I started dreaming up this shoot last Spring. I was on location for our 30’s shoot at the Empress Estate, thoroughly exhausted. All it takes is one view. It was as if creativity was tickling my brain and the ideas started to flow. What was the view? A beautiful forest. Doesn’t take much. So here I am on the day after the shoot; 2 hours of sleep leading up to 18 hours of loading, driving, styling, driving, styling, unloading and marketing.
I was able to put together an incredible crew for this shoot. We ended up doing two styles in one day which meant four, full clothing/accessory changes for five models. Lots of dry cleaning, ironing, modifying, stitching and wardrobe planning. I should have taken a picture of my apartment as I was getting ready for this shoot. For those of you old enough to remember this… imagine the scene where Bobby Brady used too much laundry soap to wash his dirty suit. Click HERE to watch the scene. Now imagine those bubbles as wool, plaid, houndstooth, fur, hats, gloves, pearls and rhinestones. I lost my phone and keys many times in the piles!
So, we had 5 models; Bailey, Jordan, Wesley, Hali and Patricia, a classic 1940 Chevrolet from Ron Wade’s car museum (soon to open on 78th street in Vancouver fall of ’14), Mike Helms of Totally Captivating Photography, Alex as a photo assistant along with her pup Pippin (which you might see in some photographs), hair stylist Paige – owner of Stella Salon and Spa, local milliner Barbara of Babette’s Hatwork’s and me. Special thanks to our property owners and assistants who helped with the horses.
We started in East Ridgefield for our ‘Fall into 40’s’ themed shoot at 5:45am and ended in West Ridgefield at 3pm where we did our ‘Vintage Derby’ shoot at a small horse farm. It was a very looonnnnggg day of shooting but the pictures turned out incredible! It is going to take weeks for Mike to edit. Until the pro shots are available you will have to be content with my random shots taken with my phone and camera between dressing and styling the models. Some were posted on Instagram and on our facebook page… but you… get all that I have.
‘Fall into 40’s’ was our first concept shoot of the day. Lots of layers! I had hoped for thick fog but that apparently happened the day before. Fog or not, it was a gorgeous morning and the light was nice and soft. This day was divided into 4 sets; 40’s wool/plaid/fur, 40’s black and white clothing including fur/wool/plaid/houndstooth, Fall inspired Vintage Derby and Spring inspired Vintage Derby.
I have fallen head over heals for 1940’s fashion. The clothing is beautiful, the lines are stunning and the construction is incredible. So much detail went into each piece from fabrics to buttons and zippers, to darts, draping and the final fit highlighting the curves in all the right places. I have been collecting pieces for quite some time for this shoot and what a joy it is to bring these clothes to life. Whatever stories these clothes have had, I hope to give them many more grand chapters to come.
Here are my behind the scenes photos…
The third set of shots was our fall inspired Vintage Derby. I had originally planned to do this shoot in March for Kentucky Derby in May. Discovered that horses look their best in early fall and then there is the issue of mud and weather, so, we decided to make a long day of shooting since we had such an incredible crew. It was a long day for everyone involved, yet everyone kept a smile on their face. Here are the behind the scenes photos. Special thanks to Barbara for allowing us to use her beautiful hats. Each one is made by her, locally, and with so much attention to detail.
I have had so many people ask me “so, what are you going to do with these photos?” I love breathing new life into fashion. I love creating art and so that is exactly what I will do with these and so many from previous photo shoots. Mark your calendar for Art Walk First Friday November 7, 2014, 6-9pm. It will be the grand opening of our second, adjoining location. It’s name is ‘9th Street Vintage’ featuring vintage late 60’s – 80’s where we will be building a project recording studio in the back allowing us space for an acoustic music/special event venue. There used to be a door that joined the two spaces. We will once again have a door so you can roam from ‘funky’ vintage to our current location which will be featuring ‘classic’ 20’s – mid-60’s. It will be during Art Walk that we will be having an art show highlighting the photographs, clothing, accessories, photographers, hat makers and models who made this shoot a possibility. It will be like attending a ‘live’ photo editorial. To make this event livelier, Patrick (husband/music producer and engineer/musician) and his band ‘The Pearls’ (Americana/folk/gypsy jazz/bluegrass) will be performing in the new space. We hope to see you there if not before.
Cheers!
Most Everything Vintage 
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