In my efforts to try new things in the fashion industry and basically get to see how all aspects of the industry work, I was thrilled to be able to assist Stylist and jewellery designer Airdrie Makim over the weekend at a shoot for 1am Magazine.

I met with Airdrie last Wednesday, less than 24 hours after her services had been requested, to discuss the brief, the clothes (!) and the accessories we would require. Over a juice, some Melbourne Tea and an awesome salad at Tom Phat in Brunswick, Airdrie opened my eyes as to how we were going to source product and models and shoot the whole lot within 3 days, have the photos to the magazine in less than 7 and in just over two weeks, our work would be in print and online.

Over the following two days I received a few cc emails while Airdrie tracked down clothes; I like to think I helped by knowing someone who worked with one of the labels; and offered suggestions as to designers we might like to chase up for additional product. I was secretly singing that several labels I suggested were worthy of our shoot!!

On Saturday morning, the photographer, hair and makeup artist, model, Airdrie and I rocked up at 9am to a suburban house in Carlton, owned by a friend of Airdrie’s who was kind enough to let us crash her house for the day. We set up the gear on the front porch – scarily looking like a garage sale   – and started styling!

While our photographer, Laura, scouted locations in suburbia, Airdrie and I picked outfits for Sally, our model, while Erin; our hair and makeup girl; worked her magic. Just after 10am we headed off down the street to start snapping.

I had so much fun. While Laura basically sat or laid on the ground to get the right angles, Sally knew exactly what to do and it was incredible to watch an actual photo shoot take place. From my imagination to real life, everything that happened over the course of the day was exactly how I pictured it (or saw in the movies) and more.

We worked with Sally for the rest of the morning, before our second model Rebecca arrived shortly before noon. We had a tight window to shoot the girls together before Sally had to head off to work and as we dressed the girls, I wondered if perhaps Styling was something I might like to do more of.

After Sally departed and we worked with Rebecca – I might add both models were so sweet to work with and just lovely people – I was assigned front porch watch duty. Two people thought we were having a garage sale on my watch – rather scary to think that thousands of dollars worth of clothing appears to be nothing when it’s hanging on a rack on your porch!

While waiting for the team, I put together a few outfit and accessory suggestions, which were well received by Airdrie and I will be so excited to see the photos and say, I did that! We ended up finishing the shoot around 5pm – 36 GB of photos later. At 25 MB per image, that’s a few pics 1am Magazine will have to choose from.

While I am not going to tell you what the theme of the shoot was, or the labels we used just yet, you can be assured that IT IS AWESOME. All Australian brands and fabulous photos (I’ve seen them, so I know!). The online version will be released on September 20, and if you are really keen, you can order the print edition online from New Zealand for a couple of dollars (more than your standard fashion magazine).

Thanks must go out to Airdrie for letting me learn for a day and being fabulous, to Erin and Laura for being ace to work with, to Sally and Rebecca for simply being lovely (and beautiful) and Airdrie’s friends for letting us crash their pad – and of course to 1am Magazine for needing us at the last minute!

Image One: Clothes on the porch
Image Two: Sally behind the scenes
Image Three: Rebecca behind the scenes (thanks to Airdrie Makim for image)