Business

Always reinventing: Tastemakers Alexander Wang, Chloe x Halle and more join HP’s video series

HP taps global creatives in video campaign for first-ever leather, premium convertible PC, Spectre Folio.

By Sarah Murry — November 6, 2018

Business

Always reinventing: Tastemakers Alexander Wang, Chloe x Halle and more join HP’s video series

HP taps global creatives in video campaign for first-ever leather, premium convertible PC, Spectre Folio.

By Sarah Murry — November 6, 2018

If there is one thing that American fashion designer Alexander Wang has learned in a dozen years of running his eponymous label, it is the importance of reinvention. “I feel like I'm reinventing myself every day,” Wang says. “I've always been someone that was incredibly curious and motivated by looking at how to evolve, and never accepting the status quo, and questioning everything that I did.”

Which is why the 35-year-old, along with millennial designers, artists and musicians, star in HP’s new campaign on the launch of its leather-and-aluminum premium laptop, the Spectre Folio. The 2-in-1 device, which features a first-of-its-kind leather chassis, was lauded as “gorgeous,” “luxurious” and “as impressive inside as it is on the outside” by the tech press; yet it’s the risk HP took to make a laptop out of leather that lends it the most street cred with this “tastemaker” crowd.

The creatives in the video series muse about their creative philosophies —  and the tools that help them turn their vision into reality —  in HP’s “Stories of Reinvention.” 

R&B duo Chloe x Halle, sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey.

The series features global tastemakers including Wang; American R&B duo Chloe x Halle; Argentinian-Spanish visual and street artist Felipe Pantone and German designer Errolson Hugh; HP aims to show that the Spectre Folio is a special kind of device for a special kind of person: Someone who takes risks in their work and sees ahead of the next trend. Each of the tastemakers in the “Stories” are reinventing something in their own right — whether it’s fashion, industrial design, visual art or music.

“We told them they were going to be involved in something radically different, something that is going to be on the forefront of design and fashion,". says Matt Cowling, head of global marketing for consumer personal systems at HP. “It was crucial to the launch that we kept their reactions authentic, we literally wanted to film the moment they saw the product for the first time.”

With its tagline of “The PC. Reinvented,” HP draws a common thread throughout the video shorts that rings true to anyone in a creative (or tech-driven) industry — innovate or die.

Wang, who serves as creative director and chairman of the board, says, “More so today than ever before, we're going through a time of transformation. You have to be innovative in order to survive, in order to move forward.”

Street artist Pantone sees technology like the Spectre Folio as an enabler of his art, as well as a break from past traditions in the way that art is distributed and consumed. “It's important to break rules in order to reinvent yourself,” he says. “You want to express yourself, be in touch with other people, communicate, and if possible, find new things and inspire other people. Technology allows me to do all of those things.”

Visual artist Felipe Pantone with the HP Spectre Folio.

Hugh, principal designer and co-founder of Acronym, said the multi-mode features of the Spectre Folio (laptop, tent and tablet) parallels his own approach to designing clothing that can adapt with its wearer.

“We’re looking at not only the design of the garment, the performance of the garment but, also the way it's made,” he says. “Particularly the way the garment lives with you over time. You want them to be able to adapt to the situation you're in. It's more like an interface between your self and your environment. All of those types of on-the-fly transformations are a key aspect of our work.”    

Sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey, contemporary R&B singers who got their start on YouTube and this year will be among the opening acts of the U.S. leg of Beyoncé and Jay-Z's On the Run II Tour, are the epitome of Gen Z tastemakers. The duo was focused on the mobility, connectivity and always-on features of the Spectre Folio, since they spend a lot of their time on the road interacting on social media with their ever-growing fanbase.

Errolson Hugh, principal designer and co-founder of Acronym, and industrial design company based in Germany.

“We love how we can turn it into a tablet,” Halle Bailey says. “Because it makes us so excited to edit our photos up close and draw on it and fix things. That really makes it fun because it's right at our fingertips.”

Wang was “intrigued” by the Spectre Folio, says HP’s Cowling, when he first sat down with the PC and played with it. “He just got fascinated by the fact that we managed to combine leather and metal. He asked, ‘how did you do that?’”

“I'm a kind of a material junkie,” Wang said. “I'm always looking at materials from both a high end and a low end. For me, it's always the study in contrast that is super interesting.”

 

Learn about the engineering feats behind the first-ever leather laptop.