Fashion and Textiles Introductory Weeks

Introduction to Styling: 

There are many different jobs within the textile and fashion industry, but they can generally be broken down into either design or promotion roles. Stylists fall into the promotion side of the business. It might be their job to select models for the catwalk, organise hair and make-up, photoshoots and editorials, locations and props, shop windows designs, advertising campaigns, set designs, promotional videos etc., coming up with the entire 'look' for a fashion campaign. Although the design side of the industry interests me more, we had to spend a day styling a photoshoot and learning what this entails as part of our introductory lessons into the Fashion and Textiles pathway.

The clothes I brought in to style with

In preparation we were asked to bring in a range of clothing items to style with. I raided the dressing up box we keep in our house, which is full of various costumes, bits of fabric and old ('vintage') items of clothing, thinking that these would be more interesting to use than everyday clothing. We then separated into pairs and were given five minutes to model each other's clothes in various combinations and take photos. My model is Kaira Akuffo and I, in turn, was hers:

After this five minutes of randomly putting together outfits and taking quick photographs that initially introduced us to the idea of styling we were given 20 minutes each to spend more time on one look, and this time thinking about location (obviously limited to around the college), poses and camera positioning and thegeneral 'look' of our photos:

The outfit in these pictures consists of: a kimono dress tied around the waist as a skirt, a lace collar and ruff shirt, cream knitted snood as a kind of sash over the shoulder and an eyemask and stretch black belt. Having put this look together completely randomly out of the clothes at my disposal it struck as it came together that it in some ways suggested the style of a female pirate. I tried to emphasise this through my choices of location and stance. I rather liked the result and the theme of this and so when, in the afternoon, we were asked to plan a full-on final photoshoot, using what we had learned with a theme inspired by that morning's work, I chose to centre my idea around the style of a female pirate. We spent the rest of the day in the library, researching and gathering images for mood boards to develop out ideas for the final shoots, which we were to carry out in our self-directed study time. 

Because of my chosen theme, my first research was into Vivienne Westwood's acclaimed 'Pirate Collection' of 1981 and the surrounding 'New Romanticism' movement, the androgynous and eccentric styles fitting with my vision for the shoot. Gathering images from archived vogue editions from the era and 'Vivienne Westwood' by Claire Wilcox to complement my internet research I put together the following mood boards, which helped to refine and focus my inspiration. 

Portrait of Ching Shih

However, I had started with some fundamental internet research, looking into female piracy in a historical context and not just the more modern fashion and movements that dealt with the theme on a more superficial level. Ching Shih terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century. Estimates put her fleet at anywhere between 300-1800 with 20,000-80,000 men, women and even children under her command. She challenged the empires of the time, such as the British, Portuguese and the Qing dynasty. Undefeated, Ching Shih is one of world history's most powerful pirates. When it was found to be hopeless to try and defeat her, she was offered amnesty for herself and entire crew, and so became one of the only pirates in history to retire (with all her loot), rather than being killed. Using this historical role model and my other research as reference I prepared for my final shoot, not going for a typical modern-day pirate costume, but more of a suggested overall look with a modern twist.



Another thing a stylist has to consider is the casting of models in their photoshoots. However, I was obviously confined in a way professional stylists are not, as I was limited to casting people I know who would be prepared to do me the favour of modelling.With the look I was going for I wanted an older model with dark, short styled hair to match the conventional strong pirate image.  Coincidentally, I had already thought up these criteria and realised that my mother had the look I was going for, and luckily was happy to model for me.

The clothes I used were all items from the dressing up box in my house. As my main interest is design I was excited about the composition elements of the shoot, as we were told to be as creative as possible and where necessary we could make some props and accessories to enhance the look. Therefore, I made my own, unconventional eyepatch. I dyed a small length of white netting with black ink (as I didn't have any black immediately available to me and preferred the more muted grey result). I then gathered this up and fixed it under a satin black ribbon which I then tied around the head with gold thread. It is a makeshift solution and I was pleased with the result, and felt it suited the overall style, adding some interest and glamour as a headpiece that fits the theme. I am happy with the result of my photoshoot, in which I kept the lighting muted while hoping to keep the colours vivid. Although styling is not an area of the fashion and textiles industry that particularly interests me I had fun with the shoot, research and creative elements of the task. 

Final Editorial/Shoot:

Cover  Image

Location&Props: Garden in front of fence (jungle island suggestions), corner of a living room (designed to look like captain's cabin), window, fold out desk, treasure chest box, ink pot, feather/quill, bottle of gin, decanter, glasses, ship in a bottle, painting of a ship, leather bound books, old papers and candlesticks.
Hair&Make-Up: Red face paint strip across the forehead and brown/grey chalks smudged across the cheek, dark smudged eyes and a little dark red lipstick. Short, tousled hair. 
Accessories: 1 blue, red and gold dangling earring, 1 gold necklace wrapped around the wrist, gold rings, bandages wrapped around the hand, lace up suede heeled boots, a thick brown leather belt and a homemade eyepatch.
Clothes: Yellow/black patterned skirt tied around the waist to create layered draping effect, red/black patterned kimono dress and red silk pyjama shirt as shoulder, black leggings and a cream shirt with lace collar and ruff. 

Back Cover Photo/Promotion Invitation Image