Saturday 31 August 2013
The End Film
This took me about 5 minutes to put together so expect nothing great... I only did a tiny bit of filming since it was more about the photography but here ya go for all my true fans
DISTURBAN
Distressed Housewives living in Suburbia, 1960's. A fake smile hides everything but when revealed, all comes crashing.
Fashion photography is about going deeper from what is expected. If you're given a task or theme, you cannot just stick to it. Somehow, within yourself you've got to build it bigger and better. It's not about following the book but creating an individual story that interests you and the audience. A story is the key to a successful outcome. You have to get it right because if it gets too complex for the audience to realise what's going on then people lose interest and the whole collection of pictures becomes a confusion.
We tried to create a story of two housewives mimicking our theme by using different locations that could as a whole represent different parts of a house. The title of the editorial was Disturban. Two words: distressed and suburbia mixed together to create a unique title to the story. We wanted to emphasis the 60's fashion which we spent a good amount of time styling but also correspond this with a sense of sadness and secrets.
This first picture below was decided to be the front cover of our 6 page spread. It seems to be the most powerful with the very sinister looking face and the action of her kicking down the door. This picture was also the first part of the story where we photographed the model acting as if she was kicking the door open instead of walking in. The idea that this photo is the beginning and she is already acting destructive, something a housewife would never do, shows that through the door lies more secrets. The quote behind closed doors really stands out in this image.
This last photo is also one of my favourites. The outfit was incredible, as soon as we put then on Cece (the model) we couldn't not photograph them. We tried to stick with the 60's outfits but as we weren't trying to create an actual housewife we realised we could twist the clothes a bit and turn it a little modern. We asked some builders to borrow a bit of paint and a paintbrush while we took the photos. The idea that she is doing work that would be considered a mans job shadows the whole theme.
Now I've got one more week of summer before I start the dreaded school but... I'm moving to a new school so I've still got that to be excited about. Now I GTG since I've done no summer assignments and I've got four to complete...
Fashion photography is about going deeper from what is expected. If you're given a task or theme, you cannot just stick to it. Somehow, within yourself you've got to build it bigger and better. It's not about following the book but creating an individual story that interests you and the audience. A story is the key to a successful outcome. You have to get it right because if it gets too complex for the audience to realise what's going on then people lose interest and the whole collection of pictures becomes a confusion.
We tried to create a story of two housewives mimicking our theme by using different locations that could as a whole represent different parts of a house. The title of the editorial was Disturban. Two words: distressed and suburbia mixed together to create a unique title to the story. We wanted to emphasis the 60's fashion which we spent a good amount of time styling but also correspond this with a sense of sadness and secrets.
This first picture below was decided to be the front cover of our 6 page spread. It seems to be the most powerful with the very sinister looking face and the action of her kicking down the door. This picture was also the first part of the story where we photographed the model acting as if she was kicking the door open instead of walking in. The idea that this photo is the beginning and she is already acting destructive, something a housewife would never do, shows that through the door lies more secrets. The quote behind closed doors really stands out in this image.
This three page spread of the housewife in the bins is another part of the story where she's taking out the trash yet her sitting down on the chair acting as if she doesn't care about her duties to serve as a housewife emphasises the theme. We edited the photo so the background became very blurred leaving just the body a lot brighter. This is to show the beautiful 60's dress she's wearing along with massive sunglasses and a red handbag since it's not only about the shot but the styling and clothes too.
Another photo of the collection with the housewife standing on the chair holding the rubbish bag in the same sort of careless way.
The next two photos of the second house wife are quite clearly a distressed look. We smudged her makeup and tasseled her hair along with styling the model in a massive skirt.
The second picture is again the same outfit but her standing next to a bucket and holding a mop. The picture is in black and white but we left the strip of purple in colour to emphasis the skirt. The idea of a housewife's job to clean is used by the mop but knocked down by the smudged mascara and stern look on her face.
One of my favourite pictures, we tried to capture it looking like some sort of office. We found this location in the basement where most of the other photographs were taken. We got her to look as destructive as possible by having a cigarette in her mouth and acting as if she was about to set the files on fire.
The photo of both models / housewives together really capture the 60's fashion. We chose to use the two brightest and boldest dresses together because this way the photo looks more as one. Both have messy hair and smudged makeup with a very sad and destructive look on their faces. This is one of my favourite photos because the faces really fit with the theme and story of our shoot and the clothes are so eccentric. Everything clashes together in the right way creating what I would say, one of the best photos.
This last photo is also one of my favourites. The outfit was incredible, as soon as we put then on Cece (the model) we couldn't not photograph them. We tried to stick with the 60's outfits but as we weren't trying to create an actual housewife we realised we could twist the clothes a bit and turn it a little modern. We asked some builders to borrow a bit of paint and a paintbrush while we took the photos. The idea that she is doing work that would be considered a mans job shadows the whole theme.
Over all I am so pleased with what we produced as a team. It's odd how things just come together so easily and so quickly. I think this course is not only going to really help me with my portfolio but also taught me a lot about myself and the fashion industry. You find new skills you never thought you'd have. You learn so many new things about yourself, how confident you are, how independent you can be, photography, sketching and thinking beyond average. Although it was only a short course it was honestly one of the best things I've done all summer. I began to really imagine myself in this sort of life. I wouldn't necessarily work in fashion styling but something along those lines, connected with
communication and the media.
It's always sad when something ends but I'm trying to look at it in the most positive way. I've had such an amazing experience, something a lot of people dream of doing. Being part of the Central Saint Martins University even if it was just for a few days makes me appreciate the opportunity I was given (by my auntie who got me half price). I want to make more opportunities for me and living in London is the perfect way to create them. I've promised to myself that I need to make more of the fact I'm living in one of the biggest fashion cities in the world.
So this is it for CSM but maybe I'll be back in a couple years studying there fo'real! Who knows?Now I've got one more week of summer before I start the dreaded school but... I'm moving to a new school so I've still got that to be excited about. Now I GTG since I've done no summer assignments and I've got four to complete...
M x
Thursday 29 August 2013
The First Editorial
I made it to the third (second for me) day of the fashion styling course and oh boy am I happy I went.
Today was such an exciting day as it was the day of the photo shoot. We've been asked to do a 6 page editorial for a magazine of our choice. Obviously not for the actual magazine. We chose American Vogue which fits in nicely with our theme.
Yesterday I had missed out on the plan of what we were going to do but that didn't matter much because I completely loved the idea. The theme of the shoot was 60's Housewives but slightly distressed and grungy. If anyone and I know everyone has seen Desperate House Wives then you will know that behind the perfect house wife there are always secrets. We wanted to use this theme by slightly distorted our models with the location of the shoot and the makeup and how we styled each look.
10 am and we got straight into it. Our tutors gave the whole class massive bags of clothes where we had to rummage around in our groups to find outfits that fit the theme. Once we found the clothes we needed we put six different outfits together. As this was going on, me and one of the girls in my group went exploring outside to find different locations to use. We also walked down to the basement and discovered amazing rooms to shoot in. ((so scary too))
Once we'd found the locations, put the first two outfits on the models and gotten the hair and makeup perfected it was time to start. Me and two other girls were taking the photos while some others were helping the models. Basically, we all just worked as a team directing each other until we'd decided we'd gotten enough photos.
This process of styling and changing outfits, doing hair and makeup and moving to different locations with props was just a small taster of what life would be like working for a magazine: thrilling, exhausting, busy but most of all just fun and exciting.
Obviously these are not the only pictures since there were two other photographers and these are also not the final photos because tomorrow we are going to start editing them and putting it all together as one final editorial piece. I will do another post when everything is finished and perfected but here are a few previews of what went on today.
Today was such an exciting day as it was the day of the photo shoot. We've been asked to do a 6 page editorial for a magazine of our choice. Obviously not for the actual magazine. We chose American Vogue which fits in nicely with our theme.
Yesterday I had missed out on the plan of what we were going to do but that didn't matter much because I completely loved the idea. The theme of the shoot was 60's Housewives but slightly distressed and grungy. If anyone and I know everyone has seen Desperate House Wives then you will know that behind the perfect house wife there are always secrets. We wanted to use this theme by slightly distorted our models with the location of the shoot and the makeup and how we styled each look.
10 am and we got straight into it. Our tutors gave the whole class massive bags of clothes where we had to rummage around in our groups to find outfits that fit the theme. Once we found the clothes we needed we put six different outfits together. As this was going on, me and one of the girls in my group went exploring outside to find different locations to use. We also walked down to the basement and discovered amazing rooms to shoot in. ((so scary too))
Once we'd found the locations, put the first two outfits on the models and gotten the hair and makeup perfected it was time to start. Me and two other girls were taking the photos while some others were helping the models. Basically, we all just worked as a team directing each other until we'd decided we'd gotten enough photos.
This process of styling and changing outfits, doing hair and makeup and moving to different locations with props was just a small taster of what life would be like working for a magazine: thrilling, exhausting, busy but most of all just fun and exciting.
Obviously these are not the only pictures since there were two other photographers and these are also not the final photos because tomorrow we are going to start editing them and putting it all together as one final editorial piece. I will do another post when everything is finished and perfected but here are a few previews of what went on today.
A busy day ends with a few episodes of something on Netflix, a nice meal of fish and chips, a cup of tea and a sneaky ciggy upstairs before an early night.
M x
Where Is My Mind
Since focusing this blog not only on my interest in fashion but expanding to film and photography, I've been stressing about the name 'Beyond Her Fashion'. I felt like it didn't really fit my blog because it's not just about fashion. Me being boring and uncreative I haven't thought of a better name than 'Beyond Mim' which I guess kinda describes my blog.. As it's beyond just ME and goes into depth of all my passions and basically a whole website on my world (((boringgg oh lorddy))) I still hate the name so if anyone has any good suggestions for a name then hit me up otherwise I'll have to keep pondering or just leave it be!!
M x
Wednesday 28 August 2013
Central Saint Martins
Sadly I've only been able to attend one of the classes (today being the second day) because of how ill and worn out I am but if I'm able to rest today I could go back tomorrow which would be great. Anyway...
This summer my auntie got me a half price place at one of the Central Saint Martins short courses, I chose to do Fashion Styling as that is something I'm interested in but also have zero experience. Obviously my first thoughts were all about how am I going to make friends? What if everyone has more experience than me? What if I'm the worst at it all? But going walking in with the group of girls, (and one boy) sitting down in the room and having to do small exercises introducing ourselves to each other I quickly forgot about all my worries. Everyone is in the same position as me; no friends, no idea how to do anything and just wanting to gain as much experience as we can.
In these situations you have to make sure you are pushing yourself as much as possible. Walking out on my own for coffee break I made sure I asked two girls if I could go with them- of course they said yes because that's what the first day was all about... Making friends and learning all about them. The more you learn, the more you actually realise how similar we all are. I've never been in a situation with so many people that are interested in roughly exactly the same thing as you. The questions aren't "What do you want to do when you're older?" It's more like "What fashion do you want to go into?" This is all extremely reassuring and actually makes you more determined to get the most out of the short few days we were all going to spend together. (However that could've been my last day if I'm not better)
The task of the day took up a good few hours of intense and exhausting team work. We were put in to groups of six and were told to make four different outfits with set themes from the clothes that our tutors laid out for us. The amount of amazing clothes we found was crazy, they were all so bright and different making the task a lot more entertaining. We used a mannequin which was a lot easier because we could really get into it and not have to worry about a person. One of the things the tutors told us which is so important in fashion styling was to be experimental and creative. We weren't allowed to just pick up a skirt and a top and put it on the mannequin. We had to use a dress, turn it inside out, upside, pin it to one shoulder, use it as a hat. I loved the idea that we could literally find any piece of clothing and interpret it any sort of way we wanted to. After we'd finished one outfit, we had to photograph it and then draw it out in our sketch books. This was challenging for me because even though I did Art GCSE and passed with an A, I am absolutely terrible at drawing however no one was really that confident with what they were doing so it didn't exactly matter how bad your drawings were it was just the idea that counted. After the outfits were done, photographed and sketched it took us to 5pm where the day was over.
This theme was called Restricting. It had words to describe it as bounding, tight and so on. The black chain really represented what the aim of the look was. We used the black and pink long leather skirt as a dress which made it a lot tighter and more 'restricting'. To match the black chain we tightly wrapped a black cloth in the opposite direction giving an X shape. To finish it off we added a leather waist coast pinned back to look cropped. We then found a random sleeve ripped off from anther leather jacket and as fashion styling is about being creative, it was decided we'd pin it on to one side of her which completed the look.
Going back home on the tube, I reflected on the busy day I had and was able to quickly note some of the highlights down in my moleskin. Not only did I learn a lot about styling, I also pushed myself to speak to new people, to ask questions and learn about them. That was an important thing for me to be able to do as on the 6th of September I start my new sixth form where I will be alone again not knowing anybody.
So in just 7 hours I have learnt so much already and if that were to be my only day at CSM, I would be disappointed however still have gained some experience which is just what I wanted to do.
This summer my auntie got me a half price place at one of the Central Saint Martins short courses, I chose to do Fashion Styling as that is something I'm interested in but also have zero experience. Obviously my first thoughts were all about how am I going to make friends? What if everyone has more experience than me? What if I'm the worst at it all? But going walking in with the group of girls, (and one boy) sitting down in the room and having to do small exercises introducing ourselves to each other I quickly forgot about all my worries. Everyone is in the same position as me; no friends, no idea how to do anything and just wanting to gain as much experience as we can.
In these situations you have to make sure you are pushing yourself as much as possible. Walking out on my own for coffee break I made sure I asked two girls if I could go with them- of course they said yes because that's what the first day was all about... Making friends and learning all about them. The more you learn, the more you actually realise how similar we all are. I've never been in a situation with so many people that are interested in roughly exactly the same thing as you. The questions aren't "What do you want to do when you're older?" It's more like "What fashion do you want to go into?" This is all extremely reassuring and actually makes you more determined to get the most out of the short few days we were all going to spend together. (However that could've been my last day if I'm not better)
The task of the day took up a good few hours of intense and exhausting team work. We were put in to groups of six and were told to make four different outfits with set themes from the clothes that our tutors laid out for us. The amount of amazing clothes we found was crazy, they were all so bright and different making the task a lot more entertaining. We used a mannequin which was a lot easier because we could really get into it and not have to worry about a person. One of the things the tutors told us which is so important in fashion styling was to be experimental and creative. We weren't allowed to just pick up a skirt and a top and put it on the mannequin. We had to use a dress, turn it inside out, upside, pin it to one shoulder, use it as a hat. I loved the idea that we could literally find any piece of clothing and interpret it any sort of way we wanted to. After we'd finished one outfit, we had to photograph it and then draw it out in our sketch books. This was challenging for me because even though I did Art GCSE and passed with an A, I am absolutely terrible at drawing however no one was really that confident with what they were doing so it didn't exactly matter how bad your drawings were it was just the idea that counted. After the outfits were done, photographed and sketched it took us to 5pm where the day was over.
This theme was called Confusion and Explosive. We found two massive tutus, one orange which we used as a top/poncho and the black tutu at the bottom of the mannequin. This created a sort of exploding dress (the orange tutu looking much like a volcano) We finished the look off with a long piece of blue material draped down on one shoulder. The whole look mimicked the title with a lot of confusion and big bright explosive colours.
This theme was called Restricting. It had words to describe it as bounding, tight and so on. The black chain really represented what the aim of the look was. We used the black and pink long leather skirt as a dress which made it a lot tighter and more 'restricting'. To match the black chain we tightly wrapped a black cloth in the opposite direction giving an X shape. To finish it off we added a leather waist coast pinned back to look cropped. We then found a random sleeve ripped off from anther leather jacket and as fashion styling is about being creative, it was decided we'd pin it on to one side of her which completed the look.
This look was themed Diva and Ball gown. Now this wasn't the finishing outfit because I didn't get a picture of it but hopefully I'll be able to get it from others who had cameras too. The sparkly scarf was taken off, along with the silver sparkly top. We were left with a very diva'ish and ball gown sort of outfit with a massive black and purple dress pinned up on one side creating that diva look. The big puffy sleeves were pinned in front of the mannequin around the boob area which made her look less like a weird tranny.
The last look was themed Flowy and Toga. We pinned the white dress/robe to only one side of the body and along the front of the chest area. It was very long and draped all the way down her body which defined the flow and toga look. We dressed her in a leopard print cloth interpreting it as a dress with a chanel belt to finish it off giving the dress more shape.
Going back home on the tube, I reflected on the busy day I had and was able to quickly note some of the highlights down in my moleskin. Not only did I learn a lot about styling, I also pushed myself to speak to new people, to ask questions and learn about them. That was an important thing for me to be able to do as on the 6th of September I start my new sixth form where I will be alone again not knowing anybody.
So in just 7 hours I have learnt so much already and if that were to be my only day at CSM, I would be disappointed however still have gained some experience which is just what I wanted to do.
M x
Tuesday 27 August 2013
The Last of America
Even though I've been back for one week, I've had no time whatsoever to be able to blog about the last days of America. But here I am, in bed trying to slowly recover from my jet lag, miss of America, tiredness of Reading fest and an extremely bad cold.
I've got two videos to upload, first being my whole trip of San Francisco which was definitely my favourite place in California and second favourite in America (New York has to come first hands down)
I've got two videos to upload, first being my whole trip of San Francisco which was definitely my favourite place in California and second favourite in America (New York has to come first hands down)
The second video is only a short 35 seconds of clips from the views of the outside through my window in the car. I only thought about making this film right at the end of the holiday which is why it's so short. I was super annoyed at myself because if I'd thought of the idea at the beginning of the holiday I could've taken a lot more shots and tried to get similar angles for each one but I'll just have to live with what I've got.. and I'm quite pleased with it since its literally so short.
The last day was probably the most productive as I managed to not only get all my friends presents but presents for me too. Another pair of docs, rings, a mesh top and a new bag.
THATS IT FROM AMERICA AND THE FOTHERGILL FAMILY! GONE FOR THE SUMMER BUT NOT FOR GOOD! USA... I WILL RETURN!
p.s hairs got purple
M x
Sunday 18 August 2013
Just Keep Swimming
Dolphins on the last full day
quick quick post of some photos of today swimming with dolphins.
It's actually the most incredible thing, the dolphins were adorable and so cute with their little noises and high fives!
This was definitely such a great way to end the holiday but but but it's not completely over as tomorrow before the plane I'm planning on doing some last minute but very early shopping
Enjoy
quick quick post of some photos of today swimming with dolphins.
It's actually the most incredible thing, the dolphins were adorable and so cute with their little noises and high fives!
This was definitely such a great way to end the holiday but but but it's not completely over as tomorrow before the plane I'm planning on doing some last minute but very early shopping
Enjoy
M x
Saturday 17 August 2013
A Photography Alley
Wot wot wot
Being home alone for the day allowed me to explore my beautiful flat I've been living in for the last few days in San Francisco.
I should know every part but apparently not, I mean I just found the second bathroom today which I didn't even realise existed. I've spent a good few hours in my amazing little garden and I suddenly came across a small alley way leading onto the street. The amount of effort the owner has put into this flat completely caught me by surprise.
There are about five beautiful black and white photographs hanging up along the alley on the wall. I literally felt like I was at a photography gallery. As soon as I discovered this secretive place I ran upstairs and grabbed my camera.
And a sneaky peak of my gorgeous garden...
Being home alone for the day allowed me to explore my beautiful flat I've been living in for the last few days in San Francisco.
I should know every part but apparently not, I mean I just found the second bathroom today which I didn't even realise existed. I've spent a good few hours in my amazing little garden and I suddenly came across a small alley way leading onto the street. The amount of effort the owner has put into this flat completely caught me by surprise.
There are about five beautiful black and white photographs hanging up along the alley on the wall. I literally felt like I was at a photography gallery. As soon as I discovered this secretive place I ran upstairs and grabbed my camera.
And a sneaky peak of my gorgeous garden...
M x
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