Bloom’in Winter
Written by Otilee on July 24, 2010 – 2:34 am -
Oh, Mr Galliano. Firstly, Love. Love, love. Love, love, love.
In these here odd times we find ourselves in – what, with snap frozen fruit and vegetables of varying varieties available to us (albeit at varying prices) pretty much all year round… gone are the days of ’seasonal’ menus. We can pretty much have what we want, when we want. No need to wait until next spring to devour your next delicious strawberry for example – you can get one now! Yes, it is frozen in a bag with bits of ice encrusted onto it (it is also probably mooshed into the neighboring raspberry too), BUT! you can still get one…
Seasonal schmeasonal… and the lines are getting increasingly blurred, even with fashion. I’ve had the misfortune of witnessing slinky summer dresses worn (generally without coats) in the dead of winter (admittedly, this was in North Yorkshire so perhaps we can strike that example from the record), and in general, it seems a non-traditional winter palette creeping into Winter collections. Global warming? The dawning of the age of Aquarius? (those damn hippies and their astrological predictions of shifts in global consciousness!) What ever is going on, you can bet that of all the members included in the ‘Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture’ - Dior is going to bust out with it first.
Enter Couture Fall / Winter 2010/11 stage…. erm, right. And continue down that runway in front of a wall that looks suspiciously like the walls in one of those wholesale florists cold rooms with a spectacular giant tangerine floral sculptural piece in front of it. This collection is nothing short of petals on parade and its blooming spectacular!!
What we’ve got is Winter fabrics, fashioned with all the fabulous flavor of spring. Makeup is a mix of tangerine, electric blue and teal swishes and blocks of eye shadow pared with a bold deep aubergine lip. Hair is styled in what reminds me of sleek ceramic vases as well as cellophane cone wraps in what can only be described as an upside down model flower arrangement. A perfect conceptual compliment to an upside down seasonal collection. Bravo Dior, bravo.
I hate to have to draw these parallels also but I’ve also got a sneaking suspicion that we should perhaps be asking Mr. Galliano the question: “Just what species or, shall we say, genus *cough* genius are you? Lets face it – even those of us that didn’t rush out and see Burton’s version earlier this year, I’ll bet you pretty much everyone revisited the 50’s Disney animation.
Since there doesn’t appear to be many runway images available on the net from the Paris show at the beginning of this month – I’ve screen shot all the below images from a video I found on you tube of the show… quality images will no doubt surface in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’ve got shit quality images to compare with some lovely pictures of flowers I grabbed off a google image search (if any of these flower images are yours please contact me and I’ll credit appropriately) but, you get the idea….
Lets take a look at a couple and compare, shall we! 
*rubs hands together, excitedly*
MARIGOLD
LILAC
CHRYSANTHEMUM
IRIS
TULIP
“Just look at those stems!” …. “I think she’s pretty”
Oh and p.s. I anticipate Tangerine and Aubergine to be massive for Winter 11… even if only as an accent colour along with black.
p.p.s. did I mention I love Galliano? 
Tags: Christian Dior, Dior, Fall Winter 2010/2011, fashion, Flowers, Friday Fashion Forecasting, Galliano, Haute Couture, Trend forecasting
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On the bit
Written by Otilee on July 23, 2010 – 7:56 pm -
A couple of months ago I approached by gorgeous local model Claire Stratford for a creative model portfolio shoot. Inspired by Dior’s Couture SS10 collection and in part Hermes Fall RTW as well as past Hermes advertising imagery I set out to put together an equestrian concept for the shoot ‘Creme de la dressage’.
Below is the original concept board I put together for it… didn’t end up turning out exactly as I had envisaged it – but I’ve found that isn’t always a bad thing!
There were three horses we worked with on the day and while they were absolutely beautiful animals…. however, animals are generally not the easiest to work with That coupled with me having a recent back injury which had really thrown a spanner in the works with being able to work properly meant we had to compromise a tad. I’d wanted to do a second hair style which involved a sort of weaving look (as seen on my concept board below with the horses mane) but I was in a heap of pain that day so we just stuck with the one hair look.
With the styling I really wanted to get hold of some awesome leather pieces to give that great tactile uniformity with the bridles etc and contrast against the horses fur and Claire’s hair. So, when I came across Kate Wilks’ graduate collection I was onto her like a flash to see if she was back from Paris and interested. She was, her gear was perfect and she was even keen to help out dressing on the day, thanks Kate! Special thanks also to Teneille Sorgiovani for driving up from Harvey to do the makeup and the lovely folk at the property in Wanneroo for taking the time to also handle the horses as well as style their manes dressage style (they even whipped out needle and thread to do those knots!) <3
CREME DE LA DRESSAGE – CONCEPT BOARD
and….THE FINAL IMAGES
yes… the heart shaped white fur on the horses heads is digitally illustrated
CREDITS
Art direction + Photography/Post | Otilee
Model + Hair | Claire Stratford, Catherine Ruze Agency
Makeup | Teneille Sorgiovanni
Featured garments | Kate Wilks
AND…. it appears everything is coming up horses! Along with the above mentioned designer collections that the shoot was originally inspired by I also just came across these jewelery designs from the recent Fall / Winter2010 collections of Gucci and Ralph Lauren (although….not really a surprise for Ralph Lauren). Pretty damn cool!
Tags: Catherine Ruze Agency, Claire Stratford, dressage, Equestrian, fashion, Gucci, Horses, Kate Wilks, otilee, Ralph Lauren, Teneille Sorgiovanni
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Its all make believe, isn’t it?
Written by Otilee on July 19, 2010 – 4:30 pm -
Back in early Feb, talented local designer Priera Russell contacted me to sort her out with some imagery to market her latest collection ‘It’s all make believe, isn’t it’. A wonderful ‘Alice in wonderland’ inspired collection with that vintage flavour and sex-kitten appeal that this label seems to always bring to the table. This latest collection is in the final throws of being launched so as soon as I’ve got info on stockists I will most certainly edit this post with where you can get your filthy paws on Priera’s silky drawers!
Having recently also been hand-picked to exhibit new work at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, Miss Russell and her label ‘Skankihoo’ is definitely one to keep an eye on!
I still maintain that I want to eat the brocade jacket from the range (a mad tea party – below)…. scrumdiddlyuptious!
THE FIVE FINAL COLLECTION IMAGES
POOL OF TEARS
A MAD TEA PARTY
WHO STOLE THE TARTS!?
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
JUST LOOK AT THE TIME!
CREDITS;
ART DIRECTION + PHOTOGRAPHY + HAIR | Otilee,
FASHION DESIGN + STYLING | Priera Russell,
MODEL | Allegra Keogh, MAKEUP | Melissa Donald,
ILLUSTRATION | Brendan Ninness
THE PROCESS
After the initial briefing where it was ascertained that the five main garments of the collection were named after / and inspired by different chapter titles from the Lewis Carol book I started brainstorming around the possibility of reinforcing this with the art direction for the images. Really wanting to steer clear of doing the typical ‘Alice’ inspired story (especially with the Tim Burton film being released around the same time and the inevitable Alice-inspired-everything anticipated to follow), I wanted to try and do something different and a bit special with which to showcase Priera’s amazing clothes.
I therefore set out to individually art direct each image to reflect the title of the feature garment in each… taking cues with hair / makeup direction and image styling from the dominant character in that role with a fashion twist. So, instead of the model being representative of Alice in all 5, she was styled to be an interpretation of Alice, Queen of hearts, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter etc…. then in the execution following through with a ‘make believe world’ in the illustration / photography combo in a kind of book illustration style.
Then, roping in my other half and illustrator Brendan Ninness to take care of illustrating the environments where we worked together to plan out how I would shoot each image to tie in with what we had planned for the illustrations in the post process. So, on the day of the shoot armed with sketches for each image composition / pose etc and how they would all work with the planned environments (illustrations) – Priera, Allegra, Mel and I spent a good few hours redoing Allegra’s look for each one (our makeup artist Mel, was fantastic – really nailed each of the looks!) which was then followed by shooting each look separately infront of a very MacGyver-style makeshift infinity wall! For example; with the Pool of Tears – We used a box for Allegra to put her foot on to get the height of the lip of the cup (with the cup etc all illustrated after the shoot) and directing Allegra to pose as if she was teetering precariously inside a massive tea cup bobbing around in a pool of her own tears… which I think she managed to pull off the look perfectly! If you want a model that’s going to give 110% to a character – Allegra is your gal! She’s fanfriggentastic!!
For those interested in Brendan’s illustration process – he’ll be posting it on his blog in the coming days, will edit and link when its ready to rock 
Tags: advertising, Alice in Wonderland, Brendan Ninness, designer, fashion, illustration, otilee, Priera Russell
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the bird is the word
Written by Otilee on July 15, 2010 – 4:12 pm -
Comprising members of Eskimo Joe, Bob Evans, Jebediah and Josh Pike – I’d recon its pretty safe to say that we can call these here Basement Birds a home grown super-group.
Had the pleasure of meeting and shooting these lovely (albeit sleep deprived and slightly disheveled) lads in an insanely tight 15 minute window between scenes while they were shooting their music video for ‘Not the One’.
Capturing the X-Press Magazine cover shot and op-ed was the result of about 4 hours of driving time in what ended up being a magical mystery tour out to woop woop (or an area also know as somewhere out past the Perth hills)with X-Press Editor Julian at the beginning of May to quickly snap and interview the lads for today’s issue – coinciding with the release of their debut first album Friday 16th July. Yep, that’s this Friday kids!
MY COVER – out today!
X-Press Magazine, Issue 1222 – 15/0710
*Please excuse the extreeemly shitty happy snap from my studio floor – will replace when I can get my hands on a PDF copy
And for those keen to check out the video… here it is;
Basement Birds are kicking off their national tour at Mt Lawley’s Astor on Friday 13th August. Hit up their website for details of other cities / dates.
Tags: Basement Birds, Bob Evans, Eskimo Joe, Jebediah, Josh Pike, Kav Temperly, Kevin Mitchell, music, published, Steve Parkin, X-Press Magazine
Posted in Misc., Photography | No Comments »
…now, that’s just beard
Written by Otilee on July 11, 2010 – 4:48 pm -
For those that know me, know about my beard envy – seriously, if I was a dude and I could grow one… I would grow the most epic beard known to man / beast. I’d also have one of those awesome moe’s – you know the ones where you twist them up at the ends, they’re pretty damn cool.
So, what has brought on this sudden need to blog about beards? Patrick Mohr, that’s who.
On Friday, for Berlin Fashion Week showcasing his SS11 collection – he sent his models down the catwalk with prosthetic bald caps and faces full of bum fluff. Men and women that is. You got to love that kind of commitment – this guy clearly has balls of steel. LOVE!
… I’d say more about his collection but I’m kind of distracted.
LOOK!…. there’s a model with a fluffy face hehehehehehehe
Tags: beard, Berlin Fashion Week 2010, fashion, Patrick Mohr
Posted in Eyegasm! | No Comments »
Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Rum!
Written by Otilee on June 24, 2010 – 11:32 am -
AHOY, me Hearties!
How be you fine scrumpets this frosty winters mornin?
Headin’ out t’ your local X-Press Magazine stand to score yourself the latest edition of X-Press Fashion?
Savvy? Yarr!
Enough with the pirate talk and without further ado - here’s the full 12 page fashion editorial!
X-PRESS FASHION, JUNE 2010
(OUT TODAY!!)
- COVER! -
- p.10 -
- p.19 -
- p.12 -
- p.14 -
- p.22 -
- p.18 -
- p.8 -
- p.13 -
- p.21 -
- p.16 -
- p.4 -
Weigh anchor! Hoist the mizzen!!!
….yeah I know I said I’d quit with the pirate shit but screw it
… pirate IS the shit!
CREDITS
PHOTOGRAPHY | Otilee
STYLING | Emma Bergmeier with assistance from Hannah McGrath & Madalin Frodsham
HAIR | Head Studio
MAKEUP | Sam Enticknap
MODELS | Elle Grey + Sheldean Perrett + Shane Brew @ Scene Model Management
ASSISTANT | Kate Hedges
Location | Leeuwin II, (Fremantle Port, Western Australia)
Tags: Elle Grey, fashion, fashion editorial, Fremantle, Head Studio, Leeuwin II, otilee, Pirate, published, Scene models, Shane Brew, Sheldean Perrett, Ship, X-Press Magazine
Posted in Photography | 1 Comment »
She’s got the big guns
Written by Otilee on June 9, 2010 – 11:58 am -
Conical bra?…. shmonical bra.
Lady Gaga whips out the big guns ‘Vogueing’ her pants off with machine gun nipples in the Alejandro video released last night.
Directed beautifully by Steven Klein… and with more bowl cuts then you could poke a stick at this is one delicious moving fashion editorial to feast your eyes on even if you’re not a Gaga fan.
See it below, its Hot…. like Mexico, rejoice!
*apologies for this busting out of the frame… smallest one I could find. Will replace it when I can find one!
Alejandro
Tags: alejandro, fashion, lady gaga, music video, Steven Klein
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Wire me in
Written by Otilee on June 4, 2010 – 7:42 pm -
A relative bower bird of the jewelery design world and an awesome exemplar of innovative and fashion-forward eco-design with her unique approach to found objects. Melbourne-based talent Regina Middleton is definitely one to watch! Having had the pleasure of shooting her recent ‘Wire me in’ collection at the end of last year I am now totally excited to release the full series of the collection images!
Hit up www.reginamiddleton.com for more info, previous collections and most importantly how you can get your hands on one of her creations!!
ART DIRECTION + PHOTOGRAPHY + STYLING + HAIR | OTILEE
MAKE UP | CONSTANCE BOWLES
MODEL | ALICE BATTS – CATHERINE RUZE AGENCY
Tags: advertising, Alice Batts, Catherine Ruze Agency, fashion, jewellery, Regina Middleton
Posted in Misc., Photography | No Comments »
Accordion what?
Written by Otilee on May 23, 2010 – 5:56 pm -
Beardo Australian Illustrator Brendan Ninness (also known as my other half) has undertaken the most insane but awesome task of attempting to unearth the best of the weirdest illustration / illustrators the world has to offer with his blog ‘Accordion Face‘.
Only online for going on two weeks now but it is fast becoming a relative gold mine of all things ‘ewwww’ and ’seriously wtf!’. At a time where anything illustration that gets any exposure / pimpage seems to be either street art or naive indy styles (not that I’m saying that there is anything wrong with these!) – its a breath of fresh air to see something different.
So, in an attempt to share the love / fat rolls / vomit / deformities – Check it out!!
…the morbid fascination is killing you already, isn’t it?
A small taster for you…
Tags: art, blog, Brendan Ninness, illustration
Posted in Eyegasm! | No Comments »
She’s got the look
Written by Otilee on May 17, 2010 – 11:04 pm -
Recently had the pleasure of working with Scene model Emily Bathgate – with a look akin to Miu Miu SS10 campaign stunner Lindsey Wixson and an absolute joy to work with…. I anticipate big things for Emily!
MAKEUP | Constance Bowles
CO-STYLING | Otilee & Constance
HAIR + PHOTOGRAPHY | Otilee
+ crimpy pooch Gigi in her Modeling debut ^_^
Tags: Emily Bathgate, fashion, model, Scene models
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
