Sport. Fashion. Self-expression.
Our collaborative industry project with Vogue College of Fashion invites the next generation of creative talent to imagine where alt*ego could go next.
Every independent brand starts with a conviction. Ours was that performance eyewear could work hard and express something about the person wearing it.
That idea continues to shape alt*ego. From the mountains to the road, we create eyewear for people who bring their own character to their sport. And as our world grows, so does our curiosity about where that approach might take us.
This autumn, we put that question to students at Vogue College of Fashion.
The brief: alt*ego NEXT
As part of the BA (Hons) Fashion Communication & Industry Practice Collaborative Industry Project, 20 students chose to work with alt*ego.
Their challenge: identify a new sport or community beyond our established worlds of skiing and cycling, and develop a creative communications strategy that could introduce alt*ego to that audience.
The possibilities are deliberately broad. An athlete partnership, an event, an editorial concept, a pop-up or an unexpected collaboration could all provide a starting point. What matters is the connection between the community, the idea and the brand.
There is also a practical challenge. As an independent business, we make careful choices about where we invest our time and resources. The students’ proposals need to balance creative ambition with commercial understanding, while protecting the distinctiveness that makes alt*ego desirable.
Bringing the brand into focus
On 4 November, we brought the project into the physical world with a brand experience at Altimus on High Street Kensington.
The session gave students the opportunity to explore the collection up close and hear directly from founder Selena Morris about the thinking behind alt*ego: the importance of performance, the role of personal expression and the realities of building an independent brand.
Eyewear is particularly personal. Its shape, colour and detail can change how someone feels the moment they put it on. Experiencing the products in person gave the students a closer understanding of that relationship—and a starting point for their own interpretations.
For Selena, the project is also an opportunity to share the decisions behind the finished image: how a creative idea becomes a product, how a brand finds its audience and how a small business chooses its next move.
A fresh perspective
Working with students creates space to ask questions that can be easy to overlook when running a business day to day.
Which communities might connect with alt*ego? What does self-expression look like within their sport? And how could we enter those spaces in a way that feels relevant and credible?
The students bring their own cultural references, interests and perspectives to those questions. We bring the experience of building the brand. The value lies in the exchange—and in seeing which ideas emerge when the two meet.
The next chapter
Over the coming weeks, the students will develop their concepts ahead of their final presentations in December.
We look forward to sharing more as the project unfolds, and to seeing how a new generation of fashion communicators interprets the world of alt*ego.
The brief is open. The ambition is clear.
Performance first. Expression always.
