Women To Look Up To, the side project of McCann London creative Dom Butler, marries modern feminist idols with the traditional festive tradition of placing an angel on top of the Christmas tree.
Working as part of a collective comprising Savanna and Chelsea Power, design agency Duzi Studio, photographer Theo Deproost and printer My 3D Twin, Butler shrunk the forms of Beyoncé and Serena Williams down to the size of Christmas tree angels. A public vote led the group to design another inspirational female figure before Christmas – a power-suited replica of Hillary Clinton.
The idea came about after Butler and C Power began wondering what the angel on their Christmas tree represented symbolically in the modern age.
“She’s [traditionally] a bit frumpy, nylon, plastic, she’s cheap, she’s been in mum’s box for over 50 years… We thought, she needs a modern makeover,” Butler said. “She needs to be a modern woman.”
The amount of consumer press interest has taken Butler and his partners by surprise. The brand has been featured in publications such as Vogue, the Metro and the Independent, and Steve Harvey presented Clinton with a miniature version of herself on his US TV chat show.
While the pressure to deliver before 25 December was intense to say the least, the effort was worth it for the team who set up Women To Look Up To as a not-for-profit organisation. The collective has plans to guide its large amount of site traffic to their new online feminist journal, as well as launching a new scheme that will give young people access to leading figures in the arts.
With interest in the angels showing no signs of waning, Butler will have more than enough work on his hands. But keeping up the day job at McCann, he explained, has been made easier thanks to the agency’s interest and understanding.
“It has been difficult at times but it’s so nice to be investing so much of my time into something I’ve created,” he said.
“This was an amazing process as a creative, not just because I got to lead a brand but also because I got to be a producer, an account man, a PR director, an influencer, a wholesaler… I’ve managed to see how much goes into a campaign or a business from every single point of view.”