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).

28/01/15 - DETAIL PROJ. (Research into Givenchy lookbook)

Givenchy Lookbook SS14 Pre-Collection 

I began researching Givenchy's previous lookbooks to see what style and aesthetic is usually portrayed. As lookbooks are used as promotional material, I thought it would be useful to see how shoots were styled as this would help gage how customers would react to the collection. The photos are typically shot in such a way that makes the models appear to have been photoshopped into the image and whilst I'm not particularly keen on following through with the element of fake-ness the lookbooks have, I am interested in this 'copy and paste' feature of image manipulation (despite the fact that the photographs shot for previous lookbooks have not actually been composed during editing).

27/01/15 - DETAIL PROJ. (Givenchy AW15 & Research)

Givenchy AW15 - Lea Colombo

For this project, my chosen AW15 menswear collection is Givenchy. This isn't because I particularly like the collection- in fact, it's probably the opposite. However, given the industry, I want to be able to work to a brief I am less excited about and still produce a final outcome that reflects my personality and aesthetic. Furthermore, the detailing and historic/cultural references displayed in this collection are very interesting as they appear to reflect Aztec culture drawing influences from Haiti and Mexico.

My initial research was to look into a number of books and read up about Mexican art in general as well as the culture that surrounds death. In the show notes for the collection, Tisci mentioned his 'darkest obsessions', a step away from the usual Catholicism based designs that have become so coveted now among consumers. The collection itself was very macabre with the props and show set-up looking like something out of 'Little Shop of Horrors'.

Looking into this research and seeing where possible influences in culture came from has been very helpful in helping to plan a shoot for the lookbook I am going to create. As I am able to see direct links in my research to the collection, I've been given an exceptional help in making the transition and embodying the collection in a promotional lookbook.

22/01/15 - POLITICS PROJ. (Final Film)

20/01/15 - POLITICS PROJ. (Film Editing)

In order to create my fashion film which I wanted to use to highlight the recovery process that goes into 'becoming beautiful'. My first initial version made however was too long and after looking at a video clip from the 2004 film 'Wild Side' by Sebastien Lifshitz, I decided it would be better to not only cut the length but also splice the film to reflect the screenplay from the movie which focuses on individual body parts. This also helped to arouse interest and keep my film from becoming too tedious and boring despite it's slow and comforting soundtrack.

18/01/15 - POLITICS PROJ. (Final Editorial)

16/01/15 - POLITICS PROJ. (Experimenting with Image Manipulation)

Original Image from 'Blanc' editorial - Caroline Wong

During the process of creating my final images for my editorial, I had to think about how to ensure my images related to my concept. I realised that whilst I liked my photography, I hadn't quite managed to make a statement about my feelings towards plastic surgery.

To make a start, I looked into Chris Scarborough, an artist who manipulates his images so that his subjects appear anime-like. As anime characters generally portray an extreme version of Asian beauty standards, I used a Chinese photo editing app on my phone to enlarge my model's eyes. The resulting images were creepy to say the least and had negative reviews when I asked around about whether or not the original or the new version was preferred.

To take it even further, I referenced back to my finalised concept board and decided I would pixelate out the face of my model. This was done in a bid to remove the beauty of the model so that it could no longer be the focus of the photo. Again when I asked around, the reactions were negative only this time I didn't mind this. I thought about why I had also originally preferred the first images and I realised that it was because of the beauty standards subconsciously engrained into my mind. I've always liked the idea of having power over what others can see and by pixelating my model's face, I was able to control what was being shown in my editorial.

I'm very glad to have been pushed to explore my concept further as I am much happier with my results. By being asked to really think about the message I'm trying to portray, I believe I will now be able to style shoots better in a way that tells stories or speaks for me and my opinions more effectively.