Want to Land a Brand Collab as a Fashion Student? Here’s How I Did It with General Pants

WORDS BY NFC STUDENT DENYM DOWNES

A couple of weeks ago I had the super fun experience of being a part of a collaboration between General Pants Co. and NFC! 

Whilst sitting in my Monday afternoon class, I noticed an email from the NFC team pop up for an opportunity to create some content for General Pants Co’s upcoming campaign, LED BY LOVE. The brief was relaxed, candid style short form video content, shot on the NFC campus, that could be used on their socials, featuring 4x pieces of clothing that could be styled into 1 complete look, supplied by General Pants Co! The process was kicked off by replying to the email with some ideas and suggestions of what my short form content would feature. I had a quick scroll through the General Pants Co website and socials to gather some inspiration from the clothing and overall vibe of their posted content. 

I heard back pretty quickly from General Pants with confirmation I could head to my local store to select my 4x pieces, and at this point I had a rough idea of what kind of garments I’d like to work with, but I still wanted to have a thorough look at everything in stock. 

With the help of the lovely store manager who ensured I knew where everything was and what specific brands I could choose my pieces from, I spent about 30 minutes in store selecting garments and trying things on before I settled on my chosen look - a white clip front blouse, a white pleated skort, a long sleeve moto inspired shirt and a black pleather jacket. (All of these pieces have been worn multiple times already - thanks General Pants!) 

With the look sorted and the content planned out - it was time to head to NFC to shoot! For authenticity, I wanted to bring a similar vibe to the content that I use frequently on my own Instagram stories and posts - a silly, joyous energy that involves dancing (badly), fan clacking (less badly) and generally having an all round fun time. I put on some music, set up my accessories and spent the next 4 hours creating in the spaces of the styling wardrobe, the “chill out” space on campus, and a little bit outside thanks to the gorgeous weather. (Thank you Luke for the camera operating assistance!)

Once I decided I finally had enough content to use for editing (1 hour and 13 minutes worth) I set to work on editing it down to 15 second short form videos, and created 3 in total I was completely satisfied with for submission. 

I don’t really consider myself a “content creator” per se, but this was such a fun experience and even pushed me out of my comfort zone a little! I learnt A LOT in the 48 hour turnaround period between initially applying and submitting my content - about lighting, camera operating and especially content editing. 

I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to experience something like this in my time at NFC, and I recommend any current students to immediately put their hand up for anything like this - you will gain knowledge and experience, and might even manage to score a bangin’ outfit! 

Keep your eyes peeled for me on the General Pants Co socials!

SEE MORE FROM THE GENERAL PANTS LED BY LOVE CAMPAIGN: