Hey readers, well it has been another whirlwind week for me and as the fashion world never stops - neither do I! Last week I had the pleasure of working on my first real 'test shoot' - in
order to build up my styling portfolio , I've got to put together a 'book' of my work. So when I sat at my laptop to think about what style of shoot I want to do I thought about what's been
inspiring me lately. The first thing that sprung to mind was Disco! I've spent many a night on the dance-floor of late and then there's something so incredible about dancing your cares away! With Disco - of course - comes the music and the clothes. Madonna's Confessions... album along with 70s & 80s Disco classics have been on constant rotation on my Spotify playlist and have been stalking images of Studio 54's heyday. With that in mind and the idea of walking home at
dawn in last night's fabulous outfit - I had my concept! With 2 visits to Beyond Retro and a case of Vintage clothes later I had my clothes and with the help of a friend I soon had a model, photographer & hair-make-up artist - before I knew it the day of the shoot had arrived! In order to tell the story I wanted to shoot on location just around the corner from where I live at the 'Chapel Markets' in Angel. The idea was a girl walking home after a night out , stopping along the streets , popping into an off-license to pick up a bottle of champagne to continue her bender on home, ducking into a Laundromat just because, stopping into the local Jamaican Take-Away and playing at the gamble machines. The clothes were all so vibrant that I wanted them to be shot amongst real life scenarios to contrast the drama of each look. Each look became more fun to shot than the previous , the model - Kimberley Marren , was a true proffessional , so much fun to work with & braved the freezing cold weather in some next-to-nothing looks. 
The photographer Georgina Bolton-King & make-up artist Chanel Sellears both shared my vision & Jade Alexander proved to be the best assistant going the extra mile , even running out to buy socks for the model due to how cold it was! Bless. The shoot turned out amazing, we took some behind the scenes pics while Georgina worked her expertise behind the lense...
Shooting on location proved to be very entertaining, not only for ourselves but for the passers on who would stop and watch as we did our thing. "What is this for?" , "She's gorgeous" , "Wow look at the sequins" they said as they made their way through the market.
Being in complete creative control and seeing my story unfold exactly how I imagined it - is a feeling I cant describe in words! My favorite memory of the day was when we were shooting the below look - a multicoloured sequinned dress that just screamed fun , the moment I saw it in Beyond Retro I knew I had to shoot it - we decided to shoot it in an off-license I had walked past a few days earlier , something about the interior and the stacks of product and alcohol in the shelves made me think it would be the perfect backdrop for the look. As we got started I queued Rihanna's 'Only Girl in the World' on Jade's iPhone and told Kim to dance along the aisle as if she
had just been out with her girlfriends still on a high from the night and just happened to walk into this store. We all started dancing , Kim was working her magic for the camera and I started to squeal when I looked over at Georgina's camera to see the shots that were coming through! It was an amazing moment and I couldn't help but clap & cheer as I knew we were making a bit of fashion magic. As the day drew to a close and I looked over at the shots It reminded me that this is what I love doing more than anything and the fact that I get to express my passion , is pretty amazing - I just can't wait to be doing this for a major magazine one day! I will be getting edited final images this week & will post them up to share with you all! xoxo Deni
