NTU Fashion Design students help Snoopy to go green in a unique collaboration with Peanuts and sustainable luxury brand Vayyu
Final year students of BA (Hons) Fashion Design have been given an amazing opportunity to create a collection of sustainable luxury unisex garments and accessories using original artwork from the Peanuts comic strip archive.
In November 2020, Vayyu teamed up with the world-renowned Peanuts brand, through leading entertainment, sport and brand licensing agency WildBrain CPLG, to create a design brief themed around the natural world and ocean life. This is the first time a UK student collaboration of this kind has been developed with a brand using the famous Peanuts artwork, created in the 1950s by Charles Schulz.
- As an organic sustainable brand launched in London four years ago, Vayyu was ranked the second most ethical company in the UK by the Good Shopping Guide 2018. The brand supports a number of global environmental conservation initiatives through their charity, the Vayyu Foundation.
- With shared environmental values, NTU is one of the most sustainable universities in the world — ranked 3rd in the UK by the People and Planet University League, and 5th globally in the UI GreenMetric.
The NTU fashion students were challenged to develop a unisex Spring/Summer 2021 collection called ‘Snoopy Just Got Green’ to embody Vayyu’s ethos of design responsibility and sustainability, and to bring their ideas to life through the colours of nature and the characters of Snoopy and the much-loved Peanuts gang.
Through detailed market research and a concept based around nature, they were asked to create mood boards and a portfolio of work for an ‘aspirational collection with a strong commercial awareness to push the boundaries and thinking around innovative sustainable design’. Being given access to the Snoopy artbank allowed them to interpret their ideas on an entirely new level for the Vayyu brand.
Taking interim feedback from the Vayyu brand on board during the process, 17 students presented their final collection ideas at the end of January 2021. Teams from Vayyu, Peanuts Worldwide and WildBrain CPLG, all provided feedback on the ranges and the detailed ideas presented. At international online reveal sessions, everyone was united in their praise for the high standard of work and the level of creativity featured across the collections.
The overall winner, Alex Bolton, was unanimously selected for her comprehensive understanding of both brands and their values, as well as a high level of commercial styling and an amazingly detailed final collection line up.
Alex’s concept, #ActionsMakeMovements, featured a range of positive action slogans and detailed sketch work. Chris Desai of Vayyu said “Alex totally emersed herself in the brand, with fantastic ideas and attention to detail, her work is outstanding and captures what we are all about.”
The Peanuts team loved her use of Snoopy’s mood ranges and her detailed graphic interpretations of the character.
In second place, Tom Chin was praised for his witty, smart consideration of the Peanuts characters and their values. His presentation featured strong graphic work, with each character being nominated as an advocate for one of the United Nations sustainable development global goals.
Alice Doyle was placed third for her strong conceptual print work based on the effects of oil pollution, and her brave, real-world storytelling and environmental references, as well as packaging and branding concept work.
Alex, Tom and Alice will all see some of their selected designs made up as part of the new Spring/Summer 21 Vayyu X Peanuts collection, with the winner’s work featuring on the Vayyu website. Each will receive a set of the final collection garments featuring their respective designs and a percentage of the net profit from sales made of their designs. They will each have the opportunity of work experience with the brand, to include involvement in key range development and activities that are core to Vayyu’s sustainability values.
Speaking about the project and its outcomes, Chris Desai, founder of Vayyu said “I’ve been so impressed by the standard of work and the level of detail the students put into this unique project. They have developed amazingly creative responses to the brief, showing detailed research into global environmental issues, and a great understanding of both the Vayyu and Peanuts brands.”
Emma Prince, course leader for BA Fashion Design said “The collaboration between Peanuts & Vayyu has been such a fantastic opportunity for our students to work on a real-life design project with a focus on sustainability. The students have learnt so much, utilising their garment design skills and combining that with graphics and character licensing. Everyone who took part loved working with Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. There are some amazing outcomes, and we are very excited to see the designs go into production and on sale.”