Futuristic Wasteland

Deciding to be an Art major has probably been one of the smartest decisions I have made within the past few years. I have really learned a lot while imrpoving my skills in design, color, and composition, not just with fashion related topics, but with all forms of art.

For about a year I have been holding onto this very 60's mod inspired dress I had created. In fact, the dress was made for the singer Aimee Echo from theSTART, my favorite band of all time. But until I cross paths with her again, the dress is in my posession. Regardless, it needed to be photographed.



The dress was created from a Simplicity pattern, with a few design alterations of my choice. I wanted the dress to be all things fun, yet simple. The shape is very classic while the highly graphic and geometric print keeps it interesting. I decided to give the piece a black trim to break up the print while creating a sense of order and structure to the overall dress.


Shooting the dress was such a great experience, and in my opinion one of my best shoots ever. My friend and model was Georgia Cruz, who is also interested in being part of the fashion industry. I chose her because not only did she fit into the dress well, but she also knew about angles in modeling, which is a must! For me, it was very important that angle of her poses matched the very sharp angles of the industrial tower behind her, almost as if her body was mimicking the tower itself. I believe that it not only gave the shoot the high fashion feel that I wanted, but it also was a great flow towards displaying the actual garment.



I took her out to this swampy field with very angular and futuristic towers which held power lines. It fit perfectly into my dream spread which would be called "Futuristic Wasteland". One issue I faced however was making sure that certain things did not get into the shot. For example, a development of townhouses kept getting in the way of the shot, which really detracted from the futuristic atmosphere I was trying to convey, however, I noticed a white picket fence, and incorporated it into some of the shots to have a very 1950's science fiction feel meets Ray Bradbury meets high fashion, of course. Luckily, it worked. The pose for the shot below is very reminiscent of the pose of a typical alien abduction, which I think really worked perfectly for the feel of the photo.



Below is the second part of my shoot which is a continuation of Wasteland 2099 in which I photographed two two-piece outfits I had designed. I was so excited about photographing the outfit below because it is very edgy, colorful, and interchangable (which are all design concepts that I follow). The skirt I had created out of pieces of scrap fabric of all different prints, colors, and textures. This mini skirt can be worn several ways so each time it is worn different sections are displayed.
The skirt was a great piece to pair up with my infamous heart transplant tee shirt (featured in a previous entry), originally created for my independant clothing line DNA Apparel & Design. The zipper cutting diagonally from the neck gives this surgical inspired piece a punk rock edge.



My first idea for photographing this outfit was to go over the top. I wanted big hair, big boots, big everything. But then you come across tacky, kitsch, and just too much (which are all bad bad news). So after reconsidering my styling decisions, I realized that it would be interesting to have my model to have softer expressions and poses to create an interesting contrast between the chaotic look of the outfit.

I had my friend, model, and fellow Art major, Joy Kelsch. It was so exciting to work with Joy because I had really wanted her to model for my clothes because she has the features that every model must have, tall, thin, and unique, in which she had all three. I saw a lot of potential in her and was looking forward to see how she brought the outfits to life.

It was her first shoot ever modeling clothing for someone, so she was a little shakey at first. I was getting a little catalogue and sexy from her which is okay, but not what I was going for. However, after giving her a little bit of direction, she really cranked out some very high fashion poses and turned into a model before my very camera lens. She knew exactly what to do, and got better and better after each shot.

I was also very lucky to be shooting on such a windy day because the wind went thru her hair at the perfect times. It's as if the fashion gods were blowing air thru her hair to help me out. It was important that I had some sort of wind effect for her long blonde hair, and I got exactly that!

Location also played a crucial role for my outfit, mainly the tee shirt. I decided to put my model in front of a generator which pumped electricity for not only that industrial look, but to reflect my heart transplant tee shirt. The heard is constantly pumping, almost as if it is the generator of the human body, therefore I wanted to show that even though one is biological and the other is industrial, they are both the same in the sense that they preform similar functions to power a larger being or structure.



Finally, I shot the last piece for the shoot which was a two piece interchangable dress I had created from two different tee shirts (1 pink + 1 black). It can be worn 4 different ways. You can have it be all pink in the front, black in the back, or visa versa. You can also have it black on the top, pink on the bottom, or visa versa also.

My inspiration for this came from none other than 60's mod icon TWIGGY, who I just love love love. Like most of my designs, this dress is not only mod, but the tee shirt is unisex!

Though the outfit seems most simple out of the bunch, it was the most difficult to photograph. It was a struggle being able to see not just the front, but the sides and the back as well, which was important to fully understand the concept behind the design. Regardless, I overcame the challenge and hopefully will not run into that sort of problem again. Again, I had Joy pose near industrial structures to continue the theme of my shoot.