July 19, 2016

Ready for Poiret’s “One Thousand and Second Night”

Nicole outfits photo shoot, style, vintage

If I have a “windblown” appearance in these photos, it is because I was. This was the fastest photoshoot in the history of the world, as we were literally racing to beat the thunderstorm rolling in! I live in rural Alberta, in a farming community, and in the summer that means that you are surrounded by either canola or grain- this summer the majority of fields are canola. As the blooms have just opened, and the landscape is a gorgeous sea of yellow, I wanted to take advantage of it, and get some photos in the field. Unfortunately this summer we have received an extraordinary amount of rain. For my readers in other parts of the globe, this is normal I am sure, but for us we are not used to this amount of rain. It has rained almost every day since the Victoria Day weekend, interspersed with periods of sunshine. This is great for the garden, but not so great for other things, like getting photos for the blog 🙁

Last week, I was thinking about which outfits would be good to coordinate with the canola field. (I am sure that is a sentence that has never been spoken before in the history of man. I don’t think farmers usually worry about how their outfits match their fields! “Bloggers- doing new things every day!”)

Anyways, I decided that I really wanted to get some pictures of these amazing harem pants I got earlier this summer, and I thought that they would stand out perfectly against the canola. I wanted to evoke a 1910’s/1920’s Paul Poiret’s One Thousand and Second Night Ball feel with my outfit, so I paired the pants with a slightly Edwardian styled pin tucked blouse, black Mary Jane shoes, and lots of sparkly jewelry and a headband. With a parasol as a prop this turned out to be a 1910’s styled outfit. (I say “prop” as obviously a paper parasol was not needed in the brink of the approaching rainstorm!)

Thus, I had my clothes chosen, and the sun was shining, which was a rare occurrence, so I got my sister (who loves makeup and is an aspiring makeup artist) to do some a modern 20’s makeup. (As much as I love the look of 20’s makeup in vintage photographs of movie starlets, it does tend to make people look like racoons in this day and age.) She was more than happy to do so, and came up with this lovely gold shadowed eye.

By the time the makeup was done, and I had finished getting ready, we went outside only to find that in the half hour or so, the sun had vanished behind a bank of clouds and a storm was rolling in- and quickly too! But, it wasn’t raining quite yet, so we jumped in the car and raced down the road a 1/4 mile to get to a good spot for photos. We battled the wind, we could see the lightning in the distance, the farmer drove by in his tractor (probably shaking his head at the crazy person dressed up in a “costume” taking pictures) and there were a lot of outtakes owing to hair being tossed about- but at least I wasn’t wearing a circle skirt! Then the images would’ve had a distinctly Marilyn Monroe vibe to them. . . 😉

Sorry this is a rather photo heavy post, but I really couldn’t whittle the number down, as I love how they turned out! At first, when we raced out the door, I was sad that the sun was gone, as the canola is so vibrant in the sunshine, and yet, I love how the towering storm clouds and the perfect lighting you get before a storm, gave such a brooding depth to the pictures.  I think they really capture that Art Nouveau, exotic feel of Poiret’s fashion style, with an almost painterly appearance. This outfit deviated so much from what I normally wear, and yet I love it. This might just be my favourite outfit shoot so far!

What are the craziest circumstances you’ve ever taken photos in? Would you wear harem pants? What do you think of Paul Poiret’s 1910’s styles?

 (I will have more about on the history of harem pants later this week, by the way, so stay tuned for more!)

Blouse – thrifted

Pants – imported direct from Thailand (that’s all the tag says)

Shoes – Miz Mooz

Jewelry – Necklace from years ago, Bracelets from Ten Thousand Villages

Headband – Handmade, from an old necklace and vintage buttons