Forever Me

The story behind the song

Music and fashion belong together. From hippies and their bell-bottoms, to punks with their leather jackets and safety pins, to the neon colors of the techno scene, or hip hop’s baggy jeans and timberlands – fashion and music trends have always gone hand in hand.

With “Forever Me”, the connection is even stronger. Without the fashion world, there would be no song. Because the song began with a competition for sustainable fashion. Together with the Munich-based label Mykke Hofmann, we put the call out to young designers in 2022 to create a collection of “Forever Pieces” for us. These are pieces we don’t want to throw or give away after the season – we keep them in our closets for a long time and look forward to wearing them again and again!

It wasn’t just the competition that attracted so much attention. On our social media channels, a surprising number asked about the music featured in the campaign video – music that we had produced specially for the campaign. Your interest inspired an idea: we decided to make a song out of the short loop, write lyrics to go with the music, and then call on you to sing it for us. And we said we’d invite the winner to produce the song and music video with us.

Your response was overwhelming. More than 2,400 contestants from all around the world sent us their recordings. That made it all the more difficult to select the winner, but ultimately it was Lara Samira who won us over with her voice. The 22-year old from Berlin became the voice and face of “Forever Me”.

Forever Me - The video

“Forever Me” is a song with a positive message and creative twist. At first, the lyrics read like a classic love song. But the title and music video make clear pretty quickly what the song is actually about. In the end, Lara falls in love with herself and conveys the message: You’re just right the way you are – regardless of who you are and what role you play.

Listen now on Spotify!

Win with Red & Yellow

Fashion plays an important role in the “Forever Me” video. Most of the outfits are by trendsetting Berlin designers, but a few pieces from the DHL x Fashion collection made it into the “Forever Me” video!

Name	Country
Laura C.	France
Ana G.	Portugal
Silke S.	Germany
Maria Elia P.	Italy
Beate W.	Germany

Making Of

The Video

Production of the “Forever Me” video took place at PLATTE.Berlin, an event space housed in a typical “plattenbau” industrial building in Berlin used normally for club nights and collection launches by local Berlin labels.

Lara plays a total of 13 different roles in the video. Often several appear at the same time, which is why more than 20 Lara doubles were used in production. For Lara this also meant constantly having to change her outfits and makeup – without losing track along the way! Her outfits were designed by trendsetting Berlin designers and labels, whose collections are on display in PLATTE.Berlin’s pop-up shop: Kill Akira, Lettau, Sepide Hahadi, MYL Berlin, Franzius, SCHEPPERHEYN, PoshPUNK, VAATRA, SF 1 OG and Isabella Rudzki.

Footages from the studio and video shoot

A video shoot like this also means a whole lot of logistics. Fortunately, that’s right in our wheelhouse.

Several pieces from the DHL x Fashion collection appear in the video.

Urban atmosphere: The outdoor scenes were also filmed in Berlin.

Club scenes filmed here: Even on the dance floor, Lara is always...

... in focus ...

... supported by more than 20 doubles.

DHL Fashion pieces appeared not only in the video but also on set.

At night it was time to film the club scene...

... in which Lara plays the bouncer – one of the many roles she plays in the video.

Lara Samira up close

She is the voice and face of “Forever Me”: the charismatic 22-year old from Berlin, Lara Samira.

She’s been making music her whole life. As a kid, she sang in a choir, a jazz band and in her school musical. Today she’s working on a successful solo career. As a traditional singer-songwriter, she writes her own songs and shares a lot of herself in her very personal lyrics. Samira has already published several singles and an EP – songs that have been heard and shared millions of times via streaming services and social media. 2023 marks an important milestone in her young career – with “Forever Me”, the release of her single “Call Me Crazy” in January, and her second EP coming out later in the year.

Laras Social Links

Interview with Lara Samira

Your performance beat out more than 2,400 singers taking part in our competition. What does this success mean to you?

It’s incredible, it means a lot! When I heard I won, I couldn’t believe it at first. I was totally euphoric and really honored to have been chosen from such a large number of contestants. And of course I hope this will give my musical career a boost.

What made you decide to take part?

At some point in 2022 I saw a video about the contest on Instagram or TikTok. It sounded really good to me. But it still took me quite a while to bring myself to upload my recording. For some reason I didn’t think I had a chance. And now I’m so happy I did it!

What happened next, after you heard you won?

I got the news in October 2022. I wasn’t counting on it at all. I was in London for a semester abroad at the time. So I was worried at first that this would be a problem for producing the song and shooting the video. But that was all taken care of for me and less than a month later I was in the recording studio in Berlin! The video shoot came a bit later, in early 2023. That was also in Berlin.

Any personal highlights while producing the song or shooting the video?

There were so many highlights! But if I had to decide? To be honest, at first I was convinced the recording sessions in the studio would be my favorite. That’s normally my territory! With video shoots I didn’t have much experience. But in the end, the two-and-a-half days of shooting were the absolute highlight. It was just so much fun to be part of such a huge project and to do a bit of acting! The people in the team were also great and really made sure that I felt comfortable at all times.

Talk some more about the acting aspect. You take on several different roles at the same time in the “Forever Me” video. Was that difficult for you? And did you have a favorite outfit and favorite role?

For me the constant changing wasn’t that hard, more so for the make-up artists, who kept having to make a new character out of me in very little time. It was a bit tiring physically to change outfits five times in 20 minutes, but most of all it was just a ton of fun. The team was great, always making sure I liked the outfits I put on. I could really feel the boost to my self-confidence walking down the runway wearing such cool clothes. My favorite outfit was the one that “Singer Lara” wears, which is the name we gave the protagonist – that’s the one I wear at the beginning. And my favorite role was definitely “Anna Wintour”. It was hilarious to look at myself with such a judgy expression!

“Forever Me” was born out of a fashion campaign. What does fashion mean to you?

I think it’s so cool that this song was born out of a completely different project! To be honest I’m not a fashion fanatic, but I would like to have a good eye for fashion and be good at putting together outfits. Unfortunately I don’t have any real talent for it. My favorite outfits are super colorful – it just matches my personality.

DHL x Fashion

Partner to the industry

We know the fashion industry and its needs better than any other logistics company. With our tailored fashion logistics, we make sure new collections arrive on time in boutiques, and online shops can provide the best possible service. We also support our customers with their e-commerce strategy, with streamlining their supply chains, and with warehousing. We support with procurement and quality control, and consult on customs processing and tax compliance.

Pashion for fashion

Our relationship to fashion goes far beyond our core business. We support young designers around the world, for instance with prestigious fashion awards. And we work together with trendsetting designers and labels on our own, sustainable collections – including collaborations with the streetwear label Vetements, Malaysian designer Christy Ng, and South African shoe label Veldskoen. Another example is our partnership with Undercover Boots. Working together with this Panamanian label, we created a limited edition weatherproof collection in the DHL design, including a pair of rubber boots that also made it into the “Forever Me” video.

The product of a 2022 student competition conducted by DHL Express Italy, this “loop jacket” is worthy of any catwalk around the world. The winning design by Erika Guarino is made from recycled DHL uniforms – and now featured in the “Forever Me” music video.

The yellow teddy coat with DHL heart design is part of an upcycling collection made from DHL safety equipment and clothing. Designer Petr Stepanek is also Global Marketing Manager at DHL eCommerce Solutions. “I wanted to create something that took the essence of the DHL brand – that I feel very passionate about – and inspire my colleagues to do the same,” says Stepanek. “We have so much diversity in our business, and I tried to bring the same diversity of this company to the line.”

A jacket for superstars: The sweat jacket with fleece lining, worn by Lara Samira in her role as bouncer, is part of a current DHL capsule collection together with Malaysian designer Christy Ng. The “Superstar” logo above the pocket and on the back pays homage to DHL delivery personnel – our everyday heroes.

This sheer halterneck top is part of a collaboration between DHL Express and Masanori Morikawa, the designer behind the Japanese label BASICKS. Masanori Morikawa and DHL go back many years. In 2013, he was recipient of the DHL Designer Award. In 2022, his collection from recycled DHL uniforms was presented at a DHL Express logistics hub in Tokyo during the Rakuten Fashion Week.

Created together with DHL, the “One Planet” collection by Chinese label FMACM is all about sustainability. With its unisex collection, which includes playful t-shirts along with sweatshirts and hoodies with the unmistakable red-yellow DHL logo, FMACM’s environmentally-friendly supply chain is contributing to more sustainable apparel production.

Mary Quintero, founder of the shoe brand Undercover Boots, began designing and selling her stylish rubber boots from Panama back in 2014. Today she uses DHL to ship her colorful creations to customers around the world. In 2020, DHL and Undercover joined forces to create a collection of rubber boots, rain jackets and the unicorn mascot “Juicy” in the company colors red, yellow, black and white – and complete with DHL logo of course.