Revival Vintage Photoshoot
Photoshoot log
As the keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed we recently decided on taking some new photos for our website and social media. Happily, I was given the task of organising and taking t photos on shoot. For those that don’t know me, my name is Cian and I am one of the work placement students here at Revival. When I’m not at Revival I work at Hackett in Leeds and I’m a student in Music Journalism here in sunny Huddersfield. Although I have had experience with photography and outfit-making in the past, I hadn’t ever directed any modelling before so this was a new challenge to me.
Firstly I needed a model. Thankfully, I knew Craig (a friend of mine) had an interest in modelling and had mentioned the possibility of modelling for me in the past. Craig, as you can see has quite a skinny frame, and perfectly fitted some of our smaller items. This however left a large gap in the stock we could use, so I had to volunteer myself for modelling duties too. I was the natural choice as it wasn’t particularly difficult for me to persuade myself to take an opportunity to show off. And so the first part of the process was complete.
Next, it came time to choose the outfits. I had one or two issues here, the first of which was the amount of choice I had. There are simply too many beautiful items to choose from and I could only showcase around 5 outfits. The second of my problems was trying to pick out sizes that would fit Craig. Although I picked out items in his sizes I couldn’t be sure how they'd fit until I saw him wearing them. I wanted to save as much time as possible on the day. I managed to pick out five outfits to represent the 40s, 50s and 60s.
The themes of the outfits varied. The 40s outfits were both influenced by country life. My outfit, in particular, made me think of a country gent out and about for the day. I thought that the grey trilby and tweed jacket really elevated the Aran wool jumper and Hugo Boss shirt where normally they wouldn't have been all that noticeable. The fishtail trousers were also a great choice as they weren't too light as to break up the outfit, but weren't too dark to drag everything down. in short, they were perfect.
Craig’s was more of a working-class man who was out and about for the day. I must admit for the coat and hat I took inspiration from the BBC's Peaky Blinders. For so many years in the UK, the flat/newsboy cap was part of the uniform of the working classes, and it really polished the outfit off nicely. But I didn't want the outfit too look too depressing, so I made sure that I selected a bright Spearpoint Collared shirt and a colourful tank top. I thought this looked great on Craig and really captured the spirit of what I was going for.
Craig’s second outfit was a 50s look. This time I chose a brighter look using the vintage boating jacket and polka dot silk scarf to bring a bit of colour out with a pair of dark suit trousers. I found it looked a little bit like a lad out at the boat races, and that's a great look. it is really quite a simple look, using only a few items of clothing to achieve a really distinctive style. The silk polka dot scarf Craig wore was a particular favourite of mine (and his!). It mixed really well with the jacket and the knitted t-shirt chosen.
Finally, I chose two suits. The two suits were meant to represent the atmosphere of the 60s. The sort of Mod look that is well associated with the young people in those years. The 60s are a particular area of interest of mine, so I was confident I could nail this look.
For myself, I selected a green suit with red stripes running through it. I knew It would probably be risky to choose a coloured shirt, so I decided to use the white club collared shirt to break up the green and red of the suit, and selected a patterned silk cravat of the same colours. This way the colours used would go together without looking boring or manontanous. I then decided to wear a pair of sunglasses in some of the photographs. The sunglasses I chose for myself were definitely a good choice. without a shadow of a doubt, they are very 60s. They also did wonders for my ego!
I picked Craig's suit to deliberately contrast with mine. Although both were made of wool and were of a similar cut, the use of those separate colours gave each of the suits a completely different quality. I knew with Craig's suit, I had to use a few more colours just to make it look a bit more interesting. I decided on a white club collared shirt, with blue stripes. The navy spotted tie helped bring the blue stripes out in the shirt. The sunglasses picked for Craig really suited his face. He looked rather looked like one of the younger blues brothers! Luckily, we both had shoes that went perfectly with the outfits chosen and were a really nice touch.
Now I had my outfits assembled, it was time for me to take the photographs. Now in terms of the background, I was spoiled for choice. The area in which we are located is surrounded with houses built in the Victorian era, which make for the perfect backdrop even with one or two modern modifications. Within a 200 metre radius we have several brilliant photo spots to make use of. It was a case of seeing what looked right on the day, and luckily we managed to find a few hidden gems such as the garage which appears in several of the photos which both myself and Craig.
On the day of the shoot, everything went off without a hitch. Aside from some trouble with the weather, I’m happy to say the photos also turned out great, with myself, Craig and Helene taking photos in turn. As you can see from the photos, we did a really great job and can honestly say I can’t wait for the next one.
