This year, we bring to you our photographic rendition of the Winter Collection frozen in ice. Brooklyn Industries’ designers were inspired by Icelandic culture and Nordic fashion, reflected in the collection’s cold hues, sturdy wool blends and stylized ultra-warm outerwear.  

Designers' Mood Board - Winter Collection

We have been thinking about the “ice campaign” all year. We wondered how we could create a cold and frozen aesthetic — similar to the climate (in some regions) of Iceland and Norway – but in Brooklyn. Should we take photos of ice and superimpose pictures inside? Should we have the models standing on ice or behind ice? Finally we decided to freeze the photos in ice. We held a photo shoot on a clear blue day on the roof of our DUMBO headquarters. The clouds, Manhattan Bridge and Manhattan skyline looked like a painted picture. The resulting photos, even unfrozen, have an ethereal quality.

But that was the easy part; freezing the photos was the hard part. We felt like physicists, studying the transition from water to ice. We had bowls, vases and plastic containers filled with varying levels of water – with a photo submerged in each – in our kitchen freezer. We found making the ice too thick made the photos too vague, and making the ice too thin made the photos too glassy. And then we got it just right. Once the “ice photos” were ready, we contended with the question of photographing cracked ice versus un-cracked ice, and found that a combination of both was best.

In the end, each photo is different because water never freezes the same way twice. We hope you enjoy the First Frost campaign – and the Winter Collection.