Black/White Widow Shoot-Fall 2009

Hello! As promised, I am staying on top of my blogging! I think that I will start from the bottom of my last post and work my way up. The style project was a concept of a Black and White Widow. The Black Widow was supposed to appear dark and depressed while the other widow-the White Widow was supposed to be happy and fairy-like. When I first heard about the job, I was unaware that the styling would require-wedding dresses.

Now my first thought when I found this out (after I accepted the job) was where in the world and I going to find wedding dresses that someone is going to let me- here comes the crazy part: BORROW. Most stylist borrow and return the items that they merchandise/use. This is anything from the clothes, to the accessories, even the shoes!

Luckily for this project, I didn't need shoes. At the time of this shoot I was living in Fullerton, but working for a celeb. stylist in LA. I hadn't been working for the stylist up in LA long enough to borrow any clothes from her contacts, so I was on my own. And I needed to get resourceful, fast. First thing I did was venture over to downtown Fullerton. There are a couple of great Bridal stores down there as well as tons of vintages stores.

I walked up and down into every store introducing myself and getting to know store owners. It is not easy to feel out a store owner you just met and try to borrow there merchandise for a shoot that will most likely not be published-bc for the store owners, there is nothing in it immediately for them. And I can appreciate where they are coming from. However, that wasn't getting me anywhere either. Majority of the Bridal stores won't let you go near their gowns-they are thousand dollar gowns that could easily be stained or ruined. Part of me didn't want to responsibility of their gowns either, I knew I couldn't shell out the money it would take should anything go wrong.

Then I came across a vintage and costume store that was a true gem. They had a bunch of vintage wedding gowns to choose from, and even better, they were willing to let me borrow them for a few days for a very reasonable fee. Phew! I found wedding gowns for my first shoot on my own. I had already accomplished half the battle. To be honest, I am not sure what I would have done if I had not found this great little vintage store StrayCat & Costumes.

Here are some of my favorite images from the shoot:

The shoot went off without a hitch. I even got to do some Art Directing and play with some of the props and posing of the models. The gowns were unscathed, and most importantly my photographers were blown away by the merchandise I found for them to photograph. We all lucked out to have two beautiful models to work with.

Hello, out there! Happy April fashionistas! First, I must acknowledge that I have been hibernating and I apologize. So much has happened between now and Oct. I can't believe that was my last post. I have been taking on a handful of different projects from styling to branding and concept design. I still did some styling, but more of my own projects, and I have recently been getting photos on these. I will try to catch up and keep current. I think the best way to do it is to do a few Mini-Posts of the different projects I have been working on instead of one massive post. Just wanted to revive the blog and transition it into what is happening now! Here is a preview of some of the projects I have been working on and what is coming up in future posts....

This is the Brand Imaging and Concept Design work for International Fragrance Co.


This photo shoot was done early Spring: Concept-Anthropologie. In addition to all the styling, i was given the opportunity to also be the subject model!

This photoshoot was done during the Winter. Concept: Peacock Palette

This was done all the way back to last Fall! Concept-Black & White Widow

So in a nutshell, that is the most recent of my work and projects. I am currently styling a catalogue project for a co. up in LA. Photo shoot is this Weds. Can't give any more details on that until the project wraps and the new season's collection is shown to the public. Photos will be a month or so out. My next posts will go into more detail on the preview shoots from above.

Rumer Willis for Entertainment Weekly

Hey Stylistas! I finally got back the picture of the photoshoot I helped assist on back in August. The photo shoot was with Rumer Willis for Entertainment Weekly. She was doing press for upcoming movie, Sorority Row-now out in theaters. It is the September 11 issue of Entertainment Weekly with the Beatles on the cover. The shoot was on location at this ranch style mansion on the very very top of the Hollywood Hills. I got to prep and pull looks for the shoot. Going to the different showrooms in LA was fun. I got to go to People's Revolution, Jimmy Choo showroom, Chanel jewelry Showroom, and a few others that have been featured on The Hills and Rachel Zoe. Oh how different it is in real life and shown on Tv! It is always smaller in person, but just as cool to see!

Rumer was very cool and easy to work with. As most actresses, she is smaller and even more beautiful in person. Prep for this small shoot took about two days and then post/returns took about a day. We pulled so many looks for this shoot, twenty different dresses from underground labels like monroe to famous designers such as Dolce and Gabbana. We also had twenty pairs of jeans, thirty different shoes and so much chunky jewelry we ran out of places to lay it all out! Our rack of clothes was packed to the max. In the end she did three outfit changes, and went barefoot for each one. We were under the impression for wardrobe that this shoot was going to be a three page write up & spread, so we had to over prepare. However, it ran as a one full length shot and a page write up. Oh well! The end result is a great picture to add to the portfolio! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

American Vintage Photo shoot

Hey stylistas! I just got back some very early photos from a shoot I put together with the help of a photographer and model friend of mine. I collaborated with photographer Katelin Wallace and model Nicole Lockshaw. The theme for the shoot we came up with was American Vintage. We decided to do this theme because of the locations we choose: a vast open field as well as a modern/rundown building. The only hitch that could have gotten in our way was weather. It rained off and on the day before and the whole morning prior to the shoot. We had a back-up studio if the locations were to be rained out, but the studio would not have allowed us to translate the American Vintage theme as well. Lucky for us we were far enough south in Orange County that the clouds parted and we got some AMAZING photos all with natural lighting! We could not have been more lucky.

It was a long but very fun day. We started with hair and make-up at 12:30, came onto the location by about 3pm, and shot right up until we started losing light around 6:30pm. What a day! We were able to shoot at two different locations and get in five different outfit changes. These are some of the preview untouched photos. The final shots are still not ready, but I wanted to share these early photos because they turned out so well! These photos will serve the purpose of building the portfolios for the photographer, model, make-up artist, and myself, the stylist. Thank you again to photographer Katelin Wallace and model Nicole Lockshaw! Enjoy!!

Domestic Safari

Happy October!

I am so glad it is finally October. The official month of fall. For some reason I crave the fall season. I love the ambiance of the leaves turning, the brisk mornings, chilly nights, and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks (although my favorite is still Carmel Apple Cider the rest of the year). Halloween is coming and so are the rest of the holidays. It's the last stretch until the new year, without all the craziness of the frenzied holidays back to back to back. It always seems to hold such a promise of opportunity-October is perfect.

Here is an editorial photo shoot that I worked on at FIDM. The project here was to sell a high end lifestyle brand, ours being homeproduct; more specifically within the photo a l

ine of dishware. The goal here was to sell not only a line of product but a lifestyle. I came up with the tag line of "Domestic Safari" as a play on words with the domestic side of a home blended with the craziness of the jungle safari. It is not the typical style that I gravitate towards, however I feel that our group came up

with a strong look and successfully sold this product visually speaking. The original was in color, but due to some tweaking in photoshop, I cannot get the color image to come up correctly on the blog. Which doesn't make sense because it will come up fine when I print it. Either way, here is the black and white version. Here is a photo of the color version on my computer. Terrible quality, but it is so much stronger in color than black in white. This was a great experience. I have never styled a shoot for a lifestyle brand. It is a part of the styling niche, so it is good to be well rounded. Styling jobs are very difficult to obtain which I am finding out, so the more well rounded I can be all the better! Stay tuned, I have a photo shoot I am styling with a photographer friend of mine next Weds. So pictures will soon follow! Check out Katelin's blog and work as well, she is really talented.

http://journeyadventures.blogspot.com/

Renaissance Redoux

Hello Stylistas! The month of September has flown by for me and I thought I better get back to blogging before October is here. I have been waiting for some things to come in to blog, so I will have more pictures to share. First and foremost I am no longer a student! I completed my post grad. at FIDM and now I am floundering about in the real world like everyone else wondering what to do with all my free time... If I know myself at all I better figure out something quick. I get very restless when I don't have a lot going on. So that is an update about what has been going on since the last posting.

Now for the fun stuff: New styling pictures are in! The final project for my styling class had to produce a look based on a theme for a photoshoot. We worked within groups of three and had a model, and hair/make-up artist at our disposal. The shoot was at a studio in

dt LA. Here are the best looks from our group. The theme was Renaissance Redoux (rebirth).

There were a ton of pictures produced from the shoot, but these are the ones that I will use for my portfolio.

What is interesting about photoshoots is it is very much a "hurry up and wait" process. Stylists are usually the first to arrive on set, and sometimes the photographer. Then the model will arrive, and very often the hair and make-up artists. Once the clothes are picked out for the model, there is the process of hair and make-up. This can take hours-this is the wait part. From there it is hurry up! Clothes go on, and the photoshoot begins. The actual shooting of film only lasts between half hour to an hour at most. Once the photographer feels they got the shot, then it's a wrap. And if your lucky, you will get great pictures to put into a portfolio.

The Glorious Inglorious Bastards Event

Hey Stylistas! While I am anticipating the rush of awards season (mid Sept-early 2010) I thought I would catch up on some back events I worked right before the start of Stylist Avenue. Starting with the most recent: The Inglorious Bastards Premier and After Party! 

Once again, I can thank FIDM for giving me the opportunity to work some high profile gigs. Being that FIDM is in LA, people in Hollywood know where to find students who are available to work last minute on events going on. I was just so lucky to work Quentin Tarantino;s 

Inglorious Bastards movie that premiered Aug. 10 at the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood and Highland. I got to sit right where the Red Carpet began and my glamorou

s (not really) job was to check in the guests for the premier. Most of the talent's publicists pulled their tickets, but I did get to hand Angie's brother James Haven his ticket. And on a side note, I got to see Felicity's Scott Foley up close and personal, and he is such a doll! Very nice man. 

Back to the talent... When Angelina and Brad rolled up to the Red Carpet it wa

s mayhem. People were lined on both sides of the street, and Hollywood Blvd. was pretty much shut down. There were fans lined up behind where us students were checking in people, trying to grab our credit badges. These badges were great, it kept people from bothering us, and I got to walk to the Red Carpet with it before the premier started. The theatre really is a sight. . 

Brad and Angie look just as amazing in person as they do on TV. They were very gracious of their fans. Here is a shot of Angie signing autographs for die-hard fans. These people were there for hours before the couple showed up. 

The leather dress that Angie rocked was cool, and very "Angie". 

However, my  favorite look of the night was Diane Krugers. I didn't see her at the premier, but she showed up with boyfriend Josh Jackson at the after party, which was held at the Mondrain Hotel off of Sunset Blvd. She was absolutely stunning. I couldn't help but stare at her when I first saw her, that face is practically angelic. I really think she is so under-rated. 

Her dress was amazing, full of texture and reflected with the lights. To me, she stole the Red Carpet. I think the best with Ms. Kruger is yet to come. Stay Tuned!