01/02/15 - DETAIL PROJ. (Styling, Hair, Make-up, Set)

Hair and Make-up inspiration for Lookbook 

Due to my apparent lack of male friends (and also as a nod to fashion's seeming obsession with androgyny), I have teamed up with a friend from Group A to work together in shooting our own respected work. Collaborating with her on the day of the shoot was an exciting opportunity as I've only previously worked in a team alongside others once before.

For the set design, I knew that I wanted to incorporate a white, neutral background in order to tie in my aesthetic and we decorated the rest of the set with African artefacts such as vases and anything else that was vintage to recreate the ambience set by Tisci's 'Little Shop of Horrors-esque' catwalk. In a means of reflecting the red glitter 'highway to Hell', I also shredded some red tissue paper which I planned to use in the shoot.

For hair and make-up, I wanted to emulate Pat McGrath's genius and so hair was slick and gelled back. As we were using each other as models, I also made sure to create structure to our faces through contouring to emulate more masculine feautures. Baby hair designs were predominant in the show and this was also taken into account when designing our hairstyles.

Styling-wise, we aimed to use clothing that would appear as similar to the collection as possible. For the shoot, we had a number of suits (both jacket and trousers), shirt, fur stoles and red clothing pieces that were used to break up a seemingly all black outfit. We also used large safety pins and a fox tail as accessories.

Admittedly, this shoot was probably the least favourite of mine as I felt a little uncomfortable shooting menswear. This could be due to the fact that I think I have a very feminine gaze when it comes to photography and so it was difficult to put myself in this promotional campaign one hundred percent. For me, it felt that the final images from the shoot lacked any of my own personal flavour and this was quite upsetting for me. Nonetheless, I'm glad to have done this shoot as it was not only the first time shooting only menswear but also another opportunity to work in a team environment (even if that meant only one other person).