90s Mash-ups

So as part of my final piece I wanted to create three 90s mash-ups using my four most recent shoots. I felt this would be a cool and unique way to express the crazy, tacky and, quite frankly, mismatched era. I cut and collaged different body parts I felt stood out to me, until placing together these three weird and wonderful 90s manipulations...

Nike Airs and Popping Pills

So on Tuesday I completed my final shoot for my 90s project, super sad I know! I know this shoot was going to be the hardest to create as I wanted to make it seem as realistic as possible as I felt it was important to keep some aspects of it serious yet still try and recreate the 'fun' and 'carefree' feelings expressed at the time. I decided to shoot my images at Wonderland Maidstone on their 90s themed night as I wanted to use an environment most suitable for my projects. Plus I also wanted to use bright coloured lights as a main effect in some of my images.

The styling of my model was very important in this shoot as I obviously needed to incorporate my crop-top but I wanted to ensure my model was styled in clothes of which someone going to a rave or a club in the 90s would wear. I chose to put her hair up in a high side pony tail, as the sporty 'no fuss' look was very much key to the era. With her make up I didn't go to heavy as rave make-up was fairly bland until it came to eye shadow, for this I used a dusty purple. I then styled my model in silver and blue air max trainers, black fish net tights, leather hot pants, my own crop-top, a pink and blue shell suit jacket and numerous gold and silver chains. Once ready and styled we made our way to the club. First of all I took some stationary images of my model, as I wanted to make sure I had some classic fashion photography shots, where my crop-top was clear to see. After getting a tad bored of getting my model to just stand and pose I decided I wanted to experiment with some movement. For this I literally just got my model to stand under the lights on the dance floor, and dance about using cringey 90s dance moves!    There goes another friendship! 

I made my shutter speed on my camera a lot slower in order to capture the light and movement in a way in which I believe people who were taking drugs at the time might see things. I wanted the images to look slightly surreal and imperfect, hence the blurs and smudges. I'm very pleased with how my images turned out baring in mind they were very experimental. I think if I were to re-shoot my images I would try different locations as although mine was appropriate as it was 'fashion' photography I feel it would of been cool to look at it in a more documentary style!  

E Was Not For England

After having tones of fun completing my troll doll inspired photo shoot, I felt it was time I revisited the dark side of the 90s. My fourth and final theme is 'drug and rave culture' a huge topic whenever the 1990s is bought up, and it seemed only right that I looked into it and compared it with the lighthearted cover up of cheesy pop and neon colours. The first thing I looked at was the death of 18 year old school girl Leah Betts, and I have to say it made me look at the 90s in a totally different light, the 90s suddenly became a lot darker, scarier and not such a joke. Although this theme was very sad, I became fascinated with the idea of people using drugs as a way to escape the 'throw away' era, and I couldn't wait to start planning and making my final crop-top based upon it.

I wanted to use text in a black and white format in order to create the appearance of a news paper to represent the dramatic news coverage from when Leah Betts died. The text was a poem I found by poet FlowBert 'E Was Not For England' which expressed strong 'real life' emotions on drug and rave culture, and how it affects peoples lives. I took the poem and selected some words I felt important and made them bold and then created my own silk screen. I then printed the text onto my tee, I did this several times, overlapping the words to give it the messed up disorientated appearance. Im really pleased with my top, now I just need to start planning a realistic 90s rave photo shoot...    

A Hell of a Lot of Backcombing and Pink Hairspray

Yesterday I created my troll doll inspired photo shoot! And I have to say it was the funnest shoot by far. I had a very clear vision in my head of how I wanted my model to look, and that was, exactly like a troll doll, therefore a lot of backcombing and hair spraying was in order! I started by doing my models make up. I wanted to give her a doll like appearance with a slight twist, so I did her base make-up as normal but drew on little corner eyelashes to give her that almost 'cartoon' look. On her lips I used a pale orange lipstick from Topshop, as I wanted a colour that contrasted well with her hair colour, which I planned to make pink! 

When finishing her make-up I moved on to the most exciting part... the hair! So when doing my models hair I pretty much sacrificed our friendship as using the term 'backcombing' probably isn't strong enough. I 'backcombed' all of my poor models hair, and pinned random sections to give it that extra lift, when I was happy with the height and volume I hair sprayed it (like glue) and then I started to spray it baby pink! Although my model didn't look best pleased, I was having a great time! I then styled my 

 model in powder blue vans, shiny blue disco pants and my troll doll inspired crop-top. Then to finish off the look I added an oversized pink bow to her hair, in order to give it that extra 'cute' troll doll feel. For the shoot its self I picked a couple of walls outside my college that had been painted in a way to look like graffiti. I felt this to be the perfect setting for my shoot as it was child like and fun, and super 90s! I also liked the mixture of colours used, making it appear even more tacky and garish! I got my model to pose in a number of different poses and positions. I asked her to make herself look ridged and 'doll like' to ensure I capture the true troll persona. I also made sure she look slightly clueless and dumbstruck as I also felt this fitted the brief. Looking back on  my images I am very pleased with the results, as they a pretty much how I imagined them to look. Now its just going to take a lot of being extra nice to my model and a hell of a lot of brushing, wish me luck!

A Dozen Neon Trolls

Okay, so this was going to be my stupidest, most outlandish crop-top yet! 

The idea of sewing 90s troll dolls to a T-shirt would send most people into some sort of fashion coma, however I became very excited by the idea. Early last week I ordered 12 troll dolls off of amazon with the vision of using them to create my 3rd 90s inspired crop-top. To make the top, i cut of a section of the bottom (as done so with the other two) to make it into a crop. I then dyed the spare bit of fabric apple green, and started pinned it around the neck of my top to create a ruffled collar. I wanted to make this top as dramatic and fitting to the theme as possible. I then pinned my troll dolls in and around the pleats and ruffles of the collar, making it look bolder and very 'in your face' 90s. 

Once happy with my layout I started to sew my collar piece onto my top. Now all I had to do was find my very own life sized troll doll to model it for me! 

So Super Cringey

Earlier on in the week, I completed a shoot based on rock legends Nirvana (see previous post), and I thought it only fair that now it was The Spice Girls turn! Using the crop-top I had made and a very good friend, willing enough to make me make her look about 12, I created a super cringey Spice Girls photo shoot!

I wanted to create a realistic 'tacky' looking 90s shoot, using a plain white back drop, cheesy poses and classic 90s pop princess hair and make-up! I styled my model in plain black leggings and my own Spice Girls crop-top. 

The inspiration for my shoot was from my number one Spice Girl, Baby Spice! I wanted my model to display a certain girly innocence, a trait that seemed to be popular within the 90s with the rise of other big 'pop princesses' such as Brittany and Kylie. It was so interesting doing this shoot compared to the last one, which had a much darker feel. I felt with the Spice Girls shoot, everything was far more staged as I guess it was how someone would expect a typical 'photo shoot' to go. Where as the Nirvana shoot felt so much more natural and serious, I found these differences to be clear in the artists music too. After completing this shoot I felt it important to look at more comparisons from the 90s, looking at both the staged, silly side and the dark and somewhat serious side...

Look as if you couldn't give a...

On Tuesday I went to a friends house to shoot my grunge inspired photo shoot. I waited till about 7pm so the lighting was just right, still light but getting dark. I then styled my model in black wet look leggins, doc martins and my Nirvana crop-top. I used a black pencil eyeliner to create a smudgy dark effect on my models eyes, a deep purply lip tint and back combed my models hair slightly to give it that scruffy unkept look. I wanted to create a realistic grunge atmosphere so I used the back drop of a brick wall and an old motor bike that was just laying unused at my friends house. I felt this gave the images a certain sense of street style and made them look a lot more natural. It also fitted in well with Nirvana's classic rock image. I asked my model to look as moody and grumpy as possible, which wasn't hard as it was freezing outside, to complete the 'no hope' grunge attitude.

I was really happy with how a few of my images turned out, however it was such a challenge making them look convincing and not too staged but at the same time like a fashion shoot and not like documentary photography. Although the images looked great in black and white I also felt it important to capture the full appearance of my crop-top, hence a few close up of the embellished lyrics.

And I Swear That I Don't Have A Gun

I have decided its time to stop blinkering myself with neon colours, cringey girl bands and fanatical 90s fun. I have decided its time to look into the darker side to the 90s. I feel since doing my project I have only been focused on the typical '90s' style that is tacky, bright and OTT and it was about time I looked into something more laid back, effortless and a style that was just as important; Grunge! Grunge has always been a style that has fascinated me, the idea of putting effort in to look scruffy and almost bad is something I find extremely weird and wonderful. When looking into grunge in the 90s, with no surprise , grunge legends Nirvana made quite a few appearances. After becoming slightly obsessed again with Nirvana I decided I had to make a crop top inspired by them to contrast my super tacky Spice Girls one!

  Using the two iconic Nirvana colours, black and yellow, and tie-dyed the tee to give it that second hand, scruffy, laid back appearance. I then waited for it to dry, and luckily the colours came out a lot darker and dingier than I thought, giving it a realistic grungey feel. However I felt more needed to be added to make it unique and totally Nirvana. With thoughts of ripping it or studded it I finally came up with the idea to sew Nirvana lyrics into it!

Having the reference to the band I felt made it so much more realistic, also the way in which the writing was scruffy and hard to make out also made a connection back to the style of grunge its self. Now to pick my grungiest friend for the photo shoot... 

SPICE UP YA' LIFE

So in one of my earlier posts I mentioned creating my own range of 90s inspired crop-tops, all expressing different themes from the 90s. After getting loads of great feedback from my questionnaires it was super clear that there was one very big recurring theme... The Spice Girls. And to be honest I don't think I can think of anything quite as 90s? So after a little bit of research into the band (although embarrassingly I already knew quite a lot) I got together some basic ideas for my top.

I wanted my top to have different elements on it to represent each member from the band, starting with sporty, which I felt was covered in the sporty 'crop' top style. I then dyed my top pink in honour of baby, embellished the neckline with pearls for posh and used leopard print fabric and union jack print fabric to make a scary and ginger inspired sleeve! Now all I have to do is find a willing Spice Girls fan to model it for me. Hmmm...

Under-exposure

Okay so mastermind number two! Cathy Kasterine! Worked first as a fashion assistant for British Vogue and then became a freelance stylist in the early 90s and has worked mainly for famous fashion mag i-D! When looking into fashion stylists from the 90s, as you can imagine, loads caught my eye, but one shoot in particular, from Cathy, stood out. In June 1993 Vogue published a shoot with Kate Moss, under the ultra intriguing name, 'Under-exposure'. As soon as I saw the images I understood why they had named the shoot what they had. A beautiful, fresh faced Kate stood venerably in tiny Hennes (now H&M) laced knickers. Her face portrayed innocence and sadness as she wraps herself in a pastel lilac duvet against a exposing white background. Corinne Day, who shot the images, later reviled that Kate had been crying earlier that morning after a split with her boyfriend, giving the images an even more intense feeling. To me this shoot was perfect, not only did Kate make the underwear look beautiful but it told
a story also, allowing a connection between the viewer and the images. It was also really lovely to see a softer and less harsh view of the 90s with pastel shades, simple clothing, and stripped back photography.




















When looking deeper into this shoot, I found it to be very well known within the fashion industry and apparently is was an extremely controversial in the 90s. The fact Kate was known for being a stick thin heroine chic, who was not afraid to let lose and party and was then made to look baby faced and innocent, I guess was slightly ironic? However no one could deny the simplistic beauty of the images, clearly displaying early 90s fashion creeping into everyday, mainstream fashion, pure genius.

From Sidewalk to Catwalk

So I haven't written on here in a couple of days as I have been busy researching into, what I believe to be, very important fashion masterminds of the 90s! To be frank it became a bit of an issue finding anyone singing the praises of fashion stylists, photographers and designers of the 90s as most people seem to be utterly repulsed by the colour clashing cults that thrived in the day. After a little bit of research and a heads up from my tutor I came across Ted Polhemus; a writer and photographer who specialises in fashion, anti fashion, identity and the way a person expresses themselves through style. When finding out Ted based a lot of his work on the 90s, I ran to the library only to find his book 'Street Style' published in 1994!

Instantly I couldn't put the book down, from b-boys and flygirls to ravers and indie kids. This style dictionary had every thing a girl doing a project on 90s fashion could need! I instantly connected with Ted's writing style and I fell in love with his photography. I was amazed by how each image seemed so natural and showed the nitty gritty of the 90s, not just a clean fake portrayal of the 90s.                                                       

When looking deeper into Ted's work I became more and more aware on how important street fashion was in the 90s. It seemed to give people some sort of freedom and a right to say what they want through the way they look. What with social and economic times being hard, I think people started to have a 'I don't care' attitude or 'How much will it take to shock you?' opinion. These ideas are captured in Ted's work. I love the idea that ordinary peoples styles from the street influenced some of the biggest names in fashion and this then changed the catwalk. How amazing is that? Looking at 90s 'Street Style' has given me huge inspiration to create realistic, natural 90s fashion shoots. I don't just wanna capture fashion I want to capture feeling, emotion and power. 

Nothing 90s About That Nightmare

So just like I said I would, I went to the 90s party at Wonderland Maidstone, and I am sad to announce last night didn't feel very 90s at all!

Me and Ally Rocking the 90s look

Okay so the occasional tune came on where me and my friend would reminisce good times but apart from that, the evening was very much 2013. I don't know whether its just me but when I saw the dress code I got super excited. The fact I got bop around in my babycham trainers with pedal pushers and crop top on was beyond amazing! So why didn't anybody else kick of there heels, slip out of there figure hugging body-con dresses and join in?! It just got me thinking, how much do people really hate 90s fashion? Is it that embarrassing?
Today I have decided to go back to the drawing board, so to speak, and have a look into 3 big artists from the 90s; Ted Pothemus, Mario Testino and Gianni Versace. Hopefully they will make fashion in the 90s a little clearer.

Born in the 90s?

Walking through college today I spot this poster! Its almost as if someone has made this event specially for my project?! I got out my laptop and found the event page on Facebook. As I read in intrigue I became more and more excited! 'Expect to hear Alanis Morrisset, Backstreet Boys and Blink 182' count me in! I then found the dress code section which got me even more hyped. 'Air Max, Reebok Pumps, Adidas Poppers, Shellsuits, Denim, Kangol Hats and Grunge wear all OK!!' I had to go! So tomorrow me and my friend, who I am dragging along with me (probably kicking and screaming in a pair of disco pants and high tops), are going to be dancing the night away at Wonderland Maidstone reminiscing over our favourite 90s tunes! Post with pictures from the night will be up tomorrow! 

For more information on Wonderlands 'Born in the 90s' click here!   

A Nostalgic Questionnaire

Since my crop-top idea I felt intrigued to know what everyones memories of the 90s were! I wanted to know what they were watching, what they were listening too and more importantly what they were wearing. I decided the easiest way to do this was to hand out a questionnaire! Here it is:

90s Fashion and Pop Culture Questionnaire 

1. What year were you born? 

2. If born in the 90s do you consider yourself to be a typical ‘90s kid’? 

YES          NO           NOT BORN IN THE 90s 

3. What’s your favourite 90s TV show? 

4. Who’s you favourite 90s music artist/band? 

5. If I said to you ‘Dress like you’re back in the 90s’ what would you wear? 

6. Do you think 90s clothing was fashionable? 

YES           NO 

7. (If answered ‘YES’ to question 6) Who would you consider a 90s fashion icon? 

8. (If answered ‘NO’ to question 6) Who would you consider a 90s fashion disaster? 

Thank you for answering my questionnaire! 

Some of the answers I got were great! I couldn't stop going 'Oh remember them!' and 'Haha my mum used to make me wear that too!' I had endlessness fun listening to everyone reminisce over there 90s fuelled childhoods, chatting about Fresh Prince, Bewitched and Britney! With the answers I received from my questionnaires I hope to pick 5 top themes and use them as inspiration to make 5 90s inspired crop-tops. I plan to use methods such as dying and embellishing to create the different looks, I then hope to style them into 5 different photo shoots, focusing closely on the different themes. 

My top 5 themes so far are: 

• The Spice Girls 
• The Fresh Prince of Bel Air 
• The Power Puff Girls   
• Trolls 
• Sports Wear 

Please feel free to re-live your 90s memories and do my questionnaire, just leave your answers in the comment box! 

Rest in Peace My Pretty Pink Babies

Today hasn't been all smiles and laughs, today has been somewhat sad.

I went on eBay to see what was going on with my second pair of jelly shoes, I clicked on my watch list and thats when my heart sunk. I had lost a bidding war, I lost my beautiful pink heeled jelly shoes. Thats right someone out bid me! And now they will never ever be mine! I have pretty much spent the rest of my evening searching every possible website to find another pair, so far this had been unsuccessful! However one must not give up! I am determined to find myself another pair, I am an eBay warrior on a mission!

My Urban Education

Today I went for a quick shop in Maidstone. Yeah okay, so kinda for myself, but also to spy on any 90s inspired trends that were creeping onto the high street. My first port of call was of corse Topshop! To me Topshop can never do wrong (well most of the time) and are always bang on trend.
 As I walked in everything screamed 90s, I got very excited, grabbed most things in sight and ran to the changing rooms! Beastie Boys band tee, neon crop tops, bomber jackets and tracky bottoms with crazy prints. My most exciting finds were a grey letter print tube skirt with matching long sleeve crop top and a floral and dogtooth mini skirt with matching crop top. When exploring 90s fashion I found that two piece items were extremely popular however when going to vintage shops in London I hardly came across any, especially 90s inspired ones! So you can imagine how happy I was when coming across two today!

Another 90s inspired outfit I put together today were a pair of light blue high-waisted denim jeans and a sunshine yellow crop top. The outfit was inspired by style icon Dionne from Clueless. I loved this look so much I ordered the top, with the vision of styling it in a shoot soon!
After my shop, I realised 50% of everything I had picked out was a crop top! Blimey. I think its fair to say I had fallen for these midriff baring beauties! Thats when the idea popped into my head! My very own 90s inspired crop top collection?! I could look at all different bands, TV shows, topics from the 90s and make a hole collections of crop tops from them! Then from this I can create the most fabulous styling shoots. HORAH! My shopping trip was even more worth while than expected.

Click here to view Topshop's 90s inspired 'Urban Education'!

All Mine!

Success!
I won the yellow jelly shoes! There I was panicking that there would be a secret last minute bidder, counting down each second, biting my nails...
Then BAM 'Congratulations on your new yellow Juju Jelly Shoes' Yippee!

 

Jelly thats Suitable for Vegetarians!

There I was surfing the net, when I wandered into dangerous territory, ebay.

Yep thats right, I've started a war and not just any war, a bidding war. 

Look at them? Arn't they perfect? Bright pink jelly shoes, with a heel and big white buckle. Classic! When I saw the price £1.50 I nearly choked. Can something this cute really be sold so cheap? Thats when it started, into the little box I typed £2.50. That was 2 days ago, and I'm still the highest bidder, HORRAH! 

But it didn't stop there! After my first success I wanted more and searched for more jelly shoes to see what I could find and then I stumbled upon these, bright yellow jelly shoes! This time £0.99p?! So I bided £1.20! And I am proud to announce, I am also the highest bidder on these little babies. Finger crossed I win! For now though I think its only best I stay well away from ebay... and jelly shoes. 

Act Like a Dumb Blonde

After my shoot in the mall I headed home where my model was meeting me for my next shoot of the day. Now for this I needed a typical blonde bombshell, someone worthy to play Cher in my second Clueless inspired shoot. The first person that sprung to mind was my friend Alannah, who lets just say does Clueless blonde very well! I knew I wanted to style 5 different outfits on my model and create some full body simple styling shots, as well as pick 3 of my favourite scenes from Clueless and recreate them, incorporating my own styling. I picked the scenes; Cher is teaching Tai the importance of squats, doing her make-up in the mirror and picking what to wear for her driving test.

So starting with my models hair, I wanted to keep everything very natural so I just used straighteners to create cute little flicks and give her hair a little more texture and volume. I then re-did her make-up, pop art pink blush, shimmery powder pink eye shadow (all the way to the brow, that were filled in with a light brown crayon), two coats of mascara and glossy pink lips. What a betty!

Starting with the scene where Cher is picking an outfit to wear, I chucked a load of my most brightly coloured/interesting clothes onto my bedroom floor and arranged them in an interesting way. I then got my model to sit within the mess and pose in a vacant doll like way.

























I then moved onto my next scene where Cher is putting her make-up on in the mirror. I wanted this image to feel very romantic and feminine, hence the dim, moody lighting and the deep warm pinks.

And then finally I had great fun making my model endure a mini work out (evil stylist/photographer!) to create the last and final scene.

Here are my five key Clueless looks! 

From left to right: 

• In look number one Alannah is wearing plain black leggings and a leopard print crop-top (both from Topshop) teamed with a pink and blue shell suit jack (from Beyond Retro) and her own baby pink Adidas trainers.  
• In look number two Alannah is wearing a bright yellow sports crop-top (from Beyond Retro) and a pleated brown high-waisted mini skirt (from Topshop) accessorised with black knitted knee-highs (from Primark) and yellow and brown wedges (from Newlook). 
• In look number three Alannah is wearing midnight blue disco pants (from House of Fraser) and neon diamond print polo blouse (from Absolute Vintage) worn with pink velvet platforms and chunky gold chain (both Topshop). 
• In look number four Alannah is wearing silky pink slip dress (from a local charity shop) with pale pink and mint green heels (from Irregular Choice). 
• In look number five Alannah is wearing baggy white crop top with leopard motif (from Topshop) and baggy zebra print sweat pants (from River Island) team with cute floral head scarf (from local a local charity shop). 

A Fashion Illustration of my Five Key Looks 

Down at the Mall

So yesterday I was super busy creating fashion styling shoots based around my favourite 90s movie, yep you guessed it, Clueless.
First stop The Mall, you can't get more Clueless than that right?

I wanted to style my model based on Clueless character Tai Frasier (the new girl and new project of Cher Horowitz and Dionne Davenport). I wanted to create a cute and casual look using a baggy tie-dye tee, dark denim dungarees and doc martins. I made her lips glossy and pink, eye make-up neutral and hair high. To send my model even further back into the 90s I photographed her buying, drinking and holding a slush puppy (remember them?!).

The nice italian man at the ice cream stand was flattered that he would be in my photographs and even asked if he looked okay, bless! After taking some snaps at the ice cream stool, I moved on to taking some full body shots of my model in front of a 90s style café, this way I could get some good images of the hole outfit I had put together. I also got her to lean against a blue wall outside a sweet shop. The lolly-pop print on the wall have a great tacky pop 90s feel.

I then took a few of my model sitting down at the café, to try and recreate a scene in clueless where the three girls are chatting away in a mall café after a party in the valley. I wanted my model to have that typical 'I live above sunset' 90s girl expression, if you get my gist? 

One slush and 94 images down we headed home and I started to prep for shoot number two...  

The day I spent far too much.

Me in Prince of Bel-air style jacket and my neon yellow hockey crop top.

So with my Clueless shoot in mind me and a couple of the girls decided we would hit London on Wednesday so I could see what little treasures I could find to assist me in my project and on my shoots. I had a couple of shops in mind that I new we had to visit! Beyond Retro in Soho being one (http://www.beyondretro.com). I had a little bit of money saved and thought it would be very well spent    on my project (plus I get to indulge on some new clothes!). Armed with my sketch book, filled with many images from Clueless, I had a million and one ideas of things I was looking for. Dungarees, an offensively bright shell suit jacket, crops tops, MC Hammer pants, jelly shoes, reebok classics; oh the list goes on! After mooching around London for most of the morning, we then started our travels to Soho where we lunched at our Amsterdam favourite, Wok to Walk, before going on to Beyond Retro. This is were it all went wrong.
There is was Aladdin's Cave, and in it were things from the 90s only the Spice Girls could dream of. Neon crop tops, more dungaree's than I knew existed, shell suits, gold glittery jelly shoes and all of it seemed so cheap!

My gorgeous dungarees! 

90s tie-dyed hooded top

  Well we must of been in there for a good couple of hours, I think the shop assistants thought we were moving in! In the end I sadly had to pick just a few items that I was gonna buy. I did this quick before the girls either ran off and left me or started to break into tears! It was super hard but I tried to pick the bits which I thought could be the most versatile when being used in a shoot, and in the end that was a dark denim pair of Revolt dungarees, a neon yellow cropped hockey top and a neon baby blue and pink shell suit jacket. Just when I thought that was it we happened to stop off at Absolute Vintage and I somehow managed to buy a bright diamond print gold button- up cropped shirt, oops!