Secret Garden - Avari Magazine June 2015 Submission
- Russel Frank
- May 7, 2015
- 8 min read
Theme: Secret Garden | Avari Magazine – June 2015 Issue
Fashion Stylist: Myself
Wardrobe: Ann Fontaine | Caesars Forum Shop – Las Vegas
Photographer: Sasha Heist
Hair: Cole Blake
Make Up: Rene Caudillo
Model: Maddie Mc Innis| TNG Models
Behind the scenes, the crew (left to right) Sasha H., Cole B., Maddie M., Rene C., Myself.
Sasha had asked me to style a shoot last year summer 2014 for a garden / floral store shop shoot. I wasn’t impressed nor seen the vision for the shoot. I had agreed to it, because she did a big shoot for me and my makeup artist friend, Alysia T. for our “Ladies First” shoot with S&M ladies dominatrix shoot. That was a b big shoot!! Six models, 3 hair, 2 makeup artist, myself and an assistant stylist. I definitely had an “I. O. U.”. Then Avari Magazine had a Pinterest board for Secret Garden – July Issue that I seen and remembered that Sasha wanted to do a shoot just like this! When I shared with her the link for the shoot, she was game!! We began to brainstorm ideas for the shoot. Who we wanted, model, hair, and makeup. She suggested Maddie McInnis, I haven’t worked with her but I fell in love with her look!!!!! SIDE NOTE real models (size 0/2, blond, and model figure) is hard to come by in Las Vegas. For hair and makeup, I missed working with Rene and Cole. Normally I work with them for Fashion Week Las Vegas (#MenOfFashionWeekLasVegas), Cole… we’ve worked on multiple shoots together, Rene, this was my first time outside of a fashion week I’ve worked with him. His work is so talented!! It’s so clean, so polished! I love his work. I told Sasha about hopefully adding them to the roster, she was more than happy to work with them both. This was an amazing team of talent!!
Anne Fontaine @ Forum Shops | Las Vegas
For wardrobe, I could of pulled from anywhere. There are so many floral dresses and wardrobe available I could of reached out for, but I was actually reached out via my INSTAGRAM page by a local store manager, for Anne Fontaine to offer me a chance to pull from their store. I’ve passed by this store multiple times. There is even a black dress in the window I absolutely adored every time I pass by this store. When she emailed me, I was overly excited!! First of all… this made me feel accomplished to see that my work is getting noticed. That managers, retailers, etc were reaching out to me to request for me to use their clothes. This wasnt the first time I had received an email offering a partnership or relationship for wardrobe pulls. Going back, I did email her and met with her, but I didn’t have a themed shoot that would fit the wardrobe, yet. Seeing this was Secret Garden, and color was going to be all over in the back ground with the plants, gardens, bushes, floral print wardrobe would have been too busy. Anne Fontaine Collection is simple, clean, and solid! Solid black and white, but with a lot of texture to the tops, bottoms, and dresses. The textures was floral prints, burnouts, lace of florals, so it worked perfectly for this theme of the shoot.
I went in, walked around with their manager, took some pieces that she felt were their best pieces. I also grabbed some others that I felt would be good, and fun to work with. I could see that their target customers were older women, mid 40s to mid 50s, however, the inspiration and ways I was planning on styling it, I wanted to target a younger audience, trendier fashion forward girl. The funny thing is, when I pull wardrobe, I have a bad habit of not looking at price tags. Not that I need to, not like I am actually purchasing the items. My shopping habits are just the same, price tags are irrelevant for me. Which I know is not a shopping conscious decision. By the time I finished pulling the items, the ticket ended up being well over $10,000 in product. This was my most expensive shoot I’ve done, to the day. Normally I am in the $3000 to $4000 range. When I got home, I pulled out the steamer and rolling racks, and popped a bottle of wine. It was a late night date with me and the wardrobe!! Because the pieces had flowers in designed on them made of the fabric, I needed to steam them to make the pieces fluffy and fuller. Think of it as a blooming flower, I needed to steam the shirts and dresses particular for them to bloom and open up.
The day of the shoot, Cole and I arrived first, we started going to work right away. Maddie’s mother happen to have a steamer available, so I wanted to resteam some of the pieces to make them fluffy again. When I pulled the pieces out, Stephanie (Maddie the models mom) she loved the pieces. Maddie did as well, just the details the texture in the dresses were beautiful!! Normally I pull pieces of least favorite to most favorite, but with this shoot, I loved all the pieces. I wanted to shoot all pieces!! I ended up pulling 8 looks, but we only needed 4 to be sent in. Sasha showed up shortly and she loved the pieces as well. This just made my job that march harder. As I mentioned in previous blogs, and if you know me personally, I have grown to learn to start with the weakest looks because the model needs to warm up first. Don’t want to waste a strong look on the first look. And, knowing that I had to cut 4 looks out, I didn’t know which ones I was going to cut out. So I started off with a printed top with pants as my first look. Second look was a textured all white dress with neck piece. Then to a sheer skirt over lay with cutout leggings. These first three looks gave me a variety of looks for this shoot. Pants, solids, textures, prints, skirt, dress. Going back to the beginning of this entry, I haven't worked with Maddie before. Nor have I seen her port before. Sasha suggested her. When I met her, first thought was she is so pretty, so beautiful, and blonde which is RARE here in Vegas. She mentioned she had just started modeling, January 2015. She started off as a dancer, still is and does some modeling on the side. Got signed to TNG Agency here in Vegas. My next thought was....
"Please God, let her be able to model, pose, and naile the shot."
Beginning models tend to be on the shy side, especially early in age at 16. Not the case!!! Check this INSTAGRAM behind the scenes VIDEO from the shoot, by Cole. She took direction weel, as you can see in the video, every shot that as taken, she moved her hands and face, shoulder and hips.
By this time, after our third look, we were close to our deadline. This is where I get stressed out, crunch time. Sasha started to ask what was the latest she would be able to stay for the shoot, due to prior engagement she needed to attend. My impression, as the shoot went on. The momentum and vibe was so high and fun, Maddie decided to stay longer. She made us a priority for the shoot. We were going to get the minimum of 4 looks done and shot, but with the looks I brought and extra looks, the hair and makeup was great, as a team we all wanted to stay and get the additional shots done as well! Plus Cole and Rene had a few more looks of their own they were waiting to do some change ups! From there the mood of the shoot went more positive. Rene and Cole worked on the hair and makeup changes. The next set of looks for wardrobe moved to red wardrobe with black. We moved location to a neighbor friend of Stephanie, who had an open backyard, with a pool. We did some shots around the pool. They had a low bridge where Maddie was able to walk across. Looked like she was walking on water. Textured red dress with a light black jacket with exaggerated open sleeves. The following look was a red top with flower on the sleeve, black leather pencil skirt, with gold tights. The gold tights made it a bold color block feel, but the series of the wardrobe didn’t consist of anything gold (except the jewelry). That might have been a mistake on my wardrobe styling, as a cohesive story. For that one look, I felt it a different look. Any look with colored tights is a great change up or styling tip to take away.
The 6th look was a solid black jacket dress. The bottom half was detailed with flowers on the bottom. It was a great light jacket. Imagine, a great trench jacket, but the details of it made it elevated with the flower textures. As I grabbed the dress, I remembered I meant to grab some lace floral stockings I had in my wardrobe closet in my office. Totally left those behind, in the moment I was frustrated with myself. That would have been icing on the cake. Rene and Cole did their last change for hair and makeup as well This shoot was flowing great, all the wardrobe changes and hair and makeup was all cohesive with each other! The last look was a repeat look from the third look. Only difference was the bottom was a black skirt for the last look. The tops are different are details in the shirt. When you look at it, both looks were white tops and black bottoms. Two different styles of skirts and tops. I pulled this second white / black look because in the beginning of the shoot we had a 2pm deadline. Since we decided to move forward with all looks, I put this look back in the shot. I was very very very happy with all the looks I put together. The pieces fit Maddie well, I did pretty close to non for pinning in the back. Which most of the time, I end up doing pinning. The only pinning I did do was to pin the jackets to flare open more. Sahsa had made a comment to me as well, about my styling.
“Russel your styling is getting better! Each time it just keeps progressing.”
I looked at her confused, not that I didn’t believe her or disagreed. Styling to me comes so natural. I enjoy putting outfits together to create a story. Do I push myself and challenge myself? Sure I do… but I do it so I can always bring a different twist to my styling. Change it up, so I can keep being in demand. I always try to keep myself current or beyond when it comes to styling. I don’t want to be that artist that people get tired of my work, or feel my work is predictable.
This photo shoot is being submitted for Avari Magazine – Secret Garden June 2015 Issue.SIDE NOTE, the entire shoot was shot in the backyards of neighbors. No parks, no forrest, no public flower garden.
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