Styling and the styled

A few weeks ago I got to play creative director at a fashion shoot. The set of photos, shot by major babe The David Pike, will run alongside a profile of recent Rye-high fashion grad Amanda Lew Kee in the June issue of Futuréale. Posted here is a peak.

Lew Kee, who was recently named assistant designer for Ashley Rowe, presented an all-black collection at this year’s Mass Exodus in stark contrast of the show’s light spring theme, In Bloom. Her snug sheer-meets-shine tights and spiked biker jackets demanded attention and attention was received.

The looks will be displayed in the Holt’s windows this June and featured in the September issue of Flare. On May 31 Lew Kee will present her full collection alongside a short film at the Great Hall, not far from the Queen West haunts she can often be found at, all blue-lipstick and torn up dresses.

More styled than stylist I was truthfully all but unqualified to curate looks. Lew Kee arrived with armfuls of garments and bags of spikes strung into accessories. She laid it all out, looked at me, and said she had seen the clothes all year and grown tired of styling them herself. It was my turn to play.

We’d each brought a muse: she her brand face Nadine McAdam and I the lovely Carli Rothman (who I spend endless hours writing love letters to.) The two patiently stepped out of one outfit and into the next, held still as we clamped backside fabric to fit, and moved as Dave and I shouted out long-winded directions.

After several hundred flashes, four looks, and one group photo the clothes were zipped back into their bags for later use.

We called it a wrap.