As you can imagine, the launch of a clothing line involves stylists, hair and make-up artists, models, and numerous outfit changes. So it’s an event that can’t easily be rescheduled if the weather is bad. This was especially true in this case, since Evelyn Alex was in time crunch and needed the images quickly.
As EA is all about Real Girls and Real Life, we wanted to go with non-professional models for the shoot. Out of so many of great candidates from all over the DC area, we chose six girls to represent the brand. They were totally new to photo shoots and never had any training for posing in front of camera. I knew I would have to direct the girls to move and pose for the pictures.
As you all know, I don’t like “posy posy” images, and even having a backdrop is not my style. With a fixed lighting set-up to create consistent images for the website, I had to make sure the backdrop and other settings were consistent as well. I looked through lots of fashion websites, posing guides, and catalogues to inspire myself, but none of them really spoke to me. I finally found a few magazine images that I liked, and I tore them out and taped them onto the corner wall of the studio where everyone could see them. I ended up being creative and directed the girls to jump, fly, spin, cartwheel, and just be happy. It worked perfectly! (And I learned that I just can’t be posy-posy.)
The EA collection I photographed is for spring and summer, so I also wanted to make the scene bright, fun, active, and real, without bringing in distracting props and colorful backdrops. The white backdrop provided a clean, modern look, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t boring and plain, so I incorporated fresh flowers, headphones, skateboards, and a wind blower.
To make sure the girls were relaxed and natural, they needed to DO something like smelling flowers, listening to music, dancing, jumping, spinning, or skateboarding. I knew posing for the camera would only make them feel shy and unnatural, but with the warm wind blowing through their hair, lighting flashing and loud music pumping, the girls felt like they were at a party. And that was exactly how I wanted it to be!
I also needed to feature individual outfits. Since EA will be launched exclusively online, I needed to accurately show the detail of the garments. I tried to show each style’s true and natural fit, even when the model was in action. My background as a fashion professional came into play during the preparation stage. I tried to see the whole process as not only a photographer, but also from a designer’s perspective.
All the staff members, including EA designers Leanne Moss and Suejin Orlins; and the amazing stylist Jen Roberti and her assistant Lindsay Chaney; my talented assistants Eunice Choi and Beatriz Tuncer; and of course all six models got together to fit the clothes and prepare the sequences for the shoot. This was about a week before the actual shooting day. Jen planned everything ahead of time and brought all the accessories. This part took longer than I had thought, as we added more styles and scenes as we went along. The girls were fantastic, trying out different sizes and switching shoes constantly. We took some quick photos to make the sequence chart, which looked like the images below.
