Creating a Clothing Line: Photo Shoot

I finally had the photo shoot! I didn’t have it the first week of August like I thought because we had to push it back a little bit. But it happened, none the less. I already showed you the sketches of the full line last time but I'm going to post them again!

 

Like I said in an earlier post, I did 2 lines… All Black Affaire and All White Affaire. We did the shoot on Saturday, April 9, call time at 1pm. Brittany and Freddie (the Make-up artist) came in town Friday night. I wanted to make sure I got the fit just right so the next morning we can put the clothes on and shoot. To my surprise… Almost everything fit!!! I didn’t have to do many alterations except to one dress.  I showed the make-up artist and hair stylist the look that I wanted implemented, we had a few laughs, a few drinks and we were on our way.

 

This is how I wanted the hair to look

 

This is how I wanted the make-up to look

 

The next morning we all met at my house. Everybody except the hair dresser, Phil. I wanted him to meet us at the studio because the humidity in Atlanta is a bit much sometimes. I didn’t want him to do her hair and then it fall or turn into an afro before we even got a chance to shoot. Freddie and Brit went downstairs in my office to do the make-up. I had a few last minute things to do so I was finishing that up. Tagging was all that was left.

On a photo shoot when there are several people involved, sometimes it can be a bit hectic. It works a lot smoother when you're organized, have help, and things written down. You, as the designer and stylist, cannot be everywhere at once. Having things written down help out the people around you. For instance, time is money. Sometimes photo shoots can be charged by the hour. If you are shooting one look, your helpers can be in the back getting the next look ready. As soon as the model comes into the changing room, they can hop out of one look and right into the next one. 

I usually set the looks up in order on the rack. I tie the hangers together with a rubber band and tag them. The tag has the sequence number on the front and the description of everything the look is supposed to be shot with. For example, get an index card and a sharpie. On the front of the index card, I put a number “1” if it is the first look you are going to shoot. On the back, I write down what the full look consists of. “Black top, black shawl, shredded short skirt, leggings, black leather booties, gold bracelet, gold ring, gold chandelier ear rings.” That’s just an example. I posted a picture of what the card would look like and how it looks on the rack.

 

 

This is how I organize a rack

 

This is how I tag them. I write the sequence number on each card and tag each look

 

 

This is how I tag them for my helper to know what to grab. If you have a great amount of jewelry, write specifics on what piece you are talking about

 

 

Now onto the PhotoShoot:

The hair dresser’s name is Phil. You can find him on Instagram with the name of “philbeautiful”. He did a great job on the hair and Freddie (Instagram: FreddieLYoung) did a wonderful job on the make-up. After she was prepped and put into her first look, I let Britt (Instagram: Kick_rox_) do her thing.

The shoot went great! The model was well seasoned and I really didn’t have to say much to get the look that I wanted for the pictures. By the way, always have an idea of what you want the pictures to look like. What I was going for was a picture I saw a LONG TIME AGO that Kim Kardashian did and I still had the screen shots in my phone. I think she did the shoot like 2 years ago. Try to make sure you have a visual of how you want everything so you can tell the model and photographer so that they are able to implement it. This is how I wanted my pictures to look when I post them to my website.

 

I like the way these pictures look because I can have all different views of the same outfit on one shot

(Side view, Back view, Front Views)

I’m also going to post a short video below to get a sneak peak of what the pictures look like. I will post everything else as soon as all of the pictures are done being edited and the website is up. But for now, this is all I can give!

When the shoot was finally over I was SO EXHAUSTED! Making all of this happen is a great deal of work. Writing about it doesn't make it sound like it's a lot but imagine staring from complete scratch and making something completely amazing out of it. It's never an easy thing. We all decided to go out to eat afterwards at Longhorn... Which was GREAT! I love that place! I was so full that when I made it home by 9:30 I went right to sleep till 6 in the morning! I hope this post helps out the organization much better for your shoot! Ugh! The struggle of being organized! haha

 

 

There was so much food on this table after a while we couldn't fit anything on it. We were telling them to slow down with all of these plates! lol Feast fit for a King and Queen!!

 

Good Luck My Loves!