Secret project revealed

You'll never guess what I did today. I attended a photo shoot for the latest hair collection designed by my hairdresser. I wasn't there to observe but to provide the outfits!

The story started t wo months ago when Andreea came to cut my hair. Within 10 minutes of entering our flat she had asked me to create the outfits for her next photo shoot. I couldn't turn down this opportunity and agreed as soon as I saw the brief - Magpies. I'll save the actual details of the outfits and their inspiration for another post but I wanted to share with you some of the behind the scenes photos I took. 

The whole process, from beginning to end, was new to me. I haven't designed any item of clothing to a brief before, made items for people I haven't met until the day they wear them, nor been on set for a shoot. There were times when I thought I had taken on too much (especially as work has exploded over the last three weeks) but overall it was a very rewarding experience. 

All three outfits are very simple in style which was great as I drafted most of them using my block and making changes were necessary. I even managed a refashion. The hardest part was trying to figure out how much bigger I should make the outfits - what if they were too small? I would have been mortified but luckily they all fitted quite well. One bodice was too big at the back but a safety pin took care of that. The only other change I had to make was to the hem of a very full circle skirt, you can see me pinning the hem in place here. During the actual shoot I had to make sure that the outfits looked the way I wanted. I spent a lot of time slightly altering how the bodices sat to smooth out ripples or make sure a key detail was proudly on display. It felt strange nipping onto the set between photos to do this. After nearly six hours we had enough photos to call it a day! While it was tiring, I'm really glad I did it as it was great fun. 

It will be sometime before we have the finished photos but I'll make sure I share them with you when they are available.