Alice in Wonderland Shoot for Specsavers Kids

All those rather mysterious Alice in Wonderland themed projects can finally be unmasked in the shape of the latest Supersavers Kids magazine. I styled and illustrated the cover and main set piece for the Spring Summer 2015 issue.

The first job was to design the looks for Alice, the Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter and White Rabbit. We have 4 fantastic 6/7 year  old models who had a great time on the day. Our Alice outfit was a particular favourite as I thought a bit outside the box and came up with this slightly dreamy floral dress from John Lewis.

The brief was to dress them in clothes they would want to wear; looking clearly like the character without looking like fancy dress.

The Queen of Hearts' outfit was largely from H&M and Doc Martins from John Lewis. Her crown headband was a particular favourite with the adults on the shoot!

on the shoot with Milo and Oli.

Can you spot the playing card bow tie and collar from previous blog posts? Alice's hair bow also makes an appearance.

We set up the shoot the night before which gave us lots of time to play with flamingoes and cupcakes!

Then came the illustration part. After settling on handpainted watercolour style (which is obviously my favourite!) I created a wonderland esque backdrop for both the cover and double page spread.

White Rabbit late for an important date

starting to add colour to the double page spread

adding in flamingoes all over the place. 

 The Magazine is out in the shops now. The project was managed by Specialist UK

Alice in Wonderland shoot DIY makes: Bow

There seem to be bows a plenty in Alice in Wonderland. It may have something to do with it's edwardian origins; ruffles and bows on everything possible. 

For this shoot, I am styling four characters with a playful nod to the images and icons from the stories, but not going too literal or 'costumey'.

Timing is everything, and this Christmas I managed to obtain not one, not two, but THREE miniature packs of playing card from the inside of numerous pulled crackers.

They are a fantastic resource as their diminuitive scale allows you to do some really delicate work. This fan of cards is the beginnings of a hair accessory for the Queen of Hearts.


Bow Tie

You will need:

• miniature playing cards
• all purpose glue
• scissors
• sellotape
• 3/4 m black ribbon 1 cm width.

I took four cards, two for each side of the bow tie and concertina folded them. I overlapped the inner edges on each side to give it a bit of structure.

 

I fixed it with glue and some tape on the back edge. I then took one more card and concertina folded it to match the central folds and placed it on top of the centre of the bow tie and glued in place.

 

I wrapped black ribbon around the middle and strung another piece of black ribbon inside this loop to make a neck tie for the bow tie. This one ties at the back and is hidden under the collar. I am sure if you wanted a more permanent playing card bow tie you could fix a proper bow tie fastening, but this works perfectly for this shoot!