let them eat cake!
Written by Otilee on September 5, 2010 – 7:29 pm -
Pastel pretties and sugary treats feature in the latest X-Press Fashion magazine’s Spring fashion editorial brought to you by yours truly, Miss Emma Bergmeier, Samantha Enticknap, Head Studio and the beauts from Scene. Transforming and re-arranging an all white showroom of stunning baroque inspired furniture and furnishings at Queen of Theme in North Perth - into a pastel wonderland with coloured gels on an off camera flash, a sweet selection of spring stock from local designers and retailers, two heads full of frothy curls on perfectly painted porcelain full-cream-dauphines! Without further ado… and a face full of macarons we say ‘Let them eat cake!’
X-Press Fashion, Spring 2010 – Let them eat cake.
AVAILABLE NOW! or go HERE to read online.
IMAGE CREDITS
Photography + Post | Otilee
Styling | Emma Bergmeier with assistance from Autilia
Hair Styling | Rachel and Lacey @ Head Studio
Make Up | Sam Enticknap
Model | Ashley Head + Lucy Ashforth @ Scene
Location | Queen of Theme, North Perth
Tags: Ashley Head, Emma Bergmeier, fashion, Head Studio, Lucy Ashforth, otilee, Perth, Samantha Enticknap, Scene models, Spring 2010, X-Press Magazine
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The number of the Feast!
Written by Otilee on September 5, 2010 – 1:57 pm -
REVAMP – REUSE – RECYCLE! This was the theme for the second Feast Your Eyes exhibition Brendan and I were asked to contribute to. Deciding once again to collaborate instead of exhibiting individually we set out to find otherwise unusable / undesirable (i.e. shit!) opshop finds and redesign / repurpose / hack up and frankenstein them into something else. The ’something else’ being a feature garment and 5 plushies.
The first Op-shopping expedition produced a bunch of random shit including tablecloths and bedsheets we intended to use for fabric to make some plushies along with a brown / gunmetal grey tarten kilt, then the second trip unearthing and truly hideous orange skirt suit which would end up being the basis for the main garment.
THE ORIGINAL HIDEOUS SKIRT SUIT
I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture of the tarten kilt… but its a kilt I’m sure you can picture it! 
SKETCH FOR THE RE-DESIGN + PARTIALLY TRANSFORMED
The original idea was to put the bustle on the back of skirt (above left) – but after finding out the zip was at the back I scrapped the idea because I suck big ones at sewing zips and didn’t have a lot of time to put this thing together so it instead became and interpretive ‘bustle’ as a coattail feature on the back of the jacket.
Its a bit hard to see on the design sketch but we’ve got two faces over the boobies with long tongues coming out of each to tie the front of the jacket together. Brendan’s male / female faces below as initial shapes and after painting.
FACES!
The mannequin we used to display the garment for the exhibition was significantly smaller then the dressmakers mannequin I was using to make it so it didn’t really look the way we had hoped on the night – not enough happening in the boob compartment to fill it out! Garment is size 8-10 – my kneeling mannequin must be a 4 or something equally as terrifying but it was a bit of fun so we weren’t too precious about this one.
THE FINAL PIECES – FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE
Yes, I know the face on Brendans slug looks suspect… he’s a strange boy.
Thanks for everyone that made it down to the exhibition opening last night and to Sarah and Sophie for putting it on and asking us to be a part of it. Well done girls – it was an awesome turn out and you both did a fabulous job with pulling it all together! Everyone’s work was awesome!
Plushies and garment are available for purchase – if interested hit me up with an email.
Tags: art, beard, Brendan Ninness, exhibition, fashion, Feast Your Eyes, Fremantle, illustration, otilee
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Beyond Garment
Written by Otilee on August 25, 2010 – 12:46 am -
Opening at the beginning of next month and until the end of November, Beyond Garment is an exhibition of local designer work that is sans frock. This being; a selection of exhibited work inclusive of wearable art, millinery and accessories from some of the most exciting names in emerging WA fashion.
The exhibition is free and is running from Fri 3 Sep 2010 – Sun 28 Nov 2010 – Open daily from 9.30am – 5.00pm, excluding Wednesdays at the Western Australian Museum — Maritime – Victoria Quay, Fremantle Western Australia!
While I’ve not been directly involved with Beyond Garment I did have the pleasure of hooking up exhibiting label Martini +Coz with some images to use for their included work titled ‘Alice’s Wonder World‘.
I directed the three images to reflect a modern day Alice with that slight wift of vintage flavor that the Martini + Coz label are all about. I wanted to again steer away from traditional ‘Alicey’ imagery and be a bit more subtle with the art direction. Casting a Brunette model (Holly Doherty, Scene Models) and modernizing her as ‘Alice’ with neo-70’s sparkle-arkly eye-makeup applied as tiny pieces of silver leaf with perfection (as always) by Constance Bowles. Then going for a slice of the story as opposed to trying to reference the whole she-bang with the scene most relevant to the labels target market…. eat me / drink me. Further reinforcing the ‘grown up Alice’ image for the series as well as the brand identity through the use of the martini glass as vessel for the elixir of all things big and small. This is why in the three images of the series I’ve kept the martini glass as standard dimensions and made ‘Alice’ appear tiny in comparison to the bag and key in the other two images. To do this I got Holly to hold a rolled up piece of cardboard as if she was holding a large key and shot the key separately (perspex key was approximately 5 inches big) then manipulated the two images together – likewise with the checkerboard bag; I had Holly hold up a large plastic rubbish bag to get the size and hand positioning right, shooting the bag in its actual size separately and then manipulating the two images together.
IMAGE CREDITS
Art direction + Photography + Hair + Post | Otilee
Makeup | Constance Bowles
Model | Holly Doherty @ Scene Models
Featured Jacket, Bag and Jewellery by Martini + Coz
Tags: Beyond Garment, Constance Bowles, exhibition, fashion, Fremantle, Holly Doherty, Martini + Coz, otilee, Scene models
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Style Aid 2010
Written by Otilee on August 2, 2010 – 1:14 am -
This year I had the great pleasure of being involved with fashion fundraiser event STYLEAID in producing the editorial images for the Student designers’ Finale. The designer brief (put together by STYLEAID stylist and parade coordinator extraordinaire Aly May) invited each of the 21 industry selected student designers to consider the ‘tribe’ theme when designing their pieces with the other two main criteria being that it had to be orange and it had to make noise! Other then that, they had free reign – and reign they did. Everything from elaborate beaded bodices with matching headgear and bikini inspired menswear to a GIANT pokemon hooped skirt with bunny ears.
Wanting to reinforce Aly’s designer brief through the images as well as being conscious that I had 21 individual images to bust out – I set out to put a concept / look together that would communicate the effects of ‘noise’ visually through models styling / hair / pose / expression etc – as if they’d been blasted by a massive amp (not shown in the image / amp as the reader). I dug out my industrial floor fan to blow the hair / garments backward and directed the models to be either leaning into the frame or falling back and off balance. So either falling forward or backward etc like they’ve been knocked off their feet by the sound waves – blown over by the sound / noise. AND …To ensure that the orange and the garments remained the focus – I set out to source a location that either had a black dominant or white dominant interior – with either a black or white reflective / glossy textured floor / walls to get some great light bouncing around to add to the drama of the movement and further reinforce the sound wave thing. My first thoughts to find such a place were possibly a local nightclub / bar that might have a dance floor that looks like this – after a couple of days of calling around and having no luck I eventually got put onto a fantastic new photographic studio space that had a white glossy tiled area that fit the look I was after and the lovely folk that run it were kind enough to let me and my troops use it for the whole day. Thanks heaps Mira Studios! A BIG shout out and thanks also to my amazing team on the day, all the student designers, Betts shoes, Scene Models and of course Aly May!
STYLEAID 2010 Student Designers
StyleAid Magazine, p49-59
IMAGE CREDITS
Art direction + Photography | Otilee Lamb
Makeup | Sam Enticknap
Hair | Jody Fiannaca
Assistant | Daniel Njegich
Models | Courtney James and Chris de Boer @ Scene Models
Studio | Mira Studios
Tags: Chris de Boer, Courtney James, designer, fashion, Jody Fiannaca, otilee, Perth, publication, Sam Enticknap, Scene models, STYLEAID, Tribe
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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
IMAGE 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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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
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Otilee.com facelift
Written by Otilee on May 17, 2010 – 12:56 pm -Last night I updated the home page of my website (and twitter) with a new image that took me way too long to put together
A square grid system collage of some of my fav images from over the the past 2 years.
Tags: collage, images, otilee
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