Hasta La Ideas

For their Spring 2010 collection Nice Collective founders Joe Haller and Ian Hannula brought friends, artists, stylists and models on a camping trip (aka the Gathering) in Northern California “to organically capture imagery of the season’s clothing and product through real experience rather than art direction.” Among the members of the experimental venture, digital artist Andrew Jones’ and photographer Spencer Hansen‘s combined talents led to the incredible footage that Joe edited into a short video (below).

The resulting film depicts a military encampment where Jones’ gorgeously-animated digital projections play out on the faces and bodies of the models (dressed in Nice Collective of course). Juxtaposing fire-lit torches with effects like spiraling rainbow-colored patterns, radiating white lines and fireworks-like explosions, the artist’s motion and imagery seizes on his medium’s ability to create a particular kind of visual magic. Also adding to the overall effect, the graphics—overlaid on helmets and eyes—appear to interact with surfaces as they “paint” them, effectively functioning as a character within the video and hinting at narrative.

In an era of flashy 3-D fashion videos and the like, “The Gathering” stands out for the way it uses the clothes as a canvas, embracing the interdisciplinary nature of the field and the Collective’s creative community—in other words, it’s not just another fashion video.

Check out more images from the shoot after the jump.