The spirit of creative collaboration is stronger than ever, with brands and artists from across the world connecting to showcase their shared visions. With the internet opening the doors of opportunity, young creatives have built a platform to cultivate their audience across a range of mediums. Utilising these tools to their advantage, Billy Barrett and Yaku Stapleton have launched their latest collaborative effort titled Ad Astra.
Within the modern era it could be said that Instagram is the new runway, giving young designers and creatives a step up and have their worked showcased to an international audience for free and largely without limitation. For the creative minds that may have otherwise remained in the shadows, this ability to directly reach their consumer base has provided the perfect opportunity to expand their physical presence, with events now welcoming a far further reaching crowd. This is where we have seen fashion design students and long-time friend Billy Barrett and Yaku Stapleton shine.
For both, their personal Instagram's have served as a space to showcase their creative endeavours, allowing their styles to flourish, all the while keeping the storytelling of the creative process alive. Naturally, as friends, their aesthetics have overlapped, leading them to join forces for an ongoing series of collaborative projects. While a joint Instagram page has given users an insight into each project, the boys are yet to neglect the importance of bringing their audience into physical spaces as the cultivate events to coincide with each apparel release. Their latest collaborative piece, Ad Astra, sees the duo look "to the stars" with a NASA-inspired tie-dye graphic tees.
Ad Astra sees the boys take huge strides forward in terms of their production value and creative direction, with a lookbook that plays on the idea of school photos and NASA's astronaut portraits. Each of the cosmic-coloured tees features signature graphic characters that resemble the pair sitting atop the Earth, symbolic of their desire to reach new heights. Coinciding with the project's release, the pair took to Dalston to bring Ad Astra to life with a pop-up and music-fueled event, inviting attendees into their world, a world that has continually demonstrated that this is about more than just apparel.
Take a look at the Ad Astra lookbook below, and head over to Instagram to keep tabs on future projects and releases.
