Corpus Musters Creative Energy For Fancy Urban Look Book
Corpus, the contemporary brand known for its prepster cum hipster aesthetic, is pulling out all of the stops for their Urban Outfitters collaboration called ByCorpus. Pretty young things playing hookie like they're starring in their own suburban film noir adventure does a successful look book make. Even though we've thoroughly outgrown the laid back 'indie' Urban aesthetic, we have to admit, we're tempted. We might skip the Urban signature babydoll dresses and mini-floral skirts, but a crisp, white ByCorpus blouse (and a pair of Cheap Monday's) might bring us back through those double glass doors just like the good old days.
Urban Outfitters, as we've reported on before, has wrangled brands like Spring & Clifton and Steven Alan for their collaboration efforts. As with any retailer, their attention to the demographic is reflected in their partnerships. Target, for instance, sticks to high fashion brands with a palatable aesthetic. They wait for a significant amount of buzz to generate before they secure their conspirators. Case in point, Proenza Schouler, Loeffler Randall, and Luella were all, at the time of collaboration, garnering a significant amount of peripheral attention all on their own.
For Urban Outfitters, however, their strategy starts with the hipster set--the kind that went to a good college and grew up riding in a Volvo. Urban Outfitters is choosing, that is, brands that are decidedly conservative (far away from what you might consider avant garde) though still definitely hipster (when hipster means creative/intellectual types who like the occasional St. Germain cocktail). For twenty-somethings (and many an NYU alum), that means easy-to-understand basics done by trusted contemporary brands, it means not having to worry that the printed t-shirt is a rip off, it means shopping avant garde straight from the designers who are known for that sort of thing and still getting chilled out ByCorpus blouses for a reasonable price. It's a win-win if you ask us.
