Las Vegas Wardrobe Stylist – Parlay Magazine Feature
- Russel Frank
- May 28, 2015
- 8 min read
05.27.2015
Theme: Las Vegas Wardrobe Stylist – Parlay Magazine Feature
Wardrobe Stylist: Myself
Wardrobe Assistant: Keyska Diva
Wardrobe: Zac Posen | Vera Wang
Jewelry Designer: Natasha Mors Designs
Photographer: Eric Ortiz
Hair: Allen Cole Blake
Make Up: Rene Maquilleur
Model: Liberty Pfeffer | Elite Model
Location: Nexus Studio
For 2015, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to make myself be out in the scene of mixers and fashion event. The more you network and mix, the more opportunities present themselves is my theory. I never expected my attendance to a mixer for Cosmopolitan Connection to open up an opportunity like this one. Dear friend of mine and fellow fashion lover, Deborah Harris met me at this mixer. She had me meet the team behind Parlay Magazine, a new Las Vegas magazine that focuses on the business of fashion, the dollars and cents. The Las Vegas fashion scene’s creators of economic development. One of the key people behind Parlay Magazine was Tevye Harper. Side note, I am super humble and just let my work speak for itself. On the inside, I know what I am capable of and my talent, but I never want to be that artist that is over cocky or misread as an arrogant artist. So when Tevye was introduced to me, his first things he said was how talented I am, he’s seen my work, “I am the best Las Vegas stylist”, I looked you up, Googled you, etc…. well that definitely put me in a spot light I wasn’t expecting. Of course I stayed humble and thanked him repeatedly. We exchanged business cards and he told me he wanted to feature me as an artist / stylist in his next issue. Wanted to do some new stuff, new shoot. Normally I just send in other images that hasn’t been published to a magazine when I am asked to be featured. No, he wanted original stuff. The pressure was on.
** Balmain Creative Director Olivier Rousteing, centre,
w/ supermodels Kendall Jenner, R, and Jourdan Dunn.
A Few weeks passed by and I wasn’t sure if this feature was still going to happen, until I got a text from Deborah about connecting. She immediately started to throw dates at me. I knew for this feature, they wanted me doing some behind the scenes photos. This was going to be completely different from anything I have done. No other magazine has asked to do a shoot based on me styling in the moment. Usually with my cell phone or tablet I take behind the scenes pics, but this was a shoot about behind the scenes. For the model, I wanted someone I haven’t done yet, I have never worked with Liberty Pfeffer before, on a personal level on a shoot. I’ve done Fashion Week Las Vegas with her as one of the runway models, I have worked with her on Global Beauty Masters. I reached out to her and her mom, and it was a set date. As for the team, I wanted to ask Cole for hair and Rene for makeup. Personally I feel like I had grown close to these guys. From working with fashion week with them for a year now with Rene, and almost two years with Cole, we are the #MensOfFashionWeek #MenOf FWLV I was excited to do this shoot with them. Asking Keyska, that was a no brainer. She had to do with a lot of my career as far as assisting me, I wanted to add her to the shoot. Then the theme… I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Lately since early this year, I have become a HUGE HUGE fan of Olivier Rousteing and what he has done with Balmain as the Creative Director. Not to compare myself to him, by any means… but I other than his talent as designer / creative director, I love his relationship with his models. Not because they are today’s SUPER MODELS but because he is so intimate with his models. I have that same relationship with my models, probably because I work with them from fashion week. I wanted that same feel in his instagram post on my set of the shoots. As for styling, I love love women’s ready-to-wear.
* Image is not my work, just the inspiration.
Kylie Jenner for Teen Vouge
Mixing the textures and prints is EXCITING!!! Such a fashion high!!! But I also wanted to do evening wear and gowns, because I know it will force me to push myself to do something different with gowns. Not that there is much styling done with gowns, except for adding jewelry and shoes. Recently the issue of Teen Vogue May 2015 with Kylie Jenner had came out. Its based off the Mad Max movie for inspiration, but for me there was a shot of her in a A. F. Vandervost hunter green dress, with combat boots!!! Perfection!! Such a great twist for evening wear. To make it my own, I started pinning on Pinterest evening wear with Moto Jackets !!! Glamour meets grunge as a I told Rene and Cole. For evening wear, I went back to my boutique connection for some Zac Posen dresses and threw in some Vera Wang. I needed this shoot to be drama!!!! I shared with Rene, looking for some smokey eye / grunge but still glamour. For hair I seen some images recently from Mod Magazine a beauty editorial spread I LOVED THE HAIR. There were three particular I liked. I wasn’t sure if Cole would be on board with the shoot, but I sent him some images from the spread. HE LOVED IT!!! He actually prefers hair like the ones I sent him. I sent him three different looks, but he and I agree instantly on one look that was the same one. Everything was coming together perfectly… too perfectly.
** Hair inpiration from MOD Magazine
Week of the shoot, I started to confirm everyone. But with Liberty still being in school, she had just missed a whole week of school due to her being in Miami and LA for Elite Model on her new signing. Short version, Lib couldn’t miss any more school. We needed to reschedule…. NIGHTMARE!!! Everything was set, we couldn’t move the shoot, with my schedule and the studio’s schedule, and Cole and Rene… everything was set. I called Deborah in a frantic at 11:30pm. I was so stressed out. I wanted this to be perfect. It was meaning so much to me, I didn’t know who I was going to have model for me. I wanted someone I felt close to. Deborah suggest models, but I only called her to let her know what was going on. I ended the call telling her I know I will find a model. Not to worry, I just had a moment of emotional stress. So I reached out to another model, who was super excited about the shoot being inspired by Kylie Jenner. Then hours later after confirming, she couldn’t do it neither. Same issue, being in school can’t miss days. I was stressed out!!! Two days before the shoot I had no model!!!!! Pam, Liberty’s mom, reached out to me again for the shoot. Pam and Liberty was just as anxious about the shoot as I was. I called Deborah again, and we made a new call time. MAGIC WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!!
The day of the shoot came. I had a 5 am call time for a different shoot. I tend to have insomnia, and the night before, I didn’t fall asleep until 1:30am. The day of the shoot, I was a little late to my early shoot for a different magazine, but I still made it. Keyska and I did our styling, she left to attend her class. The first shoot ran a little over, but that was fine I was done by 11am. That gave me 3 hours to get home, shower change and get the next wardrobe ready for my feature shoot. Cole, Rene, and Liberty (and Pam) made it to the studio before I did. Cole and Rene started their magic and was good to go. Keyska and I started to set up the rolling rack of wardrobe. Deborah was in awww of the dresses. I nailed it!! Even thought it was my shoot, still knowing the magazine team was in support of it, made it that much more exciting. Liberty walked out of the prep room and I was in AWWWWW. To have a vision and see it come together, especially after the hoops and struggles that happened a few days ago, makes it worth it. The model I wanted, the wardrobe I wanted, the beauty team I wanted… MAGIC!!
Next thing I knew it was time to shoot. It’s a behind the scenes shoot of me styling in the moment. This is a little different. I started to dress Liberty and Eric wasn’t ready. Deborah had to tell me to undress her so we can get some shots. I laughed it off. Liberty and I kept going forward and getting dressed, but we had to keep telling ourselves we had to slow down and let Eric take photos. I had to take my time and dress one leg at a time, add the necklace slowly, she shoes, the jacket slowly. It was a different feeling. We did the first look, and we were done. We moved on the next look. It was weird to not take a shot of Liberty without taking final shots. Next look, I pulled out Miss Vera Wang cocktail evening gown. DRAMA is all I can say about this dress. The texture, the layers, the silhouette was everything! You know that saying… it gave me LIFE!! When I pulled it out, Deborah called it out, “Oh you’re bringing out Miss Vera Wang next? Lets see what you can bring today.” Of course, I told her don’t worry about it I got this. We can nail this today in this shoot. Deborah’s only response was…. “Oh, I am sure you guys will nail it, I am very aware of who all of you are. The beauty glam squad for Fashion Week Las Vegas”. Satisfaction!!!
SIDE NOTE: Now the three of us, Cole, Rene, and I joke about being the Men of Fashion Week. We started to call us that right after season 5 back in August 2014. Now to hear it from an outside person, made it validating.
For the second looked, same process for the behind the scenes shots. Eric and Tevye had made some suggestions. “Let’s change the shoot. We are getting shots of BTS, but let’s get some shots of the finish product. We have him dressing Liberty, but let’s get some shots of what the looks look like at the end.” YAAASSSSSSSS This was what I wanted! I wish in the first look we had that same agreement. The long black Zac Posen dress, with the details and structure along the waist and bust. To have had that finished shot. For the second look I was just as happy for the full complete shot. The room loved what I was doing. The styling and attention to detail. LOVE… It was a great feeling, inspiring, validation that my work and talent is appreciated. The party uptown girl with a little street style in her. It made it all worth it, from the obstacles of confirming Liberty, the concept, the double shoots I had that day, running late to both, and the timing with Liberty and Elite Models. Now keep in mind, this is huge for a model to be signed to a major agency. Of course everyone who hasn’t probably wanted to shoot with her now, especially having an agency like that now backing her up. But this shoot was planned before her getting signed with Elite, the timing was just perfect.
The third and final look was a Zac Posen dress I had my eye on for a while from the boutique. I loved it. It’s an edgy dress that never worked for any other shoot I did, but his one was perfect for it. I had Keyska bring some moto jackets she may have had. She had this embellished jacket, with details along the collar, arms, and sleeves. I loved it!! It stood out from the other looks with the jacket detailing. Eric shot some of front and back of the jacket. From there, we wrapped up the shoot. Eric was happy and pleased. The shots we took looked amazing from what we seen on the computer. It was amazing!!
After the shoot, I stuck around to talk to Deborah and Tevye. They loved everything about the shoot. I shared my inspiration and how I wanted to do ready-to-wear. Deborah made a point, I brought ready-to-wear to meet evening wear. Combining gowns with jackets, stalking, and legwarmers dressed down the dresses. I made it my own. We chatted about some future collaboration that are now in the works with Parlay Magazine. I am so excited for what is a head for me and Parlay Magazine. This was truly the most positive emotional, intimate shoots I’ve done in my career. This highlights my career as a wardrobe stylist. The whole behind the scenes shoot was perfect and ideal.
Final images will be published and featured in Parlay Magazine - June 2015
Comments