Every pose is a logo in Hugo Christian-Slane’s work for Rhee Studio

Rhee Studio, founded by Cherry Kim in New York, has built its reputation creating bespoke, one-of-one garments and accessories that feature Kim’s own illustrations. The brand’s refusal to separate art, identity and wearability creates pieces that feel deeply personal without being precious. For the launch of their Excess Baggage accessories collection, the brand enlisted New Zealand-born, New York-based designer Hugo Christian-Slane to develop a campaign that would establish a more fully-formed visual language. The brief demanded a step forward from singular, custom pieces into a cohesive collection and brand identity. “We wanted to build something that could stand next to the garments and carry its own weight,” Christian-Slane explains. “That meant approaching this campaign as a statement of intent. We treated the brand identity itself as a central character – bold, sculptural and inseparable from the world around it.” The core concept centres on ‘every pose is a logo’ – an approach that Christian-Slane describes as “branding as embodiment.” The model’s poses echo the logo, the bag echoes the pose, creating what he calls “a visual feedback loop that plays with recognition, form and repetition. Almost like choreography disguised as branding.” The logo itself began as a sketch of a body in motion. “Part Kama Sutra diagram stripped of all sensuality, part mid-century transit icon,” Christian-Slane notes. “We were fascinated by the way bodies are reduced into line and posture in those instructional illustrations – abstracted, almost bureaucratic. From there, we softened and inflated the shape until it landed somewhere between industrial design and leather upholstery.”