Hello! A few weeks ago, I reached out to Elina Oehlert, a VCUArts student who enjoys makeup as well as painting, through Instagram to discuss collaborating on a shoot. She immediately hopped on board and we began talking concepts. We knew that we wanted to do something more editorial and I suggested something retro-inspired. Elina found a gorgeous seventies retro wall paper design online and we decided to draw inspiration from the pattern for our collaborative shoot. The print encompassed several different floral designs in an interesting geometric arrangement; shades of burnt orange, red and mustard yellow really solidified its retro seventies appeal.
Elina took charge of our makeup for the shoot, painting a couple flowers from the inspiration pattern on both of our cheeks. She also worked her magic with eyeshadow on our eyelids, blending away with warm orange and gold hues. Her makeup skills blew me away and I hope to work with her again in the future on more shoots.
We wanted to focus on color as a key element of the shoot so we played up the warm tones of the makeup with clothing and accessories in orange, red and yellow hues. I grabbed a pair of red, just slightly flared pants from my wardrobe to style my look around. I love the powerful statement that these pants make; I feel like they give off a definite air of strength. I paired them with a pretty, vintage orange blouse. The colorful combination of the pants and the top definitely created an eye-catching statement on its own but I decided to play around with color a little bit more while accessorizing. Burnt red heels, a seventies silky scarf, mod earrings, a red purse and fun shades all added to the retro editorial mood of the look.
Elina started her look with an effortless pair of tan corduroys. I suggested styling an orange top with the pants and she also slipped into a cool pair of flatform sandals. She added a little bit of a cool mod appeal to the look with a circular belt and a circular beaded necklace. I accessorized her look with some fun shades, a red vintage purse and orange vintage earrings.
I reached out to local Richmond photographer, Rachel Dwyer, to shoot the collaborative editorial. I've worked with Rachel countless times in the past and am always impressed by the quality of her work. She has an incredible eye for light, angles and capturing looks on camera in a pleasantly unexpected way. We shot around Carytown and in the Fan and I love how the photos from the shoot turned out. I usually shoot more ~everyday~ looks but it was fun playing around with something slightly more editorial. Stay tuned for more editorial shoots in the future!
Photos by Rachel Dwyer Photography.
On me:
Orange blouse: Vintage via La Retro Girl, c/o Unitiques
Lace-up heels: Nasty Gal via Ashby
Earrings: Vintage
Silky scarf: Vintage
All sunglasses: c/o Giant Vintage
Red purse: Vintage
Gold belt: Vintage
On Elina:
All sunglasses: c/o Giant Vintage
Orange hoops: Vintage
Red purse: c/o La Retro Girl
