DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT: CHRISTIAN COWAN
Christian Cowan, the rhinestone mastermind, designs for the luxury world of glamour. Before moving to New York, Cowan studied at Central Saint Martins, where his avant-garde designs quickly caught the attention of brands and celebrities, including Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Cardi B. These celebrity endorsements coupled with Cowan's bold gestures on the runway have entranced pop culture aficionados and industry insiders alike. He is known for his use of bold colours and patterns, as well as his playful and theatrical designs often displaying his signature detailing of ruffles, bows, and feathers.
christian cowan image | v magazine
This fashion week Christian debuted his limited edition collaboration with leisure footwear giant, Crocs. The collaboration between the two consists of three styles, about the collection Christian, says, “I wanted to bring our brand identity to the Crocs brand identity. I’m known for glitz and glam, checkerboard, and pink and bows. So it’s just quintessentially us all in one. And it’s just about bringing glamour, which makes so much sense to do it with Crocs because Crocs experiments so much. That’s my favourite thing with fashion — it’s to experiment.”
“We are a ready-to-wear brand so I wanted the Crocs to become ready-to-wear,” he noted on the multipurpose jibbitz, the charms that allow clients to style the crocs at their own discretion. The Crocs collab also inspired looks in Cowan’s spring ’23 collection, as seen in a black-and-white leather look, reminiscent of the yin and yang clog style.
image cred | christiancowan.com
The designer debuted a three-style shoe collaboration with Crocs — bubble gum pink sandals, platform clogs, and mismatched black and white classic clogs, all with eccentric detachable charms that could also be worn as necklaces and hair clips. The designer pushed the collaboration’s idea into his ready-to-wear with little leather looks to match.
WDD called the look of the collection “high personality fashions”.
Christian Cowan and ORB360° shot their second season together this past September, days after the resort collection was worn on the runway for NYFW. The Resort 23’ spins will soon be available for viewing on the Christian Cowan website. From a single 360 spin, e-commerce pages are easily built out as seen on Cowan’s site with front, side, and back shots along with the complete spin. ORB360° photography is essential for luxury fashion brands to best showcase their garments' unique qualities. There is no better way to display the sparkle of a sequin dress or shine on a metallic bag than with ORB360°.
The Fall 22’ collection is already available on Christian Cowan’s website to view. The Fall 22’ collection was the firstORB360° shoot with Christian Cowan. This was done at their Soho flagship store; complete with an all-pink exterior, carpet, and walls. The ORB360° team set up throughout the store while interested SOHO shoppers peeked their heads in to watch the models take spins in their oversized and glamorous ball gowns. ORB360° created a custom set for the Christian Cowan gowns to be shot as they were wider than the regular V2 machine.
Utilising ORB360 images for e-commerce is easy with the API for JOOR integration and ORDRE meta. (The world’s first multi-brand B2B virtual showroom platform, a custom, white-label B2B virtual metaverse for luxury design houses.) 93% of consumers want product-level engagement, interactive imagery increases engagement across all key dimensions. With ORB360° brands have seen a 10-27% percent increase in consumers' willingness to purchase. With such comprehensive product displays, there is a reduction of 22% return rate.