Behind the Scenes at the Bestowed collection #14
•Posted on July 03 2020
We had the photoshoot this week for the 14th Bestowed collection. It's a Pre-Summer shoot, layers of locally made organic cotton to keep you warm while the temperature is cooler. It's lifestyle clothing, garments to be comfortable in, garments you can do Yoga or Pilates in, garments to enjoy 'get togethers' with family and friends in.
We decided that this shoot needed to continue with the 'Home' feel that I have been designing for this year. As you know, our last shoot was the RANT collection called Home, which was done at our home. Then we had our home featured in Sanctuary Magazine and our sustainable renovations were designed by our friend and Architect Julie Borgelt. So this shoot simply had to be done at Julie's own home which is only a few streets away from ours but on acreage and backing onto the Enoggera Reservoir. Every part of her wonderful home is recycled, reclaimed and has a story of where it came from.
The house is made up of three buildings that have all been salvaged. The Queenslander house was going to be demolished so Julie and her husband Adam saved it and had it brought to the site from Wynnum.
The other two buildings at the rear create a U shape which open up to a grass area. These buildings are enjoying their third life now. Originally they were built as part of the Wacol Immigration Centre. During the 50's they were moved to the Army Barracks in Kelvin Grove to be used as officers quarters. They were going to be demolished to make way for a new development, the QUT creative industries precinct, but Julie and Adam couldn't let that history be lost and wanted to preserve them.
Our model is Amanda Rootsey who we did three photo shoots with 7 years ago. In fact it was Amanda who inspired me to ensure that Bestowed was a totally Vegan label. I dreamed up Bestowed as a label that was all cotton, mostly locally made organic cotton fabrics (therefore being naturally vegan), but only after meeting Amanda and talking with her about her personal ethos did I decide to ensure that the makeup was all vegan friendly and all of the shoes and boots I used to style with.
Alarna Taylor is our most regular hair and make up artist for our photo shoots and she ensured that all the products she used on Amanda were vegan. The looks she created needed to enhance Amanda's naturally clear skin, only adding as much product as was needed and to bring out her beautiful brown eyes. She set up on the wide verandah in the morning sun with the dogs thinking it was great that they had all these visitors to play with.
Our shoot ended up featuring the dogs, in fact there were three in total who decided at odd times to pose perfectly alongside Amanda. If they decided to be in the shot, they were in it, none of the pics with dogs in them were planned!
There were lots of little spots to do pics and we got to make use of the clothes line that was attached to a pulley system.
The gates in the picture above were salvaged from the Kelvin Grove Army Barracks too. They were part of the storage shed and were going to be thrown away.
It's hard to share pics without showing too much of the collection, but I know that there are a few people out there keen to get another version of the Almeda top as it was spied when I posted the pics below on Instagram the day before the shoot. (see pics below)
The Bestowed collection #14 will be finished, washed, checked and ready for release on 16th July. So not long to wait.
Cheers,
Sarah
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1 Comments
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Posted by Angelica Esmaquel-Chin | July 10, 2020
Leave a CommentThank you for sharing this rich, beautiful history of Julie’s home. Great photos and the dogs being very willing participants, looked so comfortable in their “roles”.
Can’t wait to see the new collection, i look forward to mixing and matching them everyday. So versatile, I can’t live without them!❤️❤️❤️