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Making the Frocks

Now at the stage here, speaking, in the last few years, I've been making maur if it to style the chutes and that's why I've been doing these big frocks and these big skirts because they're so popular that people are ringing me and asking me for them. Now I'm not saying to my client's, look, I photographed these my clients are actually coming to me because they're seeing the images that I'm photographing and they're like, well, look what she's doing. So all of a sudden, I've been making these dresses, so you saw me make taylor's dress, um, on my block, so I'm going to show you how I did it today. So when I photograph taylor, um, I asked her how she dreamed of being photographed, and taylor said she always had this vision that, um, she would be running through the streets of new york in a red dress and seven months from that conversation, we were both going to be in new york for creative life, so we decided to photograph who then? So the week before, I went to a second hand store in cali...

fornia, and I tried to do this for one hundred dollars, because I've got to charge my client to make this dress, so I don't want to go and spend four, five, six hundred dollars on a dress um and then I decide whether or not I'm going to keep it or whether my client's gonna take it with them. So I'm going to show you health one hundred dollars. I put her dress together. I went to a second hand store in california and the first thing I did was looked for anything red because red is what she dreamed of being photographed. I found this vintage piece here in this vintage piece here, all teddy and one okay, this goods falling to bits. But it has the one thing that I cannot make because I hand stitched this dress is it has a bodice. I can't know that bodice the work on this bodice is absolutely amazing. Now, in order to make this work for for taylor, I needed her measurements so they need to give you a waste and bust measurement and as you can see the streets here, you get a nice little close and their mysteries here was too big for her, so we stitch tear into it, okay, so right at that stage there we stitched here right there just to pull it up around a vast so it's an ugly little dress, but for me, I saw the potential in this bodice and this bottle set beautifully around the bus line for may, it just had and as you can see on the image that's on the keynote you can see the top of the bus line from the images on the side that chilled beer it was with its weight in gold and it cost me thirty six dollars so it's easy to rip it's got holes in it and it head as is written on it. So what I do is I guess I'm seeing little gyms like that I saw that bodice and I bought it. I then found this for twenty dollars so this for me was a vintage slip. I found it for twenty dollars. By the way, the secondhand shopping here in the states absolutely incredible, absolutely incredible shopping like this in australia really expensive. You guys have such amazing, amazing stores. So this here again it's vintage. So you gotta be careful with them, the fabrics quite weak. I wanted to mix up this bodice with that dress, so what I did was I put it on american and I'm simply gonna put this here, okay? So if you can't do this if you if the boys are interested in doing it, I suggest you offer it is a service for stylist or maybe even get a make up artist or hear stylist that khun style because there are a lot of really good makeup at us in his stylistic and style I was gonna pin it to the front. What I wanted was to change the structure of this dress so I put this underneath so it looked like straps when we got there I'm taylor has the most beautiful dick allah taj so we took it off so we didn't want this on we actually did a separate shot with just the negligee, so when I first designed it on my block, this is exactly how I did it. I found this for sixteen dollars it was in the dress up section and it's very crudely made um it's probably just a little cheapie made in china um and it's like a stiff chilled and I kind of liked the idea that it would be a little too too so this one here was sixteen and I threw that in, and when I originally designed the dress, I wanted to make it quite sixteenth century because that was the one era that taylor luck more than anything, so I didn't put this on when it came time to shoot way tried it all right? We tried it intelligent like it, I didn't like it it made her look thicker in the waste than she is, so we took it up, but when I first designed it for the block it's exactly what I did, I put this here, so really I'm just building so I really neat way to do it, and I've got a really good example for you is I photographed a beautiful black dresses, a behind the scenes video on my website and the girls dress that she's wearing is whose but the big skin underneath is mine. Okay, so I got to the stage here and I'm building that up now, you know me, you know, I like big skirts big here think everything so I had to build on this, and the skirt on the stress is ugly, so I went to a little fabric store and I bought your four dollars a maitre okay? And I bought teammate is a chore, and what I did was I said on the couch and I stitched it all together and I roasted all up and then I just put random pens just like this random safety pins throughout the skirt, just tow bunch it'll up just put them in honesty took me about an hour, and then I stitched a little b ribbon like that, and this wouldn't happen under here. Now, obviously, I have a red chills good and my wardrobe now said, the next time somebody wants to wear this dress or request a lustrous, they can actually wear it. Now I do let people ask if they can you know I do let people were other people's dresses and least my client requests that the dress day the years in which case they have to buy it off me because otherwise somebody else will have photographs out there. Um I will photograph once good with different tops different bodice is and change it up with jury over and over again then what I did was I got a police to chiffon okay, I do this all the time it's just cheap police to chiffons about six, ninety nine a meter a yard and I made a skirt so easy hand stitched it so basic bed stitching ceo whip stitch while I'm watching a movie I just went along and that is blanket ribbon a case of the blanket ribbon is the one that goes you know, that you buy around it's cheaper than buying ribbon and what I did wass I put this isn't under layer around here actually season if you come and help me, you can tie this on one of you in the next booth all right? And the reason that I did this is because I want fabric to just lift it out I need fabric to throw so I need to be at a shoot in throw fabric and I need to get us much volume on there as I can all right, then. I got the rest of this fabric like this, and I tied it. Simply open the fabric up like this. Nice big trouble. Fabric. So I needed this match volume as I could to get a throw. And I took this into taylor's waistband at the back. So I simply tucked it in, and I got the girls to stand on either side and throw the fabric up around here. I then got some red ribbon. I'm I read. All right, that's, not there. Can you just have a look in the bag for the red ribbon and the red flash? So then I got a red ribbon for her waistband, and then I put some flowers there it was that simple looks ugly, doesn't photograph beautifully. Let's, have a look at it. So on the k night I did that for around a hundred dollars, it was about one hundred and sixteen. I then did this. If you have a look at the k night, the beautiful ribbon this came off because I felt like it was too chunky. I put a nice, tight ribbon around her waist band. The little flowers were here pieces that I picked up in the fabric store and as you can see, the movement around the top layer of the dress and the movement around the wrists of the dress was so beautiful and that's how we photograph the whole thing so I'm really just building and at this moment what I do also is we actually got a sequin dress but before I go to that I just wanted to hear it is here just a basic ribbon and this is really all donations this was on a gift that somebody gave me this ribbon I actually keep things like that because he's so beautiful I just pull in all of the waist with a nice big ribbon like that and then I got pens and I bought these little flowers these little flowers I just bought at a normal sort of fabric store you know, they've got a clip on the back like this and you can clip them anywhere I actually use thes through taylor's here for the whole shoot. So at first I clip them onto the waistband so that had this beautiful little sort of decoration here and then throughout the shoot I would take them and put them in here here put them around the back of a here and they were just so cheap there are three dollars yeah and I just decorated it like that so it was a fun project and well worth it. Also, the majority of the images were photographed in this dress you've really gotta have somebody that's interested if you see on the keynote that lift image you can see the decoration through the waistband which I think is really beautiful. I love this beautiful decoration on the left image and then we took the flowers off her waistband and you can see on the right image we put them up into here here on the fabric I was just floating and we were throwing it from the sides. Two girls need to throw fabric so you need to either heaven assistant and a makeup artist or somebody there to help you even your client's friend is a really good way to get them toe um throw now during the time that I was making this I was looking for a red dress to higher. And at the last minute susan roderick found this beautiful dress here in seattle by a designer called patricia robson and she actually makes these incredible wedding gowns and these incredible dresses so the redress that you can see on the keynote now she's actually made this dress she made it for a competition and the competition was ruffles and she had to try and get the best you know, and she wanted she's just absolutely beautiful gown, so we hide that, um for taylor to run through the streets of new york and I think there is just the most beautiful dress so it puts my little dress to shame but it will it puts my little deuce to shame but it equalled the shoot both ways because my dress was photographed in the studio with lots of fabric bring throne and her dress was photographed out in the straits if I can I would get my client to hire clothes if you can get them to higher close then you're home and host I mean if they can hire something they can get a dress like this which would probably be four thousand dollars to buy I mean that the work in that gown is so incredible there is no way that you would be able to buy the chief s so what I did was I went and saw patricia after I saw the red dress and I asked her to make me a skirt for the studio I asked her to do the cheap vision so no hoping no skirt let's sort of work and the and the individual frill something that I could get lots of movement from something that I could shoot really beautifully and for today shoot she's made asked this which is absolutely incredible I've got a beautiful background there and a gorgeous dress to shoot on and I asked you to do two things I asked that it had lots of movement that it had a train so from the back there'll be a little bit of a floating train I asked that it be opened at the back and the reason I asked this is so that anybody any size could fit into this. And then I asked that it be like a rep around so that when I pin it, it doesn't matter how big you out you will fit into it, so somebody smaller will wrap around twice and I ask that it had lots of movement and that it be done pink. So she's made this beautiful gown for me for my studio and I know that I will photograph this may be a hundred times over the next year, if not more and that it's something that people will quiz from me when they see my images. So for me, it's worth buying um and it's certainly with making and getting someone to make it for you. So I know that since you've started watching me shoot everybody's being, I'm really enjoying the whole making the frog thing and a lot of people are struggling with it, but um really throw together bits I want to show you something else. This here is a dress that my client bourdin and what she's wearing is she's got a tight black strapless gown to about here and its roost all the way up I have that big chill skirt and my studio wardrobe so she's wearing it up underneath that dress, then what I've done is I've taken this it's okay said this sash here and I own a lot of stuff like this not really stuff that you can identify easily, but stuff that is really handy, so this is just a set in cambon and what I've done is I've wrapped it around her waist twice just to make it not look like her dress. I've put the chill skirt under her dress and then I've got this gorgeous little about and I've put it around her waist so it looks like I've made her a full dress but really the top half is here's the accessories of mine and the chills good is mine now anybody can bring in a different belts change that with jewelry changed that with flowers change the top half to suit their body shape you know some girls suit halter neck, some girl's suit sort of a strapless gown you can change that up with their outfits, so if they love your skirt shots and if they love your sort of big glam shots, you can say, I have that in peach I have a nude skirt, a white, a black and a navy s so what top halves do you have? And I get them to bring their own top halves when I first did christa's consultation, she really loved all the throw first goods, and so she really loved this little black one, and this is a little black one that I've had in the studio honesty, forty dollars I've photographed it probably three hundred times everybody loves it little girls love it older girls love it, it's just one of those when I first saw this good on christa because she's so wholesome in beautiful I wanted khuda were a race, a big r wife beater single it not something boudoir because she doesn't want any bird wear type images she wants sixty but fashion sixty not good wire sixty so she tried on some, you know, little black bodice is and and she just saw him and I said, what about a wife beater single it's just this a single it and life stockings so too may I can create something really fresh and really beautiful with that. And then we looked at all of her outfits for today. So this is a beautiful higher and it is so worth hiring something, even if it costs you sixty five dollars for the day because this outfit alone is just going to photograph so well, so it's, absolutely beautiful to buy the streets would be a anywhere from two hundred to four hundred dollars I'd love my clients to go shopping I really would but a lot of them can't afford too and I wouldn't expect them to sew one of my best friends when I first met here in sydney she hide her outfits and I went with her to the highest door so when a client is so committed to the shoot and they know they're going to spend three and a half thousand dollars and they want you to come and help to see outfits it's certainly with the trip for me because it just makes them wanna buy more this here is another beautiful piece and what I'm going to do with this one and show you how I first shot the stress so I actually bought this dress for my studio it's actually a vintage french kimmy and it's got a really beautiful overlay beated overlay I've teamed up with this fabric and I thought this would be a good throwing fabric you know because I like fabric and I like movement but while I was shooting this I found a little secret about shooting through it so I'm going to show you that today because I think kristen will really be out to pull that off and I love it uh this is something found that krista just suits and it's so her and I think it's really sick see it's cute got lots of movement is gonna photograph well thirty dollars it costs right yeah, so just a easy dress to buy and an easy dress. I'm trying to get color in there, so I photographed her in pain car photographed and pink and navy and actually nude. All of krista's colors today are very, very subdued, so they're going to be quite beautiful to photograph and really good on the black might times this here's gonna be gorgeous. So we've got a fitted dress with a little see through overlay here. I'm going to get lots of movement with this, and I've teamed this up with two little cheap pieces of police to chiffon on fabric and she's gonna throw, though, so I'm going to get some dance movement with this, which I really love, and I've got a couple of backup dresses, so I'm going to focus on those five outfits, the pink skirt and those four. These are my two backup just in case, and I'm going to keep that with the wife beater single it, and I'm going to keep that just in case, I don't feel like I've now thirty amazing images as quickly as I can, right where we at with here, make up wait, come over here, okay, chris has got a lot of thick here and I in my original studio, I would give my hair makeup artists one hour. They had to complete a full face of makeup in here in one hour. I would only make an exception for a full head of here like yours, because I have a full head of here, and I know how hard it is to strain it out and and smooth it out. So tiffany's nearly done all of her kills and pinning them. You're doing a beautiful job there, my friend. Okay, so you're pinning hot kills using that starting spray? Yes. All right. I'm gonna come back on this and then you're gonna do I so you're sitting right at ten o'clock now, so and so you're in about fifteen minutes in, so I've given you an hour and a half to do a beautiful here and make up, so you were right about the right time. All right? From here belts, fabric accessories shop, hire borrow really, really important I collect acute among because I'm a girl and I like to shop. I know a lot of guys, a lot of guys shooting, I'm glam and I know a lot of guys on styling this shoots because they don't want to, and a lot of girls can't either, so and I think it's really important then if you are not going to have anything in your studio that you spend more time doing consultation more time doing education because the consultation education is where they're going to spend all of their money coming in fishies, what I'm going to do after I get the here and make up done at this stage is I always make sure I ask my client if they happy with the here makeups they're not happy with the here and make up I get my make about us to change it remember the makeup artist is thea to service your client and I know it's really difficult if the a precious and they are opted about changing the hair and makeup, but I often wait till they hear and makeup at us finishes the here make it leaves the room and then I say, are you happy with you here make up quietly to the states to the girl who's sitting in the chair she's someone that I'm photographing and she's the most important one in the room I don't really care about the feelings of the makeup artist. The good thing about tiffany and simona is I've worked with them for so long if I don't like something, they change it up pretty quickly, right? I'm just gonna go over here and did you feel let out, krista okay? And so I'm just going to show you this I think it's really, really important I do not shoot anybody in my studio and list they have signed this because it's really, really important at this stage you can did you take a photo and couldn't take mom its ok ok at the state she can email the pity if sam's gonna be the ticks accept it. Okay, this is where while she's sitting in here make up I can you can ask me any questions so they're any questions about that that you wanted to ask me? Are you okay with it all? Yeah, you read it okay. At the state here I hit send and it's sending to both inferred supervised dot com and it's singing to christa's personal and once I hit sign once I hit send obviously we're both getting a I am not releasing tow us amazing all this wall shot here I photographed tiffany in her backyard in l a because we shot a video and she was, um, gracious enough to be a model for the day. So this is one of her images and when I spoke with tiffany on the phone um she said, I wanna wear something special so I said, cool, I have a full shooting wardrobe here what would you like to wear? And she said, I have a bodice so I would like to make something myself. So tiffany made this I'm going to show you how she made this because it's just such a beautiful job. Okay, I will get you susan to come and help people. All right? So I'll take this dress off. Okay, so what tiffany did is she put? Where is it? Sit on the couch. The tipsters are here. This okay? So tiffany has a white course. It just how long we had that cause it ten years, ten years, almost ten years. So it was her wedding corset on and it's just a lace course is actually a busty a a busty eso buttons in the back and it's just a little front. All right. And so what she did when she put the courses on american and then she got a drake piece of fabric just like this and that's english tool. So it's not regular toe english netting, actually. Okay. And when I got there, she had it just sitting like this. Nothing was stitched the cases, she just had a pen like this. So she got english chalk and english tool is softer it's like meeting more than a stiff tool. And then we go, there should be a beautiful ribbon with them might be hanging on the thing, okay, and then she got this and she just brought where did you buy that from? Uh I got that just so you could get it like something joan's fabric or something but it's just by the school and so it's just basically a I got it downtown l a but you could get at anywhere order online you could find some cool stuff yeah, I think there's one over here well, maybe we didn't pick it up. Ok, so what we did then was a beautiful vintage ribbon. What? The ribbon that you head around it yeah, it was a a champagne actually that literally is ribbon that I just bought at and you buy anywhere it's just a satin ribbon about michael's or whatever all right to the guy and then that ghoulish tool was folded in half and I literally just put a one piece it's of string thread straight down so it's folded in half so the horizontal put a string and gathered yes to showing their gathered it and just put the string through and tight at the bottom so it's like carly don't even consider it sewing and so when you put this on your on your what did you call it it's not when you put it on your bus t a on the white lace bestir which fits you you just said it on and this was just pinned on and you just whip stitched it on took about ten minutes yet? Okay, so what's stitched room and you're designing gowns so just like that it was taping at the waist of some beautiful shots of it I'm on my blog's so have a look at embed with sue dot com ford sash blogged and have a look att tiffany's beautiful shots on there and something so simple like that and anybody could make that and you can pin it you could take it off in pennant on anybody's bus today so if somebody comes in with their size they have one that fits them and you could just pin it on shoot honestly the back of here best hear it she can id to fit her brassiere perfectly and then I just pinned here into it so I didn't even stitch here into it. I just pender into it and then photographed here also she will this with jane, which I really loved. It looked really good with blue jeans and it kind of suited the whole look and then we ended up shooting it on the blue wall anyway, which was great so absolutely amazing and the other one wass you've seen this a hundred times you've probably seen this a hundred times both on my website I know you sort of my last creative life, these air phyllis kits I make these I talk about them all the time the stiff chul okay that the thing is with the stiff chul is that they need a bulk out the dresses and they stand up on their own so they're about here um I try and make them inas many colors as I can this till the stiff shoelace so cheap that's the width of it in half so the width is actually twice as long as that I folded in half so that the biased edge is together and I try and do four or five layers these go under skirts they're bolkus there phyllis and if you put the mother really nice bodice their address on their own so I now have maybe twelve dresses in the studio twelve frocks twelve big skits is that my client's khun were mix and match it would be really good this year if I shot a catalogue of my outfits and then showed people what they can bring to make it their own and what they can you know design what they can you know what looks good like I could show this good shot five different ways so that they could bring stuff in so a really good way teo I'm just put a different flavor into shoots just remember that when we do these could to a type shoots when we do these dress type shoots therefore one sort of client, so don't pigeonhole yourself and go out and buy ah ha lot of childress is, you know, my average fifty year old clients, you wouldn't wear it. And why would she? No, this is definitely our demographic of shoot it's, kind of like the bud worship it's, sort of our demographic of girl, do it so just put it into repertoire. Although I must say, in terms of the younger girls, like the seniors, girls and in the twenties, they will ask for these over anything else these prints, history says, so they will ring up and say, those beautiful dresses on your web site. Do you have any of those and that's, the first question they are. So I know that when they're asking for that that's, the sort of shoot that they want, and I'm going to give it every single time, alright, hey, going with here, make up. Oh, good, great eyes are almost done, okay, all right.