On April 26th, we had our first photo shoot with the new team. Dawn (another CD Team member) and myself decided that we were going to fly to Pittsburgh for the day to oversee the shoot. Because I had a very early pick up (4:45am), I decided to get to bed early. I woke up around 1am to three missed calls and two texts from Richard, our stylist:
11:38pm Call me asap. Rachel (hair/makeup artist) is stuck in Tampa.
12:38am Rachel’s flight is canceled. Definitely cannot make the shoot.
With nothing I could do at that hour, I rolled over and fell back asleep. When I woke up, I was terrified to check my phone again; I just laid there praying that what happened a few hours earlier was just a nightmare. It wasn’t. Shit. What do I do? Do I postpone the shoot one more day? Can I find someone else to show up in 6 hours? It was 4am, so there was no one that I could call to help with my decision. I decided to just hop on the plane and I would figure everything out once I got to Pittsburgh.
The moment we landed, I called Richard. Richard explained that he called every hair/makeup artist that he knew and everyone was booked. So I started frantically calling everyone that I knew. Because it was still incredibly early (7am, which in the fashion industry might as well have been 4am), no one was picking up. I left a ton of voicemails and just hoped that someone (ANYONE) would get back to me. One hour passed – nothing. Two hours passed – nothing. At that point, it was about 9:15am and the shoot was supposed to take place in 45 minutes. Talk about panic mode! Not only is a hair/makeup artist an essential part to any photo shoot, but it was our first one with the new team and I really wanted it to be amazing (not to mention it was my birthday – yeah, happy birthday…). Finally my friend, Alexis, returned my call. Alexis owns a salon outside of the city, which I used to go to when I lived there. She said that she couldn’t do the makeup, but she was available for the day to do the hair, and on her commute in she would try to find someone for makeup. AWESOME.
Alexis showed up 30 minutes later, but unfortunately she was unable to find someone for makeup. As if it were a gift from God, a voicemail came through at that very moment from an old customer of mine (I used to own a boutique in Pittsburgh prior to working for Chick), “Kim, it’s Dana. I just went on your facebook page (yes I posted it on facebook – desperate times, call for desperate measures) to wish you a happy birthday. You are one of the only birthdays I remember, because it’s mine too, and I noticed that you need a hair and makeup artist. I can’t do hair, but I can do the makeup. I worked at fashion week….” I didn’t even listen to the rest. I immediately called her back and she agreed to come to the shoot for a few hours. DOUBLE AWESOME.
By the time everyone got there and the hair and makeup was finished, it was a little after noon, so we got right down to business. We chose two models, Alexa, who was one of the first models CD used, and Shawna. Richard suggested doing this photo shoot a bit more “editorial” then the previous ones (kind of like in a magazine), that told our “story” for that month. I thought it was a great idea. We chose two stories: Urban Attitude (the one currently on the homepage) featuring Alexa and Neutral Zone (which will debut later this week) featuring Shawna Sunday (yes that’s her real name). Last year for our Denim Guide we did a bunch of shots on the street. I loved the array of different backgrounds that we used, so I wanted to do something like that for Urban Attitude. For Neutral Zone, we used this really cool yellowish wall with gold flecks in it. Because we were incorporating metallics with neutrals, we thought this would really make the metallics pop.
Despite the early morning fiasco, I thought everything came out amazing! Below are a few of my favorite shots from the shoot. I also have to thank Alexis and Dana as they really saved the day. Thanks ladies!
Urban Attitude:
Sneak Peak at Neutral Zone:
xo kim
