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SewStylish

The First-ever Sew Stylish Photo Shoot!

Scene 1 - Christine, the fashionista, meets her artsy friend Susan at Smooch Café. They discuss the next night’s plans—an awards dinner where they hope to receive kudos for their co-designs.

Wow, what a day! Our first photo shoot for Sew Stylish Volume 1 was brand-spanking new on sew (get it?) many levels. We went on location. We hired actors, not models. We used a new photographer and stylist. We created a script for the day. We didn’t sleep much last night worrying about every last detail, but the day couldn’t have been better. It turned out to be one of our absolute favorite experiences at the magazine. Read on for more info…

From the Cutting Room Floor
The stories that didn’t make the pages of Sew Stylish just might surprise you.

The sketches shown here are the seeds of our concept planning for the Sew Stylish shoot. We didn’t want this to be just your average fanblowing, supermodel studio shoot. We wanted to show stylish women who aren’t afraid of a pin prick or two-real women who love to sew clothes they love to wear. We wanted that confident strut-the way you walk down the street when you’re wearing the perfect jeans and a fantastic, flirty top that you made, and you know you look good. To capture that stylish individuality, we created this storyboard, hired actors, and took them on location in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. Then, we asked them to treat each shot like a scene in a play-we called it “Friends Meets Fort Greene.” Sew Stylish is the embodiment of that confident strut. Our projects are designed so that every woman with basic sewing knowledge can make her very own designer-quality fashion. You sew, girl!

Scene 1 – Christine, the fashionista, meets her artsy friend Susan at Smooch Café. They discuss the next night’s plans-an awards dinner where they hope to receive kudos for their co-designs.

Behind the scene. The clothes arrived in the stylist’s arms after a rack collapsed and tumbled down three flights of narrow Brooklyn stairs. Next: a flurry of pressing!

Scene 2 – Christine runs into her friend, Melissa, a real-estate attorney, and they chat about the event and Melissa’s job. They’re both dressed to impress as they head to work.

Behind the scene. The actors kept us laughing by ad-libbing lines. “I have a friend you’d love,” one said. “He’s very steady: 45, unemployed, and still lives with his parents!”

Scene 3 – In their excitement, Christine and Susan bound down the steps and hail a cab, feeling sexy and fabulous in their party dresses.

Behind the scene. This shot wouldn’t have happened without our assistant art director’s heroic efforts in chasing a lighting umbrella that blew away. Watching her dodge cars in pursuit of the huge silver contraption was quite the show!

Scene 4 – The gals catch each other on the fly the next night. Christine is coming home late from work. Susan-always ready for a night on the town-is on her way out.

Behind the scene. This shot actually took place on the shady side of the street on a very cold day, so our actors braved the bitter wind in their spring clothes. We wrapped them in thick blankets during breaks.

Scene 5 – Melissa meets her friend Tshidi in the park. She knows he has a crush on her, and she makes the most of it.

Behind the scene. For this shot we added a new element-a male model! The actors had a grand time playing up the flirtation in their script.

Scene 6 – Melissa meets another friend, Zeem, whose crush on her is almost as big as Tshidi’s.

Behind the scene. We crossed the street to shoot this final scene in Fort Greene Park, where rowdy kids, just out of school, tried to sneak into our shots!


Also click the PDF below for a downloadable, printer-friendly version:

PDF: From the Cutting Room Floor
-Adobe Acrobat required-

Text by Emma Taylor, Sew Stylish intern, as told to her by the Sew Stylish staff.

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