For our object story, Yve and I borrowed clothes from CSM graduate Jojo, but we ended up not using it. To make it up for the designer, I tried to create an idea for a shoot. The clothes remind me a lot to childhood and fairy tales–especially fairies.
Courtesy of
Jojo Ruiji Zhou
I got the idea to link the clothes with a fairy tale story. I remember Thumbelina, a story about a girl who was born from a flower, went on an adventure and wedded the fairy prince. But for the clothes, I wanted to twist the story so it won’t appear to be dreamy and sweet. The mood I aimed at was eerie and dark. Fortunately, I found surrealism paintings by Michael Cheval and Michael Hutter that I thought would help develop the story further.
We were thinking of having 4 models for the day. One as Thumbelina and the rest as fairies. Yve, the photographer Yichen (from MA Photography), and I had a meeting to decide the place and props that we needed. We decided to shoot at Crystal Palace Park, as it has gardens and maze that befitted with the concept.
Along the way, it was hard to get a model because the concept is too ‘weird’. Most agencies are more willing to give their models if we offer them a more commercial, simpler concept that emphasizes the model’s face so we ended up with none from agencies. Long story short, we only got two models on the shooting day.
Fitting situation Hall inside Yve’s flat where we do the fitting Saxophone and cello that I hired for the shoot in front of my room
Model: Mike Model: Madison