Following the launch of GUESS’ collection with FriendsWithYou, VMAN caught up with Nicolai Marciano, Director of Brand Partnerships & Specialty Marketing. Brought to life by Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III in 2002, FriendsWithYou is a fine art collective that hopes to encourage and facilitate connectivity through their creations—spreading the message of Magic, Luck, and Friendship™. Which we always need a little more of.  With worldwide reggaeton sensation J Balvin as the frontman, the collection radiates the best vibes with rainbow graphics and fun fabrications. 

Below, the young Marciano gives us insights into the inspirations and creative process that fuelled this latest meeting of minds. 

VMAN How did you first come across the fine art collective, FriendsWithYou?

NICOLAI MARCIANO J Balvin introduced us to each other a few years ago. The FWY team was doing the tour design for Balvin’s Arcoiris tour, and Balvin had asked GUESS to do the costume design for him and his dancers. We ended up doing a collaboration for the merchandise on this tour and that’s what started the dialogue between us. 

VM What sparked the idea for this collaborative collection?

NM We have worked with FWY on several different projects and we wanted to bring a larger global project to the market sharing their world of art through the GUESS lens of apparel and lifestyle product. After seeing their installations and experiential work they’ve done, I was really interested on seeing what we could do together in the fashion space.

VM Could you speak more on the message you hope to share through these designs?

NM The goal of working on a collection with FWY was ultimately creating a beautiful collection of clothes for everyone including kids; that shares a message of positivity, friendship, and happiness. We feel that by putting a collection like this out into the world of fashion, it creates a lot of good energy and positive feelings to those who experience it in one way or another. From wearing it, seeing it on someone else, to seeing a billboard of the campaign in public.

VM Can you walk us through the creative process for this collection?

NM We really enjoyed the creative process of this collection. Working closely with both Sam and Arturo, we were able to blend the FWY world with GUESS. FWY curated the assets, colors, texts, fonts, icons, and characters for the collection to be used. Being able to design apparel with those assets was really fun, especially across different categories like eyewear, handbags, and watches.

VM The campaign video takes on a playful aesthetic, very much in tune with that of the collection, what was the inspiration behind this?

NM The FWY characters and icons felt very anime like and cartoonish and we wanted to create something special to debut the collection. We thought the best way to bring this collection to life through the campaign was with a short film. The video shows a world of happiness and friendship with real people like J Balvin and characters like Little Cloud.

VM What drew you to cast global music sensation, J Balvin as the star of the GUESS x FriendsWithYou campaign?

NM J Balvin is the one who originally introduced us to FWY and we had both individually done work with him before.  The whole campaign messaging and creative is so on brand for Balvin. We couldn’t have had someone better to participate in the campaign.