Below is the fashion editorial Elizabeth Weinberg and I collaborated on. We shot it upstate with the help of Turner and Erica’s styling genius.

I just uncovered this super quick sketch I sent her when I had a “vision” for our first collaboration. A year later…and it happened! Someday I’ll do another shoot where the flowers and trees are 2-d. As if the shoot was one big theatrical set.

Hopefully, you will notice all my props! There are ones I sourced: a bow and arrows from Fredricks and Mae, an early 1900′s willow rocking chair, and Native American inspired rugs and drums.

And there are those that I made: a painted walking stick and axe, beaded necklaces, a teepee constructed out of branches from the forest and a drop cloth that I painted with various geometric patterns, and of course the toilet paper “installation.” I created it to look as if a gang of teen pranksters were unleashed upon the forest.

It was DEFINITELY the most fun part of the day. There’s nothing like tp-ing the hell out of the woods. It brought me back to high school. I am an expert at this sort of stuff.

James and I recently collaborated (for the first time) on this Refinery29 fashion editorial inspired by summer’s prevalent graphic, “ethnic,” and “tribal” prints. Rachel Hill, one of my oldest New York friends, styled it, Elsa Canedao created a complex array of braids for the three girls and Chichi Sato supplied the amazingly bright makeup and bold nailcolor.

I found a ton of amazing models by calling around different agencies with our pitch and ultimately chose three girls (Annaleise, Fabienne, and Mariana) from Trump, Supreme and Next.

The backgrounds are 12′x12′ acrylic paintings on set paper, created by sourcing African mudcloth, moroccan textiles, some prints from John Robshaw,and various woven fabrics. I tiled, cropped, rotated, enlarged, changed the colors and projected them the last few nights that lead up to our shoot.

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What resulted were 10 really strong bold images that I’m super happy with.

Here are some iphone pix i took while working and during our shoot!

I hope I get to do something like this for Dazed and Confused or i-D down the line!

Anne Sophie at Q

More pictures from the shoot

These backgrounds were so easy to make, I want to do this more often!

Ian Bradley

Painting #2. Was going to fill in the outlines but I think i’ll leave it as is, the colors look nice

First: blue & green

Then added red & pink acrylic (taking a break before I hit up yellow)

Obligatory detail shot

On to the last one. I like the toile look when it’s all blue.

Added red. Now it feels more John Robshaw

Work in Progress

Acrylic drippy paint on white set paper. 9′ x 9′

First look.
On set with Nicholas Suttle, Ian Bradley, Jillian Halouska, and Anne from Q models

I’m working on several fun projects… shirts for Roxy & Ford, a music video pitch for Ladytron, work for Casemate, and huge paintings that will function as backdrops for a fashion editorial shoot this coming Thursday. The following images show my work in progress from today. The images come from vintage wallpaper with colors that I’ve reworked, projected, and am now painting on a very large scale. As in 9 feet by 9 feet. I am trying to make sure these read as paintings and not as wallpaper, so drips and loose interpretations are key.

A very pale blonde haired model wearing summer florals and white will soon be standing in front of my backdrops. Hoping it turns out!

First one.

Outlines done. I’ll color it in on the floor.

It’ll be as if I’m entering the biggest coloring contest of all time!

Elizabeth Weinberg collaborated with me on my first foray into prop making. It was a portrait for Death and Taxes featuring El Perro Del Mar.

Tomorrow morning we’ll be having another go of it. We’re traveling an hour upstate to a secret cave and doing our first fashion editorial together. Our 15-passenger van will include Billy Keith doing hair, Jenna Rainey styling, two beautiful models from IMG, Nadja Nebas our make up artist, Elizabeth and Me. The shoot is themed around light; exploring shadow and reflections and inspired by Jen Kao, Cushnie et Ochs and Jeremy Scott’s recent collections. And Lady Gaga (obviously).

I made several headdresses in gold and silver backed mirrors. Lots of faceted shapes. I really hope they photograph ok in the caves!

The whole process has been a learning experience; finding people to collaborate with, calling modeling agencies, creating pdf pitches to send around and shop our idea. But now that I’ve worked it out I know it’ll just be that much easier when I do another shoot next week.

The first version of these were originally created for Lindsey Thornburg.

There are more where these came from. I’ll post more after the shoot.

Some of the collections i’ve really been feeling.

Headdress research

Been alternating my time between prop styling fashion editorials and lookbooks and working on freelance illustration. I don’t need to decide which “I do” so I’m doing both! Artists who work across disciplines and utilize various methods are my favorite. Playing around in both fields keeps me on my toes and when I’m in doubt I just think: Andy Warhol.

Currently, I’m prop styling a fashion editorial with Turner and Erica Blumenthal and the photographer Nicholas Routzen. Turner actually styled the very first Blood is the New Black lookbook in 2004, when I was art directing. That’s how we met oddly enough. In preparation I’ve visited numerous home-goods stores and local prop shops like Prophaus, Elephant Props, and Props for Today. Once inside a prop house it’s as if you’ve arrived at the best vintage store on the planet! Everything is perfectly organized with and rows upon rows of dishwares and decorative collectables organized by color and shape. Really magical even if you’re only looking.

I’ve also hit up fabric stores like The City Quilter and Mood in hopes of finding 1920′s inspired fabrics. All I have left to do is get my hands on the amazing (and expensive) textiles by John Robshaw and Madeline Weinrib (from ABC Carpet and Home) without spending my own money and I’ll be all set!

Here are some iphone pixxxx