The ins and outs behind a photoshoot: Hair, Makeup, Photos, Oh my! How and why I shot two different looks with two different themes!
HOW THIS GOT STARTED
As a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology there are a lot of projects and garments that I make in a semester, but there is never the budget and time to properly photograph them and document them on a person the way they were intended to be worn! (Sadly dress forms just never look the part).
This past winter I was contacted by the model for the shoot in question on Instagram of all places. She's an aspiring model looking to expand her portfolio to get picked up by an agency, and as an aspiring designer looking for a job in the industry, I completely related to her story. I looked through her work, and knew that this was the perfect opportunity to shoot some work that I made ages ago as it was well overdue for some professional pictures.
It turns out that she was heavily inspired by my work for Disney on Broadway. -Wow has that project been so good to me.- Unfortunately since those garments are currently on display in SUNY Korea until May, her and I had to again collaborate on which of my garments would help give her more depth to her portfolio. Since her look is really rather edgy, I pulled from some of my more experimental and artistic pieces, and to try and save some money I challenged myself to do one shoot, two locations, with two very different themes!
Check out my model, Cal, below!
THE INSPIRATION
When I start putting together a shoot I always put together the inspiration and Pinterest is my go-to site for some quick inspiration: hair, makeup, the location, everything!
Bodysuit:
Though simple in theme, the idea behind this one was to create something out of a spandex and stretch material which is pliable but structured, and make it look fluid. A lot of the inspiration I crafted for this piece was very blurry and had underlying notes of eeriness. My first choice for a shooting location was the abandoned City Hall Subway Station because something about the curved lines and dim lighting captured the same eeriness from my inspiration. One idea I had for the photography on this one was that it might be cool to play with long exposures to try and literally create that blur and fluidness.
This is a short glimpse of my mood board!
Corset:
The school project behind this corset was to make a corset that was historically accurate to the 1740’s and then for the finishing touches I tweaked to have a modern and more edgy look. For a fashion show last year I separately I made this dramatic hi-low skirt to complete the look, and because the skirt is so dramatic, it helps push the edgy theme when paired with a traditional piece like the corset. Pier 17 in South Seaport felt like the perfect location for this look because of all the old wooden boats in the foreground against the background of incredibly tall glass buildings from Wall Street.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE SHOOT
The Photographer:
The photographer was incredible find. One of my friends from childhood that I used to go to summer camp with is an AMAZING photographer. He went to school for photography and I knew he would have some friends living in NYC and looking to shoot some stuff. I lucked out, because he pointed me in the direction of his friend Elisha who's style he really admires and she just so happened to be in New York for a month overlapping the date for the shoot I was looking to do. Her portfolio looked incredible and I know that if my friend Ari recommended her, that she must be really good. She was really easy to communicate with and I really loved her energy. During the shoot we were able to discuss what shots were working and what shots weren't. She was really fast at getting me the photos so I could make my selects and so she could get started editing right away!
Check out Elisha and some of her work!
The Makeup Artist:
From the beginning of conceptualizing this shoot makeup and the model felt like the easiest on the list to check off. One of my great designer friends in college (who actually loaned me her couch for the year) has a roommate that also goes to school with us whom I just haven't ever worked with closely. Her roommate, Steph, is also in school for fashion design but always shows up to school with the most fantastic and fanciful makeup looks. At school one day we ran into each other and I asked her if she ever did makeup for photoshoots and the rest is history! She was incredibly professional and absolutely understood the look I was going for. I had lucked out that she had done a Rococo look already and therefore really understood the era my corset had been created for. Knowing that the makeup look had to also be transitional and function independently between both shoots, Steph was really great at creating a trial for me to approve before the shoot took place.
Check out Steph's work!
The Hairstylist:
The hairstylist was my biggest challenge. Because my model, Cal, had such short hair and my budget was really starting to tighten, I was toying with the idea of not even doing anything at all. Though I'm not a professional by any means I was even considering trying my hand at it to just keep costs low. The inspiration behind the hair was therefore incredibly minimal. Cal was really on top of making sure this was all going to happen (though I assured her there was no need) and she independently contacted someone to do hair for me. Hesitant at first I reached out. My biggest fear was the cost, and originally I was right to be afraid. This hairstylist was a real industry professional working on fashion week and literally happened to be in the Caribbean while we were in communication on a shoot. I was incredibly apologetic that I couldn't afford her as my budget was mostly set aside for the photographer. Literally to my luck, this incredible woman loves doing what she does so much that she decided to volunteer her time on a weekend and just help me out!
Check out the incredible hairstylist for my shoot, Nati!
THE DAY OF THE SHOOT
Not only was I just recovering from the flu when we shot this, but I barely slept the night before. I was SO nervous that something would go haywire and I would mess up my own shoot. Of course the reality is that nothing ever goes 100% to plan with these things and we had A LOT of moving parts to make this happen. Plus, half of the team were complete strangers! Elisha, Nati, and Cal I had never met in person! (I mean social media was the real MVP for this shoot, I have to say.)
I knew that Cal would be early. She had been so on top of confirming and double checking everything that I knew she would be ready to go. We scheduled the shoot for 8:30am where we would meet and get ready at my apartment and sure enough, Cal is at my door at 8:00am. I had just finished making breakfast and was still in pajama bottoms so I scarfed everything down and threw on some pants. We talked through the shoot until 8:30am when Steph showed up to do makeup. I set her up in my bedroom because the lighting was better and shortly after Nati showed up to set up her hair kit. We ended up running about 30 minutes behind. We wanted to start actually shooting at 10:00am and didn't end up at location until about 10:30am. Unfortunately, Elisha had sent me a text right when we had pulled up to City Hall that the train she was taking to the shoot had decided mid-ride to go out of service! Classic NYC on a Sunday!
By 11:00am everything was ready to go and we started shooting. After some further research into the original location for the Bodysuit, we realized it was no longer attainable and were now meeting just outside the station at City Hall which had similarly gorgeous architecture. Shooting was great but we were on a tight timeline now since Cal had a second shoot later in the day and needed us to be done shooting by 12:00pm! Of course this was where all the nerves were setting in because we still had to change Cal into the second look, transition the makeup, and walk to the second location. I was playing time keeper as some other hiccups took place in the shoot.
On set of Location #1!
At a little after 11:30am the crew and I made our way to the second location. Luckily, Nati's professional career took her to this same location a couple weeks before and she knew of a spot that we would be able to quickly change Cal. Sure enough, Cal, Steph and I all piled into a family restroom and moved onto look 2! The setting was staggering. I was so beyond excited by how this one came out and perfectly executed my vision for this look went. I felt bad, but we wrapped up the last bit of this shoot at a little after 12:30pm. I wish we had more time to do more angles, but I know that it would've only made it harder for me to choose selects later! It was a great morning. I was ready for a break though to try and tend to the last symptoms of my sickness before jumping back up and continuing work on my senior thesis! Nati, Cal, Steph, and Elisha were great. I recommend them all highly and all my worries and the hiccups aside, it was still incredible.
On set of Location #2!
Next Up!
Now that the shoot is over with and the selects have been chosen, it's a waiting game! Under the "Apparel" section of this website I have included the selects as place holders until the edited photos arrive. Though this shoot and the looks I've chosen aren't very "Special Occasion", I thought that shooting them would help diversify my portfolio and help to break up a lot of the content that I've been posting as of lately. In school I do specialize in eveningwear, but before we chose what to specialize in, I did make things that I'm proud of and still hope to share. I can't wait to show you the photos when they come out!