The London Magazine - Cover Shoot

Tis the Season!  And although in London, and everywhere else where it should be freezing now, the temps are quite mild so it hasn't felt much like Christmas.  But being the week before Christmas I thought I would share with you my experience working on the cover shoot for the December issue of The London Magazine.

The London Magazine is actually supported by the real estate industry in London.  It's a great source of luxury, high-end properties, but they also have a great culture section, focusing mostly on West London (Kensington, NottingHill, South Kensington, Holland Park, to name a few).  We actually live in their distribution area for the magazine so I was super excited to receive it in the post.

Prepping for the Shoot
I had been working with a stylist called Wendy Quintana for a few weeks when this opportunity came up.  In preparation for the shoot we discussed ideas, with her referencing the mood board that she was sent by the creative director of the magazine.  The theme was white, winter wonderland, winter fairy, with sheer, flowing fabrics or white, light fabrics with ruffles or volume.  I immediately thought of this emerging designer that I had seen at London Fashion Week and we decided to contact them to see if they would have pieces to lend.  Below are the looks that we were interested in.

After seeing a few of their designs I'm sure you can understand why all of the looks we were interested were already out on loan.  Big disappointment! So we got back to it and contacted some other pr firms and ended up getting some amazing things from Carolina Herrera, Alberta Ferretti, and Gina Shoes.  Once everything was in I worked with Wendy to put together some optional looks for the shoot that was the next day.

Day of the Shoot

The day of the shoot was not as hectic and crazy as I thought it would be.  I arrived at Wendy's flat around 9:00 and we jumped in a car that she had ordered with 1 large suitcase and a collapsed rolling rack and made our way to the shoot location which was in St John's Wood, a lovely neighborhood in North London, very residential, with some amazing houses.  The shoot location was a massive house with 3 floors, an amazing garden in the back, and could be your's for around 15M GBP or $22M.  We had to be super careful in the house as not to get anything dirty.  After meeting everyone, as any good assistant does, I was on coffee duty, taking everyone's orders.  After everything was unpacked and laid out it was time to dress the model and confirm with the creative director the looks that were to be used for the shoot.  The magazine spread would consist of the cover page and an inside page so 2 outfits were needed.  After steaming, primping, and all the equipment set up, and about 4 hours later, they were ready to start shooting.  

Below are the images as they appeared in the magazine.  working with such a great team makes all the difference.  The day went by quickly and the images came out beautifully.  All in a super fun day of work!

Credits

Stylist: Wendy Quintana

Assistant Stylist: Lore Koijen

Hair: Nina Beckert

MUA: Julia Jacobs

NYC visit - Walking Tour of the Garment District

Last week I was on holiday in New York City, One of my favourite cities to visit!  I had some time to myself and I really wanted to take advantage of some of the great fashion things that NYC has going on right now.  I had a long list of things to see, this website basically tells you all of the exhibitions, sample sales, tours, and other things that fashionistas need to know when visiting New York City.  Unfortunately I actually only had time for one thing.  So I chose to do a walking tour of the garment district, an area of New York City that I don't think I have ever been to, or at least didn't realize it.

I found the tour on the website above, but it was through a company called Mike's NYC Tours, and the best part was that the tour was free!  Mike is the tour guide and he's great, funny, and super knowledgeable, having worked in the garment district for 20+ years.  He offers other tours in addition to this one so worth checking out his site if you're planning to visit NYC.

The tour started at 37th and 7th Avenues, this is the centre of the Garment District, distinctively marked with a large statue of a needle and thread.  Group size was small, around 8 people, and Mike had a headset with a microphone so he was easy to hear at all times. Mike first told us some of the history of the area.  We then went into a couple of different buildings, we visited a fabric cutting factory, a jewelry maker, and Mood fabrics.  The tour lasted about 2 hours and we were definitely encouraged to tip at the end.

Some interesting facts learned on the tour

• most of the US's garment production was done in Garment District in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  As consumers wanted cheaper clothes and rents started to increase in the area, retailers were forced to move production overseas where it remains today
• factories still exist in the Garment District, these can be spotted by looking up and seeing the smoke leaving the buildings
• buildings with a step effect, as the buildings shown below, are the original buildings that housed factories
• 39th street has 30 fabric stores, fabric production is done upstairs, and then fabric is sold at the ground level
• Mood fabrics is housed over 3 floors and not only has the largest selection of fabrics but is basically a one stop shop for any designer with trims, patterns, and even free sewing classes offered
• The jewelry factory that we visited still has moulds dated back to the 80s and produces jewelry for Tory Burch, Michael Kors, and J.Crew among many others

Photos from the walk

2nd Editorial Shoot

I can not believe that it has been a month since I have last posted.  It feels like forever, but the month of November has gone by so quickly and I have spent most of the month assisting an amazing stylist, Joanna Hir, on a film here in London.  So I have been quite busy, but back at it now, and so much to share with you.

Our 2nd editorial shoot with The London College of Style was nearly 2 months ago, but I'm really excited to finally be sharing it with you.  The theme of the shoot was "United We Stand" and we were meant to come up with a cause that we wanted to support, using the United Colors of Benetton campaigns as a reference.  The style was meant to me happy, colorful, and vibrant.  I really struggled with this theme.  I had a ton of ideas, but nothing was quite cheerful or colourful.  I finally settled on the Cuban / American relationship and how now Cuba and American were best friends, right?  I put together the moldboard below.  I wanted to celebrate all that Cuba had to offer, from the colorful prints, to the rough/old school vide that Cuba has due to a lack of flourishing.

I wanted red, white, and blue to come through as these are the colors for both the US and Cuban flag, and then the rest would be a melding of colors.  One of the biggest challenges with styling this shoot was finding tropical prints and also really colorful things.  It's amazing to be in London because there really is no limit to what you can find, or order online.  I discovered some new brands along the process.  Clover Canyon is a great brand for prints, Camilla, an Australian brand, has great tropical, bright colored, beach stuff.  And tucked away in Sussex Garden, London is an amazing house filled with the most lush jewelry, called Pebbles.   

Our first shoot was on location, but this shoot would take place in a studio.  On the day we were split into 2 groups working with 2 different photographers.  I had the privilege of working with amazing photography Leigh Keily.  I think the photographers turned out quite good, at first I wasn't sure how I felt about my outfit, having not seen it on the model, but when she put it out it just came to life.  Check out the photos below!

Credits:

Top & Skirt: Clover Canyon

Kimono: Camilla, very.co.uk

Shoes: Kurt Geiger

Jewelry: Pebbles London

Photographer: Leigh Keily

Assistant Photographer: Hristo Hristov

Stylist: Lore Koijen

MUA: Martin Carter

Hair: Carolina Crona

    

CHANEL Mademoiselle Privé Exhibition

This past weekend I went to the Chanel exhibition that was held at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.  It was the last weekend for the exhibition so it was quite busy.  I arrived in the early evening, right before dinnertime, I thought this would be a good time because I figured people would be getting ready for dinner or getting ready for their Halloween festivities, but clearly I wasn't the only one who thought this would be a good time.  I waited in line for about an hour, the weather was good, so it was fine.  The Saatchi Gallery is one of my favourite places for art in London, they always have great modern art exhibition.  The Chanel exhibition took over 2 floors of the gallery.  My impressions of the exhibition were good, but it felt a bit disoriented.  The first floor was a collection of rooms that were meant to represent rooms from when Coco Chanel first started, there was a room that was from her apartment, a room that was from her shop.  The exhibition also had an app that enhanced the rooms.  The app wasn't really consistent, the connection would go in and out, I became a bit frustrated with it so I stopped using it.  On the second floor was a collection of clothes and and also diamond jewelry.  I would have liked to have seen more clothes and accessories.  Chanel started out as a milliner so it would have been nice to see some of her hats from when she started.
  
Highlight of the exhibition, the free parting gift, a cute reusable canvas bag! 

Check out my images from the exhibition below...

One section of the clothes were all of these transparent dresses and they were on a column with a light to better show their transparency.

This was the start of the evening wear with the diamond jewelry.  The room was quite dark so the images are not the best.

There was a whole room of white and black fabric hanging from the ceiling.  The selection of fabric included the tweed fabric that is used on the signature Chanel suits. 

Below was a bucket of the chains that are used on the Chanel handbags.

Trends Autumn/Winter 2015 - Part 2

Trend 3 - Super Charged Tweed

This is an update on the super traditional tweed that was traditional geared towards an older crowd.  But it's no longer your mother's or grandmother's trend, See below how the high street is giving a new energy to tweed and making look it look young and fresh.

J Crew

Trend 4 - Period Drama

With the huge success of period dramas such as Downtown Abbey, Mr Selfridge, and Boardwalk Empire designers were bound to take inspiration from decades past.  With ruffles, gothic romance and lace feminity is key for this trend.

Karen Millen

Trend 5 - 80s Glamour

I was born in the early 80s so I only vaguely remember participating in some the key trends of the 80s, leg warmers, sequins, starter jackets, shoulder pads, and scrunches.  But the 80s are back in big and modern way. 

Images from the runway show...

Asos

Trends for Autumn/Winter 2015 - Part 1

I recently went to an amazing event held at the Design Business Centre in Islington, London put together by a great fashion supplement called Stylist.  The magazine comes out every Wednesday and  fashion/design, travel, food, and people.  I look forward to it every week.  It is also available to download so I think even if you are not in the UK you can have access to it, check out the website for more information, http://www.stylist.co.uk.

The 4 day event offered talks and demos with amazing people from all areas including fashion, food, technology, and wellness.  There were stalls set up throughout the venue for shopping, or getting you hair and makeup done, and several restaurants set up shop to offer great food.  One of the highlights of the event, for me, was the runway show where they showed key trends for AW15 with everything from the high street, I left feeling totally inspirational and totally excited to share all the trends with you.  I'm going to split the blog into 2 parts, not to overwhelm you.

Trend 1 - Sweet and Sour or what I like to call Mix N Match

Probably one of my favourite trends shown for this season as I love to put different colors together in a really cool and not so obvious way.  Below are some images I took from the show

I have put together some looks below with my take on the trend and what some of the high street retailers have to offer.

Anthropologie

Zara

Trend 2 - Decor Dressing

This trend was strongly focused on heavy fabrics, tapestry style, in great floral patterns.

Topshop

Warehouse