Keepin' It "Up North" | #HeroAndCapeAW14 Photoshoot

Graphic and Illustration T-Shirts www.heroandcape.com

We must've typed the word "excited" about five hundred times on social media this week! Ok, maybe that's a slight exaggeration!.... But we really have been eager to reveal to everyone what the Hero&Cape team has been working on!

Behind the scenes, we've been drawing away in our sketchbooks for months and then rendering them suitable for screenprinting on to the cotton t-shirts. That's the fun and creative part, the best bit about the job! There's a whole bunch of awesome Hero&Cape prints for you this season including our take on the fast food fashion trend!

Things got real when the process of planning our A/W '14 shoot went underway. The pressure was on when we went through the list of things we had to consider such as budget, location, logistics, make-up artist, models, photographer... it's the part we always find overwhelming but we knew what style we wanted (fresh, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously) and with some careful planning, we had to believe that we could do it!

Being a brand that is based in the north, the idea of keeping everything "up north" appealed to us. So, last week, we packed the car up with our kit and set off for a two hour drive to Manchester to meet the rest of the team. Upon first impression, we honestly couldn't be happier with the choices we eventually made. For people who have only just met, we got on like we had always known each other and we think that really comes through in the work we had done together. We worked as a team and as a result, we achieved amazing things! The whole day was really positive and super productive - we got things done with time to spare! It felt more like a group of friends hanging out as opposed to "work"! WHAT A DREAM TEAM!

The best thing about this campaign is that we placed it in to the hands of fashion bloggers. Amazing, right?! And it is by far the best shoot we have done so far because if there's ever a group of people who are passionate about fashion and photography, it's bloggers!

First up, the photographer we chose to collaborate with was one we had known since Hero&Cape launched back in 2011. Jefferson from School Boy Couture photographed our whole lookbook and he had the technical abilities to carry the entire project through. Being a local to Manchester, he was our tour guide for the day too! We've admired his work for years and it was great to finally work with someone we believe in.

We also have Sarah from Temporary:Secretary Blog film and edit a video for the campaign. She also set the styling direction too. Capturing the behind-the-scenes footage, she put a video together which you can watch on YouTube here. It was the first time she had done anything like this, so had been trying to perfect the video for days and days!

Now on to the faces of our campaign! The beautiful people! Our female model, Crystal Lily, is a fashion blogger on Five Foot Four Blog who does modelling on the side. We also had our South London boy, Gareth, who isn't a stranger to shoots either as he has previously been in several music videos with the likes of Jess Glynne, Lily Allen and Union J! Impressive, right?! The interesting thing about both of the models we worked with was that they were both under the model industry height requirements but we honestly couldn't give two hoots about the rules because size or height shouldn't be an issue in fashion (rules are there to be broken, anyway!). But as you can tell, our models were AMAZING and they totally worked it!

Last but not least, Lucy, our hair and make-up artist who helped the models get photo-ready for the day. Lucy's got some skills and the "beauty blogger" in Sarah (@tempsec) wanted to sit and watch her do beauty magic! The best thing was that Lucy was passionate about her work and made sure everything was looking fresh! 

We are really proud of this collection, and enjoyed working with the #HeroAndCapeAW14 team. Everyone took a leap of faith and we think it pulled off.

We hope you'll help us spread the word about our independent business and to share the links and photos with your mates! Please feel free to leave us comments and tweet us with your thoughts on the look book, website relaunch and of course, the new tees!

Follow us on Instagram to see more exclusive photographs!

You can now shop the new range on our website! And don't forget, if you've got a Hero&Cape T-Shirt, upload it Instagram and hashtag #HCTshirtTime to win a new tee!