Sophie On: Styling her first Photoshoot

Hey Guys,

     I'm sat in my office today. All the local shops I need for supplies are shut, and I can't post off my finished work (bank holidays are great for the masses but can be a pain in the arse for freelance creatives), so I thought I'd do another little blog post.

    Just over a week ago, on a wonderfully hot, sunny day, I was invited to do the styling on a photoshoot. It was arranged by Chrissa Wadlow, as a showcase for her photography work and to give experience to a young model called Olivia Neave. The wonderful Deborah Bennett did the make-up, as she does on so many of our projects. Chrissa's helped me out loads since I graduated and set up my business, so I was happy to do the work for her.

   The idea of the photoshoot was to show the Derbyshire countryside, as it is and always has been, but showing that the people that live there are young, stylish and modern. Rather than buying anything new for the project, we used a mix of mine and Olivia's clothes and accessories (plus some we actually borrowed from Chrissa's young daughter, Eryn!), and I looked to Patricia Field for styling inspiration. Actually, I often look to her for inspiration. She is the Queen of mix-and-match layering, and always pushes me to take risks!

  Deb and me provided Olivia with two different looks on this shoot (I'd planned eight, but it's good to be over-prepared); one look was supposed to be an up-to-the-date urban look, in which we could pour all of the colour Chrissa desired, and the second was a mix of current trends with vintage styling, using a softer pallet. The modern look was styled with fun accessories such as sweets and a yo-yo, for added youthfulness and colour, and she carried my vintage doctor bag for the second look, so she looked a bit like a 1950s runaway (which was no bad thing)!

   1950s is easy, but for some reason, everytime I try to do 'modern' looks, I end up making the model look like something out of the 1980s. Perhaps that just shows my age (23, in case you were wondering). Still, whatever the reason, Olivia looked colourful and fun, so we were all happy with it. And it put Taylor Dayne's 'Tell it to my Heart' in my head for the entire shoot, so that's an added bonus.

   While I was on location, I couldn't resist getting some behind-the-scenes snaps, and a handful of these turned out pretty well so I thought I'd share them with you:

   The photos Chrissa got that day turned out really well, and I'm looking forward to seeing them when they're edited and finished. After that, they should hopefully be on display in Derbyshire as a mini collection, so I'll be sure to keep you all updated on that.

  Sophie x