showcased our Fall 2020 collection, reflected our inspiration for the season, and supported our mission to create happy fashion that brings joy to your day.
How did you select the girls for this campaign?
I’ve always been inspired by female comedians as I feel they embody the spirit and mission of the brand: colorful confidence, high energy happiness, and bringing joy to people’s lives. We also realized how frequently we dress comedians, whether on stage or in their daily lives. We worked with Jill Demling, who is a powerhouse as well as a friend and mentor, to cast five funny women who could bring their own individuality to the scripts and to the clothes.
How did you come up with this concept?
We always want people to smile when they wear our collection. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and we wanted to bring that same joy and optimism to these videos. I have always had a sense of humor about fashion and fashion week and suspected our customers did as well, so we posed the question to them on Instagram, ‘What do you think is funny about fashion/fashion week?” The answers made us laugh and we decided to use some of the ideas and bring them to life through videos.
We then compiled an incredible team to help bring our vision to life. We hired Evan Jonigkeit to direct and co-produce them and Samantha Shanker to write the scripts. As we began compiling our cast with Jill, we would match the scenarios to the talent. We chose women that would make the scenarios their own, many of our favorite moments from the films were the women improvising on set.
What do you hope to accomplish with this series?
We hope to engage a wider audience that doesn’t participate in NYFW and to make it clear that our brand has the courage to think differently and to try new formats. We also hope to make people laugh because fashion should make people happy and everyone could use a little joy these days.
Watch the full campaign here.
