I had been planning a new collection for the winter but although the designs were on paper I hadn’t got together with my partner to start making either the patterns or the outfits.
I needed a bit of a push to get started and this came from a meeting with Suzy Wheeler, a lovely lady and senior publicist of Strawberry Fields, http://www.strawberryfieldsrepresents.com/. Strawberry Fields RePresents supports creative talent in business and provides services in PR, marketing, event management and business guidance. It was founded in 2005 and began as a music festival for 200 people and now is a thriving business working with individuals and organisations in music, fashion, film, art, dance, design and media. We met Suzy first when my partner represented us at a vintage market at the Russell Cotes Museum in Bournemouth where she sold a hat to Suzy to wear to a wedding.
Suzy invited us to meet her at the lovely Cottonwood Boutique Hotel in Bournemouth, http://www.thecottonwoodboutique.co.uk/, and we were amazed it was so lovely and the rooms were just perfect for a photoshoot. It was also great sitting in the bar area, drinking a cup of tea looking out onto the gardens with the sea just a stone’s throw away.
Suzy helped us think about where we were going, who our market is etc and this gave us the kick start we needed, the outfits were made and the photographer booked. Our photographer was Andy Smith of Poole Portraits, http://www.pooleportraits.co.uk/ . Andy has done amazing photos for us in the past and we knew he could deliver exactly what we wanted.
We knew we had to be incredibly organised for the photoshoot and the weekend before we visited the hotel, had a delicious bar lunch and worked out which rooms would be best for each outfit.
We had six outfits to take in two hours which included the time needed to change each outfit so we needed to be organised. We wrote a schedule which looked like this:-
Itinerary
Coat at 3.00 pm outside the main building on the steps
Blue and pink dress at 3.15 in the main foyer
Black skirt and capelet at 3.35 in the garden
Purple skirt 3.55 by window in pink room and or bar area
Lilac dress at 4.15 in the library/staircase
Statement piece at 4.35 by the fireplace
With the help of everyone including Andy’s lovely wife Karole we kept to this time schedule using not only the above areas to photograph but also some that Andy and Karole knew would work well.
I spent time in the days before researching hairstyles and make up and on the day my sister, Jessica, did the hair and I did the make up. We are very fortunate to have Jessica who always rises to the challenge and always does a beautiful job. A friend Anna was our beautiful and very good model for the day.
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The photoshoot told a story, a weekend away in Bournemouth, I had in mind the house parties that the Victorian aristocrats always seemed to have and I think you can see this unfold by the snapshots below:- (Poole Portraits photos to follow in the next blog).
These snapshots are a bit fuzzy but I think they give the overall impression of a fun but yet well organised photoshoot. We finished the photos at 5pm exactly and ended the day with a cocktail each in the bar which was just great.
These I have to emphasise are just snapshots and the next blog will showcase Andy’s photos.
We would like to thank everyone involved starting with Suzy, the staff in the Cottonwood Boutique Hotel who were extremely helpful, Andy and Karole of Poole Portraits, Jessica for giving up her afternoon, never complaining about what I ask her to do and always executing the hairstyles brilliantly and not forgetting Anna for acting the part so well.
What Mimi Does 