Hugo gets into festival spirit in Palm Springs

April 19, 2022

The Hugo House in Palm Springs hosted various branded activities over the festival weekend. Image courtesy of Hugo Boss

Hugo Boss’s reimagined brand Hugo, which is geared toward younger audiences, is tapping into the power of live music and social media with a series of branded events for Coachella attendees.

Coachella is an annual two-weekend music festival that takes place near Palm Springs, California, famously attracting familiar online influencers and various celebrities. During this year’s first weekend, the German fashion brand transformed a boutique hotel in downtown Palm Springs into the Hugo House and invited high-profile TikTok creators to stay and participate in a schedule of events to promote the brand.

Hugo in Palm Springs
In addition to the creative space, the brand also partnered with Soho House to invite festival-goers to the Hugo x Soho Desert House the weekend of April 15-17.

Over the weekend, the Hugo House ran a schedule of events, including workshops and poolside happy hours for a celebration of music and in-person social interaction.

High-profile TikTok creators Markell Washington, Benji Krol, Nils Küsel, Noen Eubanks, Desi Lundoloki and actor Chloe Cherry were invited to take up residence in the house. Each of the talents was given one of the hotel’s rooms decorated in a style unique to them.

Davis Burleson, from the TikTok show “What’s Poppin,” reported day-to-day happenings from inside the house.

Guests including Michael Le and Tiffany Le, Avani Gregg, Anthony Reeves, Larri Merritt, Ehiz, Nia Sioux, Andrew Davila, Nicky Champa, Pierre Amaury Crespeau and Harry Tate were invited to create engaging content to further emphasize the brand’s TikTok-first activation using the hashtag #HUGOYourWay.

Friday included an embroidery session at the Hugo House where guests could customize their own festival looks, concluding with brunch at Melvyn’s Restaurant & Lounge where the brand invited VIPs, friends and newly promoted senior vice president of creative direction at Hugo Boss, Marco Falcioni.

Rob Raco outside Melvyn’s Restaurant & Lounge for the Hugo brunch. Image courtesy of Hugo Boss

Among the guests in attendance were actors Charles Melton, Rob Raco, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and model Dilone.

On Saturday afternoon, the brand organized an off-site excursion to the exclusive Hugo x Soho Desert House, where a live performance from brand ambassador Big Matthew took place.

An art installation representing a giant pair of LED-lensed Hugo sunglasses was created and placed on the Soho Desert House grounds, providing a strong photo opportunity for guests.

On Sunday, guests took part in a tie-dye workshop with a group of local LA-based designers.

@hugo We’ve got Sina fever 🥵: @sinadeinert is too hot to handle poolside at HUGO House #HUGOYourWay ♬ original sound - HUGO

The Hugo House #HUGOYourWay activation has garnered millions of views in a matter of days

Throughout the weekend’s festivities, talents dressed head-to-toe in Hugo, which are available online and in-store, with an exclusive festival-inspired edit, featuring vibrant colors, all-over logo prints and unique graphics.

In January, Hugo Boss unveiled its overall rebrand, split into two brand campaigns for Boss and Hugo.

The Hugo campaign, shot by Mikael Jansson, featured South Sudanese top model Adut Akech, rappers Big Matthew, SAINt JHN and American dancer Maddie Ziegler.

As the Hugo brand is now primarily focused on reaching young, unconventional and progressive people, the mostly social-led campaign aimed to connect the worlds of dance and music through interviews, behind-the-scenes imagery and TikTok challenges (see story).

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Hugo gets into festival spirit in Palm Springs

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