fairy tale tower shoot: behind the scenes.

Another lovely, whimsical test shoot I recently worked on used up all of my granny's 1950's ball dresses. I've been trying to get them into a shoot for a while and they seemed to lend themselves to a shoot set up by photographer, friend and collaborator, Carly Wong.

Carly and Ali making a plan

Here are a few behind the scenes images, showing how we used multiple belts to cinch in Ali's already tiny wait to accentuate the voluminous skirt and broad shoulders of the coat, creating a fairytale hourglass figure. We shot at Cabot Tower on a blisteringly hot day in August.

assistand Jacob Boodrie holding the reflector/fan to prevent Ali from passing out in the heat of a winter coat in august

Mia Stronach created fantastic floating tresses, whilst I ransacked Carly's house and nicked some balloon ornaments that ended up as awesome handbags.

The red dress has more fabric that you can imagine, knowing the modern day cost of silk brocade...i may be able to use it as a deposit to buy a house. 

The hand painted taffeta gown was also one of granny's and I just about managed to squeeze into it for my 6th form ball all those years ago. I don't think vintage was even particularly cool back then, but you can't deny it's unique..I certainly didn't have the issue of picking a dress from Monsoon and considering it a result if less than 5 people had the same thing.

 Hold tight for the finished snaps...coming soon.