So excited for my second cover! I photographed AND styled this sizzling beach fashion shoot starring one of my favourite new faces; Meg G @ London Management. This shoot reminded me how much I loved conceptualizing an image, bringing together ideas and inspirations, clothing, makeup and people to make a story alive. Joining me is a long time friend and collaborator Kate McCleary, fellow cat enthusiast and amazing hair and makeup artist.
Setting up was fairly simple. I wanted the sex appeal of Dolce & Gabbana with the carefree attitude of Calvin Klein. We needed male models to complement Meg and got some stunning choices from Scene and in the end we went for Hamish and Nik who hesitantly but gamely got down and dirty (literally!) in the sand according to all my vague directions. The team was all set and location was also decided upon, so let’s go!I also knew I HAD to get some awesome clothing. I spent a week drawing from my own collection and pulled from stores and local designers for that sleek chic look…it was really hard work. Some of the labels included Sass & Bide, Phillippa Bain, Alexander Wang and Rachel Zoe. In fact I got so obsessed with this shoot that I was dreaming about it, I got up in the middle of the night every night to jot down specific poses and wardrobe combinations. At the very least it helped to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible.
On the day I was assisted by Alex (on set) and Naomi (on styling) on one of the quickest executed editorial ever….we finished at around 3pm and blazed through 11 changes! It’s all thanks to a great team, everyone was on point and helping through every moment. We even drew quite a crowd watching our progress but we powered on (with a few giggles or two 😉 )
In the end it was a success. We were cold, exhausted, covered with sand and happy…well I was anyway, no more getting up with no sleep while thinking about this shoot! And in March 2014 we made the cover of Stilo with a 12 page editorial. Woot.
