Some Valentine’s Day love from The Uniform Project

The ladies of The Uniform Project have been huge supporters of Study since the beginning.  They never pass up an opportunity to promote what I’m doing and lend me moral support when I need it (whether they know it or not).  So when they asked me to participate in their NY fashion week feature on local designers, I jumped at the chance.  A blurb from their blog:

Each day during NYFW, Sheena will collaborate with one of our favorite local designers to reinvent the LBD she has donned for the past 9 months, with an accompanying blog story profiling each designer’s stand on sustainability in fashion.

Our featured designers include Study NY, Bahar Shahpar, SANS, Scully, Helena Fredriksson and Suno. And while entirely unique in their aesthetic, the designers are all driven by the shared view that the fashion industry is in need of a serious internal makeover. So whether you’re in it to fix fashion or to simply get your fashion fix, this is a week at the Uniform Project that is not to be missed!

And it doesn’t end there. In the true spirit of reuse, all the items donated by the designers will be featured in our upcoming accessory auction, with all proceeds going to our fundraiser for Akanksha. So keep a close eye on your favorites of the week, it could be yours soon.

I’m honoured and excited to be featured by them, and even more excited about the profile that my very talented boyfriend drew for me for the post.  See more of his work here.

The conceptual shoot

Yesterday, after being sick in bed for 4 straight days, my favourite photographer, Graeme Mitchell, and I shot the rest of the Fall 10 collection.  I’m going to present the images as a series of diptychs alongside his study of Flowers from the Fall.  As always the shots were magnificent and I’m so excited to see the finished images (that’s the one frustrating thing about shooting with film, no instant gratification!).

Above are some images shot by the make up artist, Jessa Blades, who was wonderful to work with (and turned out to be a lifesaver equipped with earth friendly make up AND soothing throat lozenges for a coughing little me!). I’ll post final images from both shoots next week once the look book is ready.  Can’t wait to show you!

Shoot part 1

My apologies for not having posted much this week.  I have frantically been trying to sew the last buttons on samples in time for the photo shoot today.  And as luck would have it I also somehow caught a cold and woke up this morning with a very very very sore throat.  I thought about postponing the shoot but realized I would feel much better if I just got through the day with pictures to show for it at the end.  So that’s what I did.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really enjoy doing photo shoots.  I realize they, like fashion shows, are a culmination of six months of work.  An opportunity to communicate a complete vision of the collection that is entirely my own.  But without a team of producers, assistants and stylists, it really boils down to just me doing all the work trying to find a model, a photographer, a studio, hair and make up, etc… It can be exhausting.  So I guess I don’t like organizing the shoots.  I do, however, really enjoy the end results.

Now I have the first part of my shoot done (despite not enjoying organizing shoots, for some reason I decided to put two together this season – oh the enigma that is me!), with the second part next Tuesday.  Above is just a sneak peek at one of the looks.  I’ll post the finished pictures when I get them back from the photographer.  I’m excited to show everyone what I’ve been slaving away on since the last fashion week.

A special thank you to the lovely Kelley for being such a professional and entertaining model to work with.  I wish her all the best for London fashion week!

Photoshoot part 1

I’m preparing for the first of two photoshoots for the Fall 10 collection, this one will take place on Friday.  I’m torn between doing a very conceptual creative shoot and doing a very straightforward product shoot (the first will make the brand look good, the second will sell clothes).  Ultimately I’m attempting to find a happy middle ground.

I found a great post about a collaboration between a photographer and an artist on Cyanatrendland today.  I first noticed the post because the girl in the ‘before’ picture (shown above) is wearing a Covet dress, from the collection I used to design.  But I love what they did with the images, see the post for details. This project inspires me to lean back towards my initial instinct to present something more conceptual.

Then again, I still want to sell clothes.  Oh the inner turmoil!