Vintage Editorial Shoot

We have been planning another big photo shoot for a few weeks now and after meeting a great photographer on Tuesday we can now crack on and set a date! It's going to be an apocalyptic  / end of the world themed editorial shoot. The story behind the shoot is that the end of the world has come, and the women photographed have been left in what they were wearing at the time, glamorous gowns, and has to adorn themselves with whatever they could find around them! It's going to be a really exciting and elaborate shoot and not like anything I have done before. We are designing and making a lot of our own props and accessories made from things we find and intend to source a lot of old furniture and random items to create a really great background setting. We have been creating mood boards and collecting inspirational images on Pinterest (click 'pinterest' to see) for the look we are after so are now just looking for the right team of people to be involved! Ill be sure to do a post when it all takes place as I think it's gonna be a really great shoot! 

BIBA Fever

So Nicki had heard about a book signing in London at Beyond Retro by the fashion icon Barbara Hulanicki. We sat all day at the shop trying to decide if we should / could go up there and as a very last minute decision decided that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet such a legend of fashion. So we took the rush hour roads and road tripped up to the big city. Traffic was not on our side and we started to loose hope that we would ever make it in time. We sent a desperate plea in the form of a tweet to beyond retro as a last resort but as we finally neared our destination we were ten minutes after the time she was supposed to have left! We decided to go in anyway, have a shop around to drown our sorrows.....but as we walked through the door to our right there was sat the glamorous, over sized sunglasses and chic black suit clad Barbara Hulanicki. She looked incredible, so stylish. We discovered that we had become somewhat celebrities among the Beyond Retro staff after tweeting them which was funny to hear them all say 'oh your the girls who tweeted us!''. As we hadn't had time to actually buy the book among our mad dash, we made a quick run to the cash dash to grab one and sat down with Barbara herself. She was so down to earth and chatty which I never really expect from people so esteemed in the fashion industry. She chatted to us about my degree, the shop and even the crazy weather! Both me and Nicki did get a little bit starstruck and didn't really ask her half the questions we wanted to but just meeting her and talking to her about normal things was almost better! She was such a nice lady which I find so inspiring to know that the crazy world of fashion doesn't go to everyone's head and you can still remain yourself! It is safe to saw that I am still very much enjoying my internship! 

Barbara Hulanicki signing my book!

A very happy intern!

Sourcing Trip

Today we took a trip down to Portsmouth to Albert Road, which is a little bit like the 'Boscombe' of Portsmouth, with lots of quirky vintage and antique shops all within a slightly grubby yet intriguing setting. Our main aim for the day was to source props and accessories for our upcoming shoot. We were looking for tribal style accessories and any props we felt could be used in the background. We came across a large furniture charity shop with a hidden downstairs area with lots of great treasures in. We came across some great vintage tall lamps which we were really interested in but were unfortunately out of our price range. However after talking to the manager of the shop and telling her about our project she was more than helpful and said she would be happy to rent us any items we wanted for photo shoots and would even transport them to us in a van in return for a donation. This alone made our trip extremely worthwhile as this was a great contact to make for our upcoming and any future photo shoots / projects!

After our trip to Portsmouth we had a meeting with a Photographer which again was a great experience for me to be involved with more professional scenarios. He seemed to really like our ideas and was interested in hiring us for a National Vintage Calender which would be an amazing experience to make new contacts as well as gain some work for my own portfolio whilst working under professional circumstances. He was also really interested in our upcoming vintage apocalyptic editorial shoot and said he would really love to help us and be involved.

Unfortunately I had a really bad day in the technology department with both my phone and iPad crashing on me so was unable to take any photos!

An alternative view

To contrast what I have found in my research whilst working at a smaller, independent boutique, I wanted to find out how visual merchandising was used within bigger stores. Therefore I interviewed one of my friends / peers who has recently done her placement at Tommy Hilfiger in the visual merchandising department. 

How important do you feel visual merchandising is within a bigger brand?

when interviewing a vm from chanel she said vm was the biggest and most important department within the company however this differs to most companies, vm is usually not considered very highly people just think its window dressing however it drives sales and ensures sales are coming in due to floor positioning, store layout and product displays

Do you think that the way the shop has been designed /  set out attracts more customers and therefore sales?

yes, the layout of the store is important as tables/fixtures will be put in certain places to make the customer walk around the store in a certain way. also whilst on my placement i found out the product statements sold best, and hanging product sold better than folded product. The most season appropriate and best selling collection will be put in prime selling location

Where are the ideas for VM in bigger stores drawn from?

all vm ideas for Tommy Hilfiger in Europe comes from the head office in Amsterdam where a book of guidelines will be made, containing mannequin looks, window display designs and wall fixture layouts. this will then be sent to all stores for the vm's to follow strictly, so it means there is not much creativity and freedom

Would you say they were concept based?

they ideas are all based around the collection which usually follow a story, so this season there was a surf prep summer collection, so the window display had surf boards, and a vw beetle covered in shells, then the store display had surf boards for shelves and shack backdrop. so yes they are all based around concepts

How often is the VM set up changed in store?

set up instore is changed when the new collections come in, it is also refreshed and moved around when sales may be down so collection not doing so well need to be moved and re merchandised. mannequins are changed every 2/3 weeks. ad windows only change when there is a big promotional offer, or seasonal

How many people are involved with the visual merchandising within a bigger brand?

within the UK head office, there is a vm manager, 5 vm coordinators which look after different areas of the country, e.g north, midlands, south and stand alone stores. and there are 2 instore vm's who work in the 2 flagship stores and they both have an assistant vm helping them

Tim Walker

Tim Walker isn't just a photographer. He is a story teller. He brings to life tales that we can only imagine in our dreams. He creates images that take us back to our childhood, makes us believe again. I personally am a huge fan of his work, the eccentricity of it, the beauty and the magic that he creates through his imagery. Tim Walker is a great example of Fashion Narrative. In his Story Teller Interview he explains how is ambitions as a young photographer were to tell stories through still imagery, and the fantasy within fashion photography allowed him to do this. Story telling allows a person to express their personal views and generate characters which people can relate to. As Tim Walker says in this interview, he believes that sometimes normal fashion photography can be cold and lifeless, almost inhuman. I completely agree with him. Although some fashion photos are beautiful to look at and allow you to really appreciate the garments, that's all there is. There is no back story, no narrative to make you think, to really inspire you. Whereas I believe Tim Walker's work achieves all of this. He manages to capture the beauty of the clothes on the model but also create another world in which we can loose ourselves. This is what fashion narrative is all about in my opinion. Intriguing the audience, making them want more, making them believe in the unbelievable. 

Tim Walker Story Teller Interview:

http://timwalkerphotography.com/moving_image.php?media_ID=790


Just a few of my favorite Tim Walker Photographs which I take great inspiration from: 

http://timwalkerphotography.com/moving_image.php?media_ID=609

Disney

So after my amaazzzinnnggg trip to Florida where I got to make my childhood dreams come true and visit Disney World, we decided to take inspiration for a magical window display at What Alice Found. We decided to take some of the most popular Disney princesses, and create our own vintage interpretations. We dug out a Disney Soundtrack to get us in the mood and created our own mini Disney scene in Wonderland! People have loved the display! It proves that customers love to see things that they recognize and the use of narrative within fashion is really effective! 

Snow White's little vintage animal friends! 

Our Princesses! 

Meet Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and Pocahontas! 

Minnie Mouse! 

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

Minnie Mouse window

Ariel's Grotto! 

Theo's making an appearance! 

Here's a few snaps from my holiday too! 

Vintage Nostalgia

Last weekend we filled the car to the brim with vintage goodies and traveled to Salisbury for The Vintage Nostalgia Festival. Unlike previous events we had attended, this was a three day event, with people coming from all over with a real interest and knowledge of vintage. Within the first few hours of being there, before we had even set up our space we had done brilliantly, selling enough to cover the stall rate already! This just goes to show that having the right type of people around makes such a difference. Although at the Southampton Market there was a great footfall, it wasn't necessary the correct consumer type for the What Alice Found Brand. 

   We ended up with a really great space, sharing with a vintage VW van company (in which we camped in at night which was a new experience!) We decided to make our stall look like a mini version of the shop, so this meant turning our gazebo into a mini Wonderland. We went a little bit crazy with the flowers and even made our own changing room which people loved!! 

Our pretty DIY changing room! 

Flower Power

Vintage goodies

We were pretty busy the whole weekend / we were too busy enjoying the rare sunshine so I feel like I definitely didn't take advantage of all the amazing vintage style wandering around! I planned to do some street style on our last day but it just so happened that everyone disappeared really early so I only got a couple but look how great this customers look in their vintage get ups! 

Vintage Couples were turning heads! 

Loved this all red combination! 

I loved this ladies vintage sunglasses! 

Looking great in bright sunflower print! 

I even joined in and got my hair done at The Vintage Hair Lounge! 

Overall it was a really fun weekend and a success for What Alice Found too! It's fair to say that being surrounded by people who genuinely love and know about the vintage trade makes for a much better selling opportunity! We have two more festivals planned for the summer so keep an eye out for more blogs about these, can't wait! 

xxx