Copy and Creative Direction - Schelay McCarter
Art Direction For Fashion: Project Overview & Course Review
Editorial Pitch: Frontier Future
Carly M. Fitz
Concept Overview - Frontier Future
During the 2020 lockdowns, while most people were confined indoors with limited space and little access to nature, America’s ultra-wealthy began quietly relocating. Leaving behind their penthouses and mansions in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and D.C., many started buying up large stretches of land in the middle of the country. As the rest of the world navigated restrictions and isolation, the top 1% were enjoying fresh air, autonomy, and the freedom to play frontier fantasy—living like modern-day explorers and cowboys with endless land as their backdrop.
This sparked a new status symbol: self-sufficiency. In a world where governments, systems, and digital forces increasingly dictate how we live, the elite reframed autonomy, land, and nature as the ultimate form of luxury.
Today, life feels like a modern Wild West, fast, chaotic, overstimulated. In response, a new frontier has emerged: the desire to live slower, more deliberately, and with more control. What used to be ordinary like space, time, land, growing food, raising your children close to nature are all now a lifestyle that is rare, and therefore aspirational.
This editorial explores that shift. It reframes old frontier values not as nostalgia, but as a conscious reset: choosing presence over speed, quality over quantity, autonomy over dependence. The visuals combine cinematic Western elements with modern refinement , dust and denim balanced with silk and structure; vast horizons with intentional styling; rugged textures with elegance. A western, but elevated. A frontier, but modern.
It reflects a wider cultural movement: people rejecting digital noise and urban pressure in favor of freedom, simplicity, nature, and authenticity. What was once utilitarian now becomes symbolic of a richer way of living. One rooted in self-reliance, calm, and connection to the land.
Ultimately, the editorial presents luxury as the ability of lifestyle choice: the ability to step back, slow down, breathe, and define your own rhythm. It positions this lifestyle not as regression, but as a modern aspiration and a reimagining of what it means to live beautifully, live freely, and with nods to the old frontier looking to our future.
Art Direction & copy Carly FitzThe Story
This three-day editorial presents a cinematic journey from traditional, performative luxury to a new frontier defined by autonomy, nature, and self-sufficiency.
We open with, The Departure, set on an opulent vintage train moving through the Alaskan winter. Surrounded by velvet, gold, and curated comfort, the characters wear elegant but impractical high fashion with subtle Western notes. A visual symbol of a life that looks luxurious yet limits them. The moment the train door swings open the threshold between worlds, marking their choice to leave the controlled and familiar for something more real and free.
On the second day, The Crossing, the characters step into vast plains and endless sky. A landscape so enormous it dwarfs them and exposes how small modern luxury feels beside true wilderness. Their clothing begins to evolve: still refined, but increasingly functional, with movement, texture, and heavy fringe. They travel by horse, a symbolic choice that ties into the Year of the Horse and its themes of power, momentum, and new adventure. This chapter reflects transformation, exploration, and the rediscovery of elemental beauty and capability.
The final day, The Arrival, gathers the group around a bonfire deep in the wilderness. Firelight, shadows, and movement express joy, freedom, and communal energy. Their styling now fully embodies the frontier future. Functional yet luxurious, bold and rebellious, with red garments symbolizing defiance and fur representing warmth, strength, and elevated comfort. The bonfire becomes a symbol of community, survival, and rebirth, marking the moment they embrace freedom not as escape but as intention. Across the three days, the editorial forms a complete arc: leaving the old world, transforming through the wilderness, and arriving at a new definition of luxury grounded in presence, autonomy, and connection to the land. In the end, true luxury is the land and the liberation it provides.
Art Direction for Fashion Course Review:
I really enjoyed this course and felt like I got a lot out of it. One of the biggest highlights for me was the amount of one-on-one time we got with our tutor Schelay McCarter. She walked us through each step of the final project pitch in a way that felt supportive and clear, without ever being overwhelming.
The examples and reference materials were also incredibly helpful. Having real, concrete visuals to look at made the concepts click much faster and gave me a better sense of what professional work actually looks like.
What I appreciated most, though, was how comfortable and open the entire environment felt. As a true beginner, I never felt behind or out of place. There was room to experiment with ideas, make mistakes, and explore different creative approaches while figuring out my own process. That freedom made the learning experience feel both safe and exciting.
Overall, the course struck the perfect balance between guidance and creative independence. It not only gave me new skills but also the confidence to keep developing them. It confirmed for me that this is a career I wish to pursue and it made me excited to continue learning, improving, and hopefully building a future in this field.
