My role was to bring a brand back to life. I worked across the recreation of brand identity, art direction, trend forecasting, establishing brand guidelines, establishing photography and web guidelines, event design and production, model and location scouting, web development, product development, photography and videography, and international buyer relations i.e SSENSE.

Reviving a brand is no easy task. I like to work through the process as method acting. Becoming a consumer of the product, and the community that comes with it. I proceeded to involve myself in every avenue of the business. Meeting with the staff, learning about their interests, frequenting the parties, and focus in on what an SGC person really is. This led me to discover a group of people eager to express themselves, socialise, and stand out where they once fit in. 

We put on events to bring these people together. Asahi beer came onboard to create a popup restaurant with Azabu, serving food in jewellery boxes and a dessert served in a syringe. Working with PR agency Public Library, we sent jewellery invites to select influencers frozen in a box of water, giving them the option of either smashing the cube or waiting for their bracelet. The event sold out every night and wound up hosting encore seatings.

Redeveloping the look and feel of the brand was key in getting the brand back on track. Creating cohesive long-term campaigns that worked together meant the brand had more equity in social media. A style was created, focussing on an idea of ‘shit but polished’, meaning it had to be rough around the edges, but polished overall.

We shot many campaigns featuring street cast models, often with no experience, trying to harness the natural look they brought to the photos. Locations like Avondale, Point Chevalier Beach, and old warehouses gave us the grunge factor we needed, but also the polished finish we were after.

Product also needed to be redeveloped. Working with Marc, I sat down to moldboard collections and go over where I felt trends were heading. This meant placing bets on winners, and developing product to fill the gaps. We also shrunk the collections to ensure a higher sell-through rate, and less stock going to waste. Along the way, I designed jewellery, clothing, and prints. I’ve been lucky to see many come to life in garments.

The website was a key upgrade required. At its final form, the website didn’t connect live to stock, meaning they were often selling the wrong pieces, or not selling any of the ones they needed to. I worked to redesign and launch a new website in two weeks that allowed for a new system to connect to stock, and a new layout to showcase the clothing better. With the new CMS running, the website can be reworked for years to come.

I spent many years working on Stolen Girlfriends Clubs fashion week shows. The first year I was involved, I helped produce the show and ensure everything ran smoothly. We took over a factory in Grey Lynn, created an internal room for models and a band to play, then covered the whole space in black building wrap. Warped with heat guns, the material created an alluring but strange cube in the centre of the room. Models would then cut and rip their way through the wrap and do their walk, all while a band played live inside.

The following year I was given the lead on hosting the fashion week show. We wanted to take it back home to where Marc’s from - Avondale, Auckland. We immediately knew the ideal space would be the dilapidated, but alive, Avondale Racecourse. With months of planning and a near cancellation due to weather, we pulled the show off. The guests were seated two rows per side, with a lighting and sprinkler system rigged in. In the middle of the runway was a set of 40gal drums, ready to be set on fire.

The show started with my friend Cam dressed up in a hoodie, walking down the runway with a bottle of turpentine and a blow torch, setting each barrel ablaze. The models then walked down the line. On their final lap, they were each given our SGC Blunt umbrella and told to open just before the sprinklers went off.  The sprinklers went off, coating the entire front row in water, a ploy at the typical front row exclusivity.

In the past four years, we’ve revitalised the brand, turned their accounts from negative to positive, and rebuilt a brand set to last another 20 years.