Fashion Communication Portfolio by simi dhir

WHO?

SIMI

No, ser who is

riously she?

About me

“The most important thing about a dress is the woman wearing it.”

True words spoken by a legend, who am I to disagree.

But, the second most important thing about a dress would be its story. And what is a good story without good story-telling? That being said, what’s my deal? I like the idea of fashion. Do I think it’s perfect as an industry? No. Do I want to work with everything in me to build a better, just, ethical, and more innovative fashion industry? Yes, I would like that very much. What do I bring to the table? That’s what my portfolio is about actually. Besides my work, I also am dedicated, hard-working, and efficient. I hope you can tell that I like to be clear about what I want by the use of san serif all through as well.

STYLING

What do I bring ART DIRECTION STRATEGIC THINKING

FASHION PHOTOGRAPH

“she can

g to the table?

EDITING

LAYOUTS

FASHION DRAWING

NOIHSAF HCRAESER

MOODBOARDS

FASHION WRITING

n do it all”

TABLE OF C TREND ANALYSIS LUXURY COMMUNICATION VISUAL MERCHANDISING FASHION STYLING BRANDING & SOCIAL MEDIA FASHION WRITING FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS APP & AR/VR SOLUTION

CONTENT ........................... 13 ........................... 19 ........................... 25 ........................... 31 ........................... 37 ........................... 43 ........................... 47 ........................... 55

EDUCATION

EXPERIENCE

Fashion communication and styling

Merchandising Intern Curience Tech 2021

2019-22 ISDI, Parsons, Mumbai Arts, Fashion, Business and Management. Bachelor’s Degree 2019-21 IDOL, Mumbai University Sociology High School graduate 2016-18 KIIT University, Bhubaneshwar Arts & Humanities

SKILLS Core skills

Content writer Suspire 2021 Content writer The Urban Maniac 2021 Student Intern The Summer House 2020 Assistant Stylist Bonnie & Clyde fashion editorial University project 2019 Graphic designer Muskurahat Foundation 2018

Fashion reserach Content curation Fashion Styling Fashion writing Trend Ananlysis Teamwork Punctuality

simidhir975@gmail.com

Software skills

SOCIAL

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe After Effects Adobe InDesign Adobe AfterEffects Microsoft Cloud

CONTACT Simi Dhir Mumbai, India +91 9938618487

simi-dhir-a7a5861b0 @/faux.pason/ @/faux.pason/ behance.net/simidhir

TREND ANALYSIS

Trend analysis is a pretty interesting subject to me. The fact that you can predict and influence people’s decisions is such a powerful concept. This is also a very important skill as it directly ties into the kind of job I want in the future. Trend analysis was part of my fifth-semester study taken by Mr Mohan Neelakantan. We learnt some very interesting things in this module. This included: 1. What influences the collective sub-conscious 2. Theories in fashion 3. Trend cycle & how it works 4. Analysing seasonal trends 5. Trend prediction as a company Although we worked on a series of assignments to learn this skill, I have decided to put my best work forward. This particular project was aimed at understanding seasonal trends and making them available to the public at large in creative ways. To go about this, me and my teammates decided to analyse the trends from SS 2021 Menswear shows and create a fashion and behavioural manual called The Mode Manner.

Our process for this project started by watching all the menswear shows. We then made mental notes and made observations of common trends that were popping up throughout the shows. We then brainstormed and concluded five trends. The five trends are stated below: 1. Minimal Modiste 2. Modern Rudimentary 3. Chaotic mix 4. Murse 5. Funky collars At the same time, we were learning to create consumer profiles. This equipped us with the knowledge to create five distinct consumer profiles. These five consumer profiles are stated below: 1. Casual chaser 2. Slimane Syndrome 3. Grandeur connoisseur 4. Hoarder in denial 5. This is gUcCi yAaR After this, we had to connect each of these trends to a consumer profile we thought fit with each other.

A spread from the manual.

The manual was created as a bi-annual subscription service that acts as a fashion guide to keep you up to date with the latest trends based on your behavioural patterns. The structure we followed was created to give readers maximum interaction whilst being aesthetic and easy to follow. Every issue starts with a brief summary of the season. This includes the author’s views and thoughts of the fashion shows and what they think inspired the same. This is also a place where we mention what’s in the zeitgeist and how that affects our readers. We then move on to a short quiz that aims at understanding the reader’s thought process. The result of the quiz will then take the reader to a specific page. On this page, they will find a letter from their stylists at The Mode Manner followed with the trend we think they will love this season. They also get some styling tips on how to rock the trend on the very next page. Working on this project was an absolute blast! I had so much fun working on the manual and creating the layout. I was very pleased with the result and how well the manual turned out. There were definitely times when we felt confused and directionless but as a team, we were able to overcome the obstacles. This project has also helped me in several projects since and has equipped me with the knowledge to analyse trends and even predict what will be trendy soon!

A mockup for

the final manual.

LUXURY COMMUNICAT Luxury communications were part of our sixth-semester studies and I loved every minute of it. It felt very relevant to me as I would like to pursue a career in the luxury market and this was the perfect way to learn all about it. This subject was taught by Ms Trishita Khanderia under whose guidance I was able to thrive. Through fifteen weeks of lectures and learning new concepts, I felt challenged and compelled to improve myself constantly. The project I think best defines my skills in this field is one in which we had to plan a campaign for a luxury brand. The brief was to divide our process into three stages: 1. Research and exploration 2. Ideation 3. Creative outcome This was a lengthy project and thus, we had four weeks to work on it. The brand I chose was Emilio Pucci. My thought process behind this was to pay respect to the iconic heritage brand which seems to have lost the relevance it once had. As for the aesthetic for the project, I followed one motto: go groovy or go home.

TIONS

Cover art

created by me.

A groovy timeline created by me to highlight the brand’s history.

Because I had more than enough time to complete this assignment, I did indepth research on the brand. This included the following: 1. In-depth study on the heritage and brand history. 2. The brand over the years 3. Business analysis 4. Marketing analysis 5. Branding study 6. Retail analysis I would like to focus on the creative outcome, so I will not get into the research here. My creative outcome was influenced by a research study we conducted for a different subject. In this research, we found that consumers have higher expectations when buying luxury. These expectations were defined by us as a need for customization. This was the basic idea behind my campaign. Some clips extracted from my process book.

Left: Consumer persona

Right: Brand archetype analysis

Through my research, I was able to conclude that Pucci has lost the relevance they once enjoyed and the reason behind this could be their lack of use of technology. Luxury brands are always working towards updating their communication strategy to appeal to the younger generation. My campaign concept was aimed at the same. The campaign was titled “Being Pucci”. The essence of the campaign was that clients would be able to sketch up any print of their choice and Pucci would translate that into a scarf or a kaftan. The concept note reads: “While flipping through this month’s top fashion magazines, you find a blank page. When you turn it around a message reads “#BeingPucci Treat this page as your canvas. Design a print and take it to your nearest Emilio Pucci flagship. We will turn it into a scarf or kaftan” The same will also be made available through Instagram stories.” My plan also involved celebrity endorsements from people I deemed perfect for the brand. This included: 1. Millie Bobby Brown 2. Zendaya 3. Sophia Lillis 4. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan 5. Iris Apfel 6. Harry Styles Additionally, I also created a social media plan for the An artwork created by me to highlight the celebrity campaign which mapped out a endorsements whole month of Pucci goodness.

Prints as designed by my friends Nancy, Khushi & Riddhi.

To really bring this concept to life, I created a few mock social media templates and asked a few of my friends to design prints according to their choice. I presented these prints as part of my final outcome. To close, this project was an important one and there was no way I was going to mess it up. Thankfully, my mentor appreciated my efforts and liked the campaign concept. I too was pleased with the outcome and have since worked on Pucci again. This time to create a business expansion plan to maximise sales and brand awareness, but that’s a story for another time.

VISUAL MERCHANDISI Visual merchandising is another favourite of mine. It’s the perfect mix of art and fashion! This module was actually divided into three subjects, all focusing on different aspects of visual merchandising. Firstly, visual merchandising by Ms Mahi Khare focused mainly on retail merchandising. Secondly, art direction by Ms Belinda Bawa focused on window displays and branded displays. Lastly, focusing on luxury display and store design with Ms Trishita Khanderia. All these subjects combined and gave me a good foundation for merchandising and window displays. While I have quite a few projects to show for merchandising, I have chosen to go for one which is the most realistic and timeless outcome. My thought process behind this is basically to show off some of the more creative projects that can easily be utilized in the real world. I chose to work on a multi-designer platform based in London called MatchesFashion. The reason being, I am a fan of their business strategy as well as their retail stores. I had some great ideas I wanted to execute and I just went for it.

ING

My process like-always started with background research on the brand. I also looked at luxury and eCommerce, the importance of the physical buying experience, the new luxury client, the interdependence of digital and physical buying space, and much more. I then researched all the existing retail spaces which included going over Google Map images and 360-degree views to identifying the location best as I could. Then my creative process began with five stages non-linear design thinking and defining a concept. A still from my process book which was created to resemble the MatchesFashion website.

My concept note for the retail space reads, “5 Carlos Place is the manifestation of Old British Architecture. I imagine just walking through Mount St. would fill one with an overwhelming need to be as elegant as her, rich and filled with sunshine. But on the other hand, the interior of the building is contemporary, minimal and urban luxurious. Much like my theme, this denotes balance through contrast. In addition to these observations, we must also keep in mind that the MatchesFashion personality remains rather muted in all of this. The real hero here is the brands. This is ultimately felt in the visual brand language. However, this should not be confused with minimal. Muted, not minimal.” With the above in mind, I decided to create a seasonal theme relevant to the life of 2020. My theme was: On the go, again! With this theme, I wish to bring nostalgia through physical space while offering optimism through colours and forms.

Above is a still from my process book dissecting my plan for engaging the five senses for a wholesome shopping experience.

My creative outcome consisted of a store layout and a window display. Both of these outcomes were influenced by the original store layout as well as my theme. I also added some new creative ideas which I think can add to a more personalized and meaningful experience like customized and interactive mannequins, a thank you package with every purchase, coffee table books to bring the room to life, etc. Working on this project was a lot of fun. The brand gave me a lot of substance to work with and merchandising being something I am passionate about, I was able to bring my vision to life.

FASHION STYLING

Fashion styling has been a constant learning journey. It has been a part of our curriculum for almost four semesters and, we’re still learning. Thanks to our faculty and mentor, Mr Mohan Neelakantan, my foundation for styling has been made abundantly clear and now I can approach any project with confidence. While I will only be sharing an editorial shoot, I feel compelled to mention all the other forms of styling I have experience in, 1. Commercial styling 2. Costume styling 3. Event styling 4. Historical styling 5. Catalogue styling 6. Personal styling 7. Advertorial styling Going forward, I definitely look forward to getting some exciting styling gigs and create some pleasing imagery.

The brief for this project was simple enough: in groups of four, plan, source and, execute an editorial shoot for a magazine of your choice. My team and I sat together and brainstormed for a couple of ideas ranging from a homage to Neerja Bhanot to real-life barbie and Indian warrior. However, none of these felt strong enough. With some more research, we were able to finalize our concept. Inspired by the cult classic; Bonnie & Clyde: Return in animal print. We were all very stoked to work on this project. The concept was exciting, our team worked very well together and shooting is always fun. Our process began with creating boards to help us with the execution. This included a mood board, styling board, hair & makeup board, pose board, casting board, and location board.

Bonnie and Clyde Animal print X Maximalism

Hair and make up board

Top: Concept board

Bottom: Hair & makeup board

Left: Pose board Right: Contact sheet

The final outcome was better than we could’ve expected. Looking back now, there are some things I would change few things but that’s not to say that I don’t love what we have. There were some challenges we faced while shooting, the sun being one. We also faced some last-minute pose changes but that’s a natural part. In conclusion, this may not be the best of work out there but I am pretty proud of it and this shoot will always hold a special place in my heart & portfolio.

A mockup for the final ten page editorial.

BRANDING & SOCIAL MEDIA When it comes to branding, I am equipped in two areas: Visual branding & Brand narrative & strategy. I like both tasks very much as they require different creative & strategic work. My visual branding mentor was Ms Tanya George, who taught us all about type and branding and sparked my passion for graphic design & branding. As for brand narrative & strategy taught by Ms Trishita Khanderia, this module was about studying brands and strategizing for brands to maximize profits, brand awareness, etc. Both these modules helped me work on this project, which was a complete branding & strategizing project. The brief was to work in a group of eight and create a brand identity and social media plan from fashion, beauty or lifestyle.

Our group decided to create a travel & lifestyle brand named Pahiya (wheel in Hindi). Pahiya is a luxury caravan rental service operating mainly in the Southern part of India and surrounding areas. It was inspired by the road trip & #vanlife culture that has skyrocketed in the past few years. Starting with market research on the luxury travel market & caravan culture of India. My primary job was the visual branding of pahiya that included The logo for the brand created by me logo, colours, van design, social media templates, etc. The process of branding also included SWOT Analysis, BCC model Analysis, Brand Archetype Analysis, creating Consumer Personas. We also stated our Values and Goals and created a Brand Universe. Another fun aspect of the brand was themed vans to match our consumers travel aesthetic. I also created mood boards for each of these themes and an immersive Spotify playlist to provide the best experience possible. The themes we decided to begin with were: 1. 1970’s Groove 2. Cottage-core 3. Dorm van for meeting new people 4. Scandanavian goodness 5. Gaming life

A mood board highlighting the

aesthetic for the cottagecore van, including a functioning Spotify playlist code.

Our Saftey guidlines according to our process book is as follows, ” Pahiya believes in a holistic connection among the employees, employers and clients. The inter reliability spreads the message of co-existence both with nature and the business. The Employees will be guiding the clients out of dangerous situations if any or solve problems faced during the excursions. A satellite phone is placed in every caravan, and employees can act as a safety net without being physically present. Another feature is the addition of a video camera outside the caravan, that can zoom in 10x the actual view, hence preventing any mishaps. This will again be guided by the employee surveillance team.” To communicate our vision the best we could, we created a bunch of creative visuals to bring our brand to life. This included toiletries, door hangers, Van design mockup, postcards, Employee uniforms, etc. Some creatives made by me to highlight the Brand Universe.

Top: Toiletries provided by Pahiya Middle: Employee uniform Bottom: Van design

A mockup we created for the Pahiya

Instagram page. Our goal with this page is as follows,

“The travel enthusiasts page, that’ll

feature insides of the caravan, personal anecdotes/reviews/ from the clients and reviews of the journey. It’ll also

host collaborations and their product

amalgamation in the caravan. There’ll

be a couple of instagram stories that are

mostly interactive and spread knowledge on travelling sustainably.”

41 An Instagram post I created

as a follow up to the branding

assignment. My concept note read: The differentiator of any good

brand is their attention to detail & customization to branding.

With Pahiya, our focus was to create

an aspirational yet achievable brand and thus the brand language was

cosy and friendly. As a travel brand, I think it is a must that we create imagery that can generate brand recall value in everyday things like maps, sunsets, road trips, etc.

For this purpose, I want to create tailored content unique to Pahiya’s branding that is attractive to look at as well as generating value to the viewer.

An additional bonus of reels is their reposting value and high visibility.

After the branding part was over, we focused on the communication strategy, which was differed based on different mediums like tactical communication, website, app, social media, etc. For example, the newsletter strategy reads,” The newsletters will be recurring every 2 weeks at 5pm on Fridays, as the weekday comes to an end and clients can plan up the trip for the weekend. The newsletter will cover

the customer’s own journey, images, videos and moments and a detailed itinerary.”

FASHION WRITING Fashion writing has always come naturally to me, and I quite enjoy it. Our fashion writing module was taken by Ms Smita Deshmukh, who taught us many forms of professional writing including, blog writing, feature writing, interviewing skills, writing effective advertorials, Twitter threads and much more. I consider the following project to be one of my best works; it is a feature I wrote on the urgency of sustainable fashion & what role luxury brands play in it. I wrote very passionately and without any boundaries, which is my privilege as a student. I called out some big names in fashion and praised some others: it was very thrilling. Since this project, I have worked as a content writing intern at two different companies and have received positive feedback at both jobs. I believe writing is a very honourable job because it can shape minds and create opions.

A mockup for a feature I wrote as part of an assignment.

Here, I have explored the world of sustainability and why luxury brands don’t give it the importance it so clearly deserves despite having the resources. Over two spreads I present my arguments on how sustainability is acheivable, why luxury brands owe their clients an ethical business model and how the prices won’t be affected as drastically as one might imagine. I end by highlighting some industry pioneers and their acheivement I ask tough question: Why are the clients okay with designers not giving them value for their money. I take up a case of two leather jackets to explain my point better. To end on a positive note, I also list industry innovators who are all about the sustainable living. Some of my favourite points I bring up in this feature are quoted below. “Recycled fabrics, organic fabrics, cruelty free, biodegradable fabrics, long lasting quality, direct support to small scale farmers, etc are just some boxes to check.” “But are you okay living in a world like that? Designers who are taking a stand are seen with much more respect in the eyes of the buyers. Designers who have dismissed the question of ethics are old news. It’s time we called them out and let it be known that the consumer of tomorrow is not here to play no games.” “Don’t let any brand convince you that doing anything less is fine, it’s not. We must not set the bar too low and let businesses that make billions every year exploit our planet and people anymore.”

FASHION ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATION This project was part of my Fashion Styling 2 module. I first started learning fashion illustrations as part of an elective that focused mainly on hand sketching, watercolours & Copic markers. However, over time I started exploring digital sketches and took a liking to them. The brief of this project was to create a minimal magazine cover first, based on which we had to then create a maximal cover. We had complete creative freedom over the concept, styling, choice of magazine, etc. Because this project was completed during the early days of lockdown, my group and I decided to create an illustrated cover following Vogue Italia’s initiative. The illustration and cover layout was done by me. As seen on the covers, models: @lilamoss @msalekwek @adutakech @jeenu.mdvn All wearing @maisonvalentino Spring 2021 Couture.

NS S

Top: Analysing past covers to understand the process and layout.

Bottom: Validating my finding through quantity.

49 Left: Moodboard for the minimal cover

Right: Moodboard for the maximal cover.

Left: The process & a rejected copy minimal cover. Right: The process of maximal cover.

APP & AR/VR SOULTION As part of our seventh semester, we took a module called New Age Media Tech by Mr Akshit Bhasin. This class taught us to solve problems in the digital age through disruptive thinking and modern softwares. For this class, we learnt softwares like Figma & Blippar. This assignment was divided into two parts: 1. Research & ideation 2. Implementation In groups of four, we had to choose a brand and conduct extensive primary & secondary research. Through this, we had to identify one or more gaps in the strategy. In the second part, we had to come up with a disruptive idea to bridge the gap and execute the same. The brand we chose was Dhruv Kapoor, and lucky for us, we were able to get in contact with the creative director to collect insights that helped us immensely. The image on the right shows part of our final outcome vis. a vis. a VR space called a Virtual Wardrobe to create a social shopping experience.

As mentioned above, the project started with extensive research on the market, the brand & its branding and the consumers. Some topics we covered in our secondary research are: 1. Who is Dhruv Kapoor and why did we choose him? 2. The 5W’s & 1H of the brand 3. The timeline of the brand 4. Brand & design philosophy 5. BCC Analysis 6. SWOT Analysis 7. Competition Analysis 8. Brand goals 9. Brand Intimacy report 10. Consumer Personas, and much more. In addition to secondary research, we also conducted over a dozen interviews to identify where the brand lacks. This helped me identify the gaps and create a problem statement. Quoted below is a small part of our problem statement: “Continuing from the first problem, people who are insecure about sizing prefer to shop in-store with the help of store associates. The brand lacks in This page (top to bottom): Consumer Persona #3, Documentation of the interview with Dhruv Kapoor, Faeture list ideation for the app.

Right page: Information Architecture for the app.

this area as well due to their absence in the retail space thus leaving the consumer with an empty shopping experience.” In the second part of this study, we tried to solve the problems we had identified vis. too product-centric &

lack of a holistic shopping experience. Our idea was to create an experiential app that would create a brand universe; allowing the brand to interact with the

consumers much more. This app would also include a Virtual Wardrobe feature to promote “social shopping” online. Working on this assignment was as fun as it was challenging. I was lucky enough to be working in a great team and I do think we pulled something off here. As far as real-world functionality goes, this project may have been the most effective and creative one I’ve worked on yet.

To view the app in effect, click on the image on the right.

PS. Due to certain restrictions, we were unable to publish the app & it can only be reviewed as a pre-recorded video.

A mockup for the final app.

Work in progre

n ess...