Fashion and Luxury Creative Agency in New York

SWELL is a New York creative agency for fashion and luxury brands. It handles strategy, creative direction, films, stills and social content. Clients include Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. Its public luxury work includes a broadcast spot and key visuals for Dunhill and a broadcast commercial and stills for Graff.

Working with a house's codes

On Dunhill, the creative direction drew on the house's British craftsmanship and put it in a cinematic language that felt modern without leaving the heritage behind. The spot was treated as a short film, with lighting, pacing and sound design working together. The key visuals used the same visual grammar for print, out-of-home and digital display, and the full suite went out across 15+ format specifications.

On Graff, the stills were composed for print advertising, in-store displays and digital channels, and they served as both campaign assets and evergreen brand imagery.

Directors on the team

Tarik Malak, SWELL's founder, has directed for SWELL since its 2010 founding — Dunhill and Graff with Timothy Douglas, as a duo. Their work includes fashion films for Vogue Korea and CR Fashion Book, and it has been recognized at the Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, the IAC Awards and the FWA. Production runs through Max HP Productions, SWELL's sister production company and preferred production partner.

Fashion: product, season and creators

For Michael Kors, SWELL placed each star product inside an environmental narrative in place of a seamless background. It worked with fashion-forward creators across Instagram and TikTok, and it shot hero content in batched sessions so each shoot could be reformatted for Instagram feed, Stories, Reels, TikTok, YouTube and e-commerce.

For MCM, SWELL built a visual language around heritage and modernity, craftsmanship and street culture, and carried it through the commercial, social assets, e-commerce photography and in-store activations.

SWELL's client list also includes Converse, DKNY and Marc Jacobs.

AI, only as far as a brief needs it

Fashion and luxury briefs get the same range SWELL applies everywhere: from just augmented to fully generated, used only as far as the job calls for. S77.AI, SWELL's sister AI company, builds the tools, and senior creative direction keeps the final call on taste and tone.

AI video production covers what that looks like for film. How a house appears in ChatGPT or Google's AI answers is separate work, which S77.AI handles as GEO and AEO.

Questions

Is SWELL an AI creative agency?

Yes. SWELL is a 360° creative agency and AI-native production studio, founded in New York in 2010, with S77.AI, its sister AI company, building the AI tools it uses.

Which fashion and luxury brands has SWELL worked with?

Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, Converse, DKNY, Marc Jacobs, Dunhill and Graff, among others. Case studies: Dunhill, Graff, Michael Kors and MCM.

Do you work from real garment shoots, or is it all generated?

Both happen. The brief decides.

Do you make film and stills together?

Yes. Dunhill and Graff each paired a broadcast piece with a photographic system.

Do you make content for fashion week?

Yes. SWELL applies the same workflows to New York Fashion Week content that has to ship in days. AI-Enhanced Workflows covers more of that.