After the Shoot

One thing I've learnt about the creative industry, is that things never seem to work out the way you imagined them.

The location we chose for my fashion film was an open-air theatre in St. Georges Park, a quaint botanical garden in PE. The theatre area is simply gorgeous, with wind-beaten white pillars and cracked, faded brick steps laid into the grass. We chose this location to make subtle commentary on the fact that cloth architecture played a big role in the design process for the two particular outfits being featured in this film. The outfits are dresses made entirely out of mohair cloth, and I've really explored the capabilities and boundaries of mohair as a textile for this project. Anyway, enough design babble.
We arrived, film equipment and two mohair enrobed models in hand, at the location to find that our fashion film haven had turned into a hobo hotel overnight. The comatose man slumped in the corner; beer bottle still in hand; didn't quite lend us the mystic atmosphere we were hoping for. So it was back to the drawing board. We traipsed back to the car, slightly discombobulated and disappointed, but on a mission to find a new location before the models' make-up faded.
About an hour of driving around the outskirts of PE (with, from my side, only half a clue of where we actually were) led us to it. The Spot. An abandoned building project, which Stacy (one of the models) says has been in this condition for the past few years. It was quite breathtaking actually, seeing two white, soft and fluffy mohair creations placed curiously in this empty, discarded and saddeningly gray cement home. The contrast speaks volumes, and somehow the beauty of these two inquisitive models brings out the shy charm of the dutsy rooms and broken rafters, most of all the experience left me with a bee in my bonnet about the depths of inspiration potential to be found in unexpected places like that one. It was really something to behold, the flow of creativity from all of us in that lonely shell of a building.
While we wait to see the film, here is an illustration I did a few months back of one of my mohair dresses. It's drawn in chalk with a bit of editing in Photoshop.

Bucketloads of thanks to Ross Charnock; cinematographer and editor; who as I type is putting together this mini cinema masterpiece. Also thanks to my enthusiastic and beautiful models, Stacy and Phee, as well as Stuart who tagged along to look after camera equipment. The film will be posted as soon as it's ready! I can't wait!
Jessi