Playing Dress Up

With Dior Haute Couture, the dream is already there.Patrick Demarchelier

We can’t all be lucky enough to have Dior one-offs at hand every day, or even any day. That doesn’t mean we can’t play, come up with interesting and even one-off looks. Given the chance and a coolaborator I jump at every chance I get to pull out a couple boxes of my crap and see what we can make that looks good. I make it a habit if I see a a $5, $10, or $20 item that has any visual interest I’ll grab it and chuck it into my dress-up box.

There’s always something good that comes out of this play. Ideas, inspiration, even if down the road it turns out to be completely different. Sometimes the feel, structure, materials, or over all look gives me an idea to be explored later — Hey, something that feels like this with those materials would be fantastic in this or that particular location as a backdrop…

Lauren and I put together quite a few interesting looks the other night. These few are a preview and have given me a lot of fodder to think about and about a dozen project ideas. Out of the first few images we made after I threw the grid on the main light for a moodier feel the monocrhome wardrobe and pale skin really worked well for these rear views to set off Lauren’s red hair.

A few of the DIY looks we made actually work so well they could be used as is. (More of those later after I get a chance to go through them.) More often than not something very practical comes out of this play. A piece that looks great on camera, usually something small like a belt or an accessory, or an intesting bodysuit that down the road will work wonders when combined with something a bit more main-stream either for a client or a more serious editorial project. As an editorial photographer or portrait photographer that relies heavily on wardrobe and fashion to create a mood/feel/vibe it’s essential to play and have a bag of “tricks” to pull out that just makes a session work. That’s almost impossible to have without playing a little dress-up now and again.

This is exactly what forward thinking designers and fashion stylists do all day every day. Whatever particular thing “works” is what you’ll find in the next fashion week somewhere in the world. As a random reference point take a look at one particular piece, the corset over the last couple decades.

More soon.