behind the scenes

Behind the scenes – "Secret Garden" photoshoot

February 28, 2011 By Chie

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

We had a photo shoot on Saturday with photographers, Amelia Aventine and Adam Rowney, visiting from UK. “Secret Garden” was the theme. Amelia found this amazing spot on a man-made island in Tokyo named Odaiba. The spot she found was secluded, almost isolated from the rest of the island. Best part, it had no security to bother us! We were left to our own devices without any distraction for hours.

I was afraid that it would rain on Saturday, but thankfully, it was sunny and dry through out the day. Regrettably, it was one of the coldest days in February. Our model had to stand in 6 degree weather for 7 hours…I felt so bad for her 🙁

The weather has been crazy here lately..On Sunday, it was 20 degrees, and super sunny, then today, it switched and went back down to 6 degrees. I can’t wait for Spring to come!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun shooting this”Secret Garden” theme. Amelia came up with the whole story board, and I made dresses to match. I love how the clothes came out, and how Amelia styled the photos. We were really on the same page! It might be a little while until I can post the lookbook pictures and get the dresses up on my shop. In the meantime, here are some behind-the-scene photos and a little video!

2011 Spring Collection Lookbook

February 15, 2011 By Chie

❤ Vivat Veritas 2011 Spring Collection Lookbook❤

Credit:
Photographer: Jason Weddington
Models: Sarah Feinerman and Ayumi Ikeda
Jewelry Designer: Knap (Keiko Okamoto)
Makeup and Hair: Naoko Kadota (Sarah Hair), Mayuko Nakamura (Sarah Makeup), Miyuki Kazama (Ayumi Hair), Natsuko Kurosawa (Ayumi Makeup) from K-two make&nail School

Yay! The Spring collection lookbook is here! I’m so happy with the result. I can’t add these images to my main website until early March, since my main website is under construction but here are the finished photos!

My husband and I worked hard for this…many late nights sewing and pattern-making, coordinating for the shoot with photographer, models, jewelry designer and make up artists but it was a great experience. I want to send special thanks to everyone who made this possible, Jason for amazing photos and fast turn-around, Sarah and Ayumi for modeling in cold February weather, Keiko for making lovely jewelry to match my clothes and last but not least, the makeup and hair artists for doing their magic!

An added point of interest for this shoot came because of my collaboration with a local jewelry designer, Knap. I have been a fan of her dainty, glass jewelry for quite a while first spotting her on etsy. She kindly let me use her jewelry for the shoot, and designed some new earrings to match some of my clothes.
Unfortunately, only one out of two models had ear pierced (my fault for not checking ahead of time..) and we could not shoot as many photos emphasizing the earrings as I initially planned. Also in terms of photo shot prep, I planned for clothes, not for jewlery. In other words, I was at a loss when Jason asked me what kind of shots I wanted for the jewelry. This I want to improve for future collaborative efforts.

Beside being freezing cold on the day of the shoot, we had a difficulty finding a place to shoot that was security guard free. The first couple of photos were taken near a government building in Shinjuku. I had no idea we needed permission for this. Thankfully, we had some nice shots completed by the time the security guard kicked us out. We then moved to a park in Shinjuku, but again, some security guards bothered us. I assumed shooting at a park would be fine since it’s public property… I was mistaken 🙁

In the end, everything came together nicely. I learned a lot for future shots and will be well prepared for a “Secret Garden” fantasy shoot I have coming up in a few weeks. Take a look at the video and tell me what you think! I’d love to hear about any experiences you may have had with a similar project or recommendations you have for the future.