Every fashion week I plan what our main theme will be when we feature that season’s collections six months down the road. I don’t let my mind brainstorm anything beyond that because I know those ideas will feel stale by the time we get around to shooting the story.
Watching Toronto’s shows last October, what stood out most was a sense of artistry and craftiness in the clothing. There were still lots of digitally manipulated prints but collections by Sarah Stevenson, Baby Steinberg, Juma, Jessica Mary Clayton and Lucian Matis focused more on hand details and the process of manipulating textiles and patterns. Our Spring Fashion Special feature Art & Craft was born.
A month ago when we sat down to finalize the issue, I had an inkling that I wanted to shoot the story in an art studio but felt the standard model-by-warehouse window/model-against-brick-wall mix wouldn’t properly communicate the creative energy that went into making these clothes.
Our photographer Michael Watier suggested the concept of the artist and the muse and recommended his friend Eric Farache to sit in during the shoot and actually sketch model Queenette.
Eric blew us away with his work and did a great job keeping up with Queenette’s quick pose changes, even commenting that he had forgotten how fast models move during a fashion shoot versus a life drawing set up.
We’ve posted a gallery above of a small selection of the work Eric created that day.
