Look Book FW2017 Move Repeat Collection – Production Mode

On a very hot and sunny August day, another model, Akuba, and I were sporting a 2017 Fall Winter collection: Move Repeat for local Chicago designer, Production Mode, also known as Jamie Hayes. I met Jamie on one of my runway jobs for Morua Corsetry and Couture and she contacted me a year later via Instagram DM for this opportunity.

Side Note: Since I am signed exclusively through Select, all bookings were arranged through them.

So, as I was saying . . . it was a hot summer’s day in the middle of Steelworkers Park, an old run down steel industry transformed into a peaceful and unique park and very much worth the drive to take a look at because not many parks have a feel like this.

Luckily, I was able to hitch a ride with one of my favorite makeup artists, Lia Rivette, she’s with Ford Chicago and we happen to live in the same area. Funny story and a bit of digression on how I met Lia. She was watering the plants at my apartment complex, turns out she was also a resident there and she got a discount with the management for watering the courtyard plants. We got to talking and she mentioned she’s a hair and makeup artist and a light bulb hit and I’m like, no way, I’m a model! Then we coordinated some shoots and actually one of our shoots together helped land us this gig . . . huh, full circle.

Jamie particularly liked the hair and makeup Lia did for one of our shoots, so I wore bangs again. Very much like an Audrey Hepburn feel to it: “The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain.” I love Audrey.

Anyways, we went to the photographer, Carlos Moore’s home to get hair and makeup ready. I was on a time constraint, so we had to move fast and Akuba, the other model, had to get ready in the car on location while they shot my first look.

Our changing room was tucked away in this little nook, semi-private, semi-exposed, but I’ve changed in a lot stranger and more exposed places than this shoot before, so it was no big deal. I was more worried about getting the clothing dirty as I was changing from the inside of a tunnel-like area. You can kind of get an idea from one of the pictures below.

The key for this shoot was movement and lots of it. In fact, prior to the shoot, some of these pieces were included in a dance presentation, hence the title of the collection: Move Repeat.

This was a fun shoot for a designer’s look book because one it was shot on location and two it felt more editorial than catalog-y. It’s so fun to not just model the clothes, I felt like I was creating a different persona. Editorial type shoots always have a hint of background story to it and it’s a bit more on the creative side, which is something I personally prefer.

The team was super professional and super nice . . . really nice. Jamie, the designer, Carlos, the photographer, Lia, the hair & makeup artist who I adore, Emma, the assistant, and Akuba, the other model were all so friendly, easy-going, and so cool to work with. They didn’t force me to do anything I wasn’t comfortable doing, such as climbing higher on the rocks, which I was pretty afraid of in the first place. Yes, scaredy cat over here. But it was fun to live on the wild side for once.

Did I mention it was the middle of August? It was hot and some of the pieces were quite heavy. Thankfully to my good genes, it takes a lot outta me to sweat, so I wasn’t showing much during the shoot. I’ve heard worse scenarios though, it being winter and models are wearing nothing but swimsuits or it being 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside and models are wearing heavy winter coats. But some of these pieces in the collection could totally be pulled off in any season like the Fluid Jumpsuit or the Mini Criss Cross paired with the Gauchos.

Each piece is unique in its’ own. It’s the textiles and patterns that make it interesting. That’s why movement was so important during the shoot, so you can see the different styles on how to wear a piece and all the different kind of patterns a single piece has to offer.

These are some of my favorites from the shoot: