Anyway, the brief for the shoot was Brit pop. Doing research, I found it described as a movement in the 90’s in music away from grunge. However, from a fashion point, it’s anything including vintage to futuristic! During development sessions in class, we were all thrown into the deep end and how to approach it-I tried approaching it as how I’d dress an artist for a concert. For our final session, they suggested to think contrasting fabrics-old and new, vintage and futuristic.
What started off as a pile of garments from my old dress up drawer-stuff that hasn’t been worn since I was, oh...six, turned out to be key pieces. I have some metallic leggings, shimmery reflective fabric left over from my sister’s costume as an electric eel, and a sparkly gold vest.
I bought one of those dominatrixey-vests (total torture device, fyi) as a starting point, since I loved the futuristic look. Large billowy bishop sleeves with two different kinds of fabrics (I couldn’t decide which one to go with) were added to the vest, making it a jacket. I hit a bit of a plateau for a day or two, trying to think where to go from there. This was only the last chance we would ever have at doing our very own editorial fashion shoot, so there was no pressure.
But after a clearing afternoon at the Gym, the muse was upon me at last! Inspired by costumes from the movie Fifth Element, I added bonding straps along the bodice. I had one strap added to go between the legs. Taking some of the ‘eel’ fabric, I cut strips and shredded the sides, adding to the edge. This used to be signature technique of mine, making some part of the garment ripped and frayed at the end-a technique I named ‘my dog ate my dress’ method.
As for the vest, rummaging through my box-o-fabrics, I found a cream colored satin piece with silvery embroidery. I cut the embroidery pieces out, and added them on as shoulder panels to the jacket. I then did another speciality of mine-cutting out tons of pieces of the eel and cream satin material, making ‘leaves’ that were then hand stitched onto the sleeves. One embroidery panel had more details on it, so I had the idea of making the details in the sleeves uneven-one had less beading, more cream leaves than metallic, while the other had more leaves, with emphasis on the metallic fabric.
I got accessories in a mixture of metals, from tainted silvers to antique golds, two days before, including a pocket watch. But my final idea was make up-I loved the look seen on a lot of ads at Britain’s Top Model for make up companies, where the models had pieces of gems on their dark-lined lips. I thought this look would really give my model an ‘alien’ look! In the end, when people asked me what my outfit was like, I answered that my model would look like ‘a big metallic bird’.
On the day, when Zoe-one of the best models from our show at Excel-showed up, I was on cloud nine! She is gorgeous, and though she didn’t have the long hair I wanted to be straightened underneath the baker’s hat I had brought it, I threw she’d make the outfit work brilliant! And she was a real trouper the whole session-those jewel stickers didn’t look comfortable (she kept telling me not to make her laugh). I had to guide her a lot, but then I’m sure half those poses weren’t easy to hold for long periods of time, let alone in stilettos! I told her to pretend she was the love child of Queen Amidala and Gollum-very gaunt, awkward, pointy, alien-like.
It was amazing-honestly, I had more fun on this shoot than I did the 40’s! My outfit looked fabulous. Can’t wait to see the shoots from the photographer.
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