Ever wanted to be a fly on the wall at an editorial fashion shoot? The location, the talent, the photographer, the styling, the execution… learn how it all comes together? While we do run our own fashion shoots here at Husskie, that doesn’t mean we didn’t jump at an invitation to take a behind-the-scenes peek at a recent photoshoot with mega influencer Natalie Roser run by lifestyle site See Need Want.
Having known the siteβs founder and editor Rosie McKay since back in our days as magazine fashion editors, I knew it would be quite the production. And it didn’t disappoint. Held at Hacienda Sydney, a luxury vista bar inspired by Cuban architecture, the shoot saw Natalie model the key fashion trends of 2019 with Steve Baccon on photography and Rose Saffioti on hair and makeup.
Manoeuvring myself into the background to capture some of the action, here we share some of our fly-on-the-wall footage to give you an inside view into an influencer shoot β as well as grilling Rosie on everything that goes into the organisation of a fashion editorial campaign.
Can you talk to me a bit about the concept for the shoot?
I really wanted to show Natalie Roser in a different way. A large part of her modelling work is bikinis or underwear so I thought I would be fun show her in a different light. I still wanted her to come across as playful, but wanted to amp up the drama by having her model some new directional fashion trends and create the character of a strong, confident style maven. I created a moodboard and sent that to Natalieβs management to approve with Natalie. It got a big thumbs up and the ball was rolling.
How did you choose which model to go with?
I had been wanting to work with Natalie for a long time! Monika Radulovic introduced us. Monika had just featured in a shoot on See.Need.Want and Natalie saw it, told me she loved it, and we discussed doing something together then and there on the spot! But as life is, Natalie soon took off overseas and I had a baby, so it took 2 years for all the stars to align so we could finally work together on this shoot. In fact, I literally produced the whole shoot in 3 days β including locking down location, crew, and sourcing wardrobe. Natalie only had one window of free time while she was in Sydney and if I didnβt make it happen, we probably would have missed the chance to work together again!
And what about choosing a photographer?
I have worked with Steve Baccon for many years. He brings an artistic edge to my shoots, he gets those in-between moments that make for magic shots. We also understand how each other work and he lets me do my job and I trust him 100% to do his job and execute the shoot vision.
What was it like working with Natalie?
From the first time I met Natalie, I was drawn to her warmth and down-to-earth attitude. She laughs easily, talks openly, and is good to be around. I think itβs important to work with people who make you feel good and bring out the best in you. On the day, she was so on board with the shoot vision and really brought her A-game. I think the shots speak for themselves!
Can you talk me through the day of the shoot β from waking up to pack-up?
We had 4 hours to get hair and makeup done and shoot an entire editorial with 7 outfits! Our call time was 8am, so I packed the car with the clothing, styling kit, and rack the night before and set off at 6am the next morning.
Once we arrived, we got all our bags into Hacienda and organised the hair and makeup and styling areas. I had a debrief with Rose on the hair and makeup direction and she got to work immediately. My assistant set up the clothing rack and got to work unpacking all the bags and laying out the accessories and shoes ready for me to come through and quickly prep the looks Natalie would wear.
Once I had the looks sorted, my assistant got them all steamed and ready to go while I went and chatted to Steve about our shot list and where we would start our shoot. We approximately had about 15-20 mins per shot, allowing time for hair and makeup tweaks.
We decided to confine the shoot to one area of Hacienda so that we could keep the lighting and look controlled and also save time on moving around. The tones of the area we chose, with its pink leather banquets and baroque flooring, worked beautifully with the tones and textures of the wardrobe.
I didnβt want the hair or makeup to be too overdone, so we started with it looking tousled and wet it down as the shoot went on for a different vibe. With the makeup, rather than overdoing it with too much colour, we kept with natural tones and focused on highlighting Natalieβs striking features like her piercing blue eyes and amazing bone structure.
We moved quickly and all the looks I had prepped worked beautifully β you never get a fitting before these types of shoots, you work with the modelβs sizes and hope the samples are true to size! I always make sure I have options so there were a few things on the day of the shoot that I would have loved to include, but time got away! In fact, the Luna Atelier chain-print co-ordinate set that we shot last arrived 10 mins before we were meant to wrap and we got that shot done in like 5 minutes β thatβs when you know are working with professionals, when you can nail a shot in now or never circumstances.
Once we had all the shots done, we all chipped in and packed down. After everything was packed back in the cars, I had to quickly return some of the clothing I had borrowed.
Steve had the images with me within a few days β I sent my selects of the hero images we wanted to use to Natalie for approval. She loved them all so I had the entire shoot up and live on the website by the very next week. Steve had been creating a storyboard of the shoot as we went along and seeing Natalieβs reaction at how it looked was a priceless moment. She genuinely loved it and because she put her all into the shoot on the day β we achieved amazing results.
Itβs been one of my favourite shoots to work on to date because there felt like there was such great flow from the moment we locked it down to the moment it went live. In fact, that shoot lead me to work with Natalie on another project a few weeks later β so I guess you could say that waiting two years to get the shoot done was meant to be!
Click here to see all the imagery from the See Need Want shoot.
All behind the scenes imagery taken by Yelena Fairfax for Husskie Press featuring model Natalie Roser, stylist and creative director Rosie McKay, hair and makeup artist Rose Safioti, and photographer Steven Baccon for See Need Want.
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