Behind the Brand
As you can imagine, a lot of work went into the rebrand from Whyte Bespoke to W Couturier. But it was a labour of love. When a brand is riding on 80 years of history, heart and legacy, you’ve got to do it justice.
When we decided to introduce four distinct lines, we knew we had to represent each one in a distinct way for our new lookbook. From the entry-level assistant through to the C-suite executive, Dubai has perfect pockets that speak to these character profiles in a direct and evocative way.
Our first port of call was sourcing the models to embody each line. We had the lovely Eva to play the W3 woman of power and empowerment, the fresh and dynamic Paul for Collection, Felipe stood for Maison with his strong and sophisticated stature and long-time customers Richard and Steve for Atelier. Together, they defined W Couturier’s diversity and range. From their initial fittings to the day of the shoot, we treated each model with the same level of personable charm and grace as if they were real life customers – when in fact Richard and Steve are, so for them, it solidified our relationship with them even more so.
From playing the part as a woman on a mission in D3 to taking a break between meetings in One Central, our models got in the zone at the drop of a hat – making our job so much easier because we were sorting out each outfit ahead of the next shot, making sure every detail from pocket squares to cufflinks were perfect which takes up a lot of time. By the end of each shoot day we were exhausted from hauling all our suits across Dubai, but needless to say, it was so worth it. Of course, between takes and locations, we had a ball along the way, getting to know each other, playing card games and laughing throughout the day – you’ve got to have a sense of humour as we came to realise as shoot days are longer than long!
Besides putting together the lookbook, we had our Masterclass series to orchestrate. With our nifty and nimble videography team, we blocked out several weeks to shoot the online series from The Art of the Suit to The Maintenance to Suit Fabrics and everything in between. As a family, we have a lot of industry knowledge and insight, and we wanted to be able to share that with you all, so we hope you enjoy the vastness of the series, covering everything you can imagine.
We had a lot of hotel time built into the schedule between Four Seasons Jumeirah to InterContinental Dubai – Festival City, which isn’t a bad way to spend your working day, right? Let’s just say we had a lot of great coffee and cake across the day. And if you haven’t been to InterContinental Dubai – Festival City, we highly recommend going for the views alone!
But our favourite part of the entire production process had to be filming inside Champion Cleaners’ central plant. First of all, it felt like we had gone to another world because it’s so far out towards the desert! And secondly, it’s practically a playground of cool machines and mechanism – it definitely brought out our inner kid in a candy shop excitement!
It was so fascinating seeing how CC take care of our clothes in their five-star premium dry cleaning process. We definitely felt we have a synergy with their standards and practices, which sit in line with our ethos. Watch this space for future collaborations!
