When I decided to start my own business back in May, I was very nervous (still am). But I had this photo shoot in mind with my friends kids as models and certain fabrics I had already picked out.
How I decided on each fabric? Well, three of them I had in my private collection and knew I wanted these to be part of my girls dress collection. One of them (I called it Cool Blue) had a 'sister' fabric in Hot Pink and I could see two girls, sisters or friends, in the same type of dress and the print being the same just in two different colours. Another fabric (Navy Wild Flowers) is actually sourced locally here in Dubai however I initially bought it in Malaysia when I first started sewing.
I went to each of my friends daughters to measure them. First I made a dress to fit them, ensuring the size is right. I used fabrics I had left over in my stash for the fitting. Already then, the girls loved their dresses which made me even more excited to continue. I also tried out two different styles for the pleats. You may noticed in these pictures that the first dress (Lara) and the last dress (Grace) have two different styles for the pleats. Seeing the dresses with each pleat detail made up and on the girls, I decided to go the style Grace is wearing in her fitting which is called a box pleat.
So once the fitting was done, I had to decide which fabric each girl is going to wear. It was a very quick decision and looking back at my decisions vs seeing the girls wear it, I am very happy with the outcome. The girls would look gorgeous in any of the dresses.
The whole month of June I spent on sewing the dresses. I was interrupted by the flu which slowed down the process. Whenever I finished one dress, I held it up on a hanger and looked at them infront of the mirror and was super pleased.
At the beginning of July, my thoughts had become reality.
I had finished the dresses - 8 in total - in time for the photo shoot. Along with the dresses I made hair ties, head bands and bows with clips. The night before the shoot, even my partner helped me and glued the bows on the clips while I finished sewing the last hair ties and headbands.
The day before the shoot, my friend Indira (the photographer) and I scouted the location one more time to make the final decisions on where we start with which girl & dress.
Indira and I met 10 years ago in my first job here in Dubai. We worked together for the next 3 or so years. Sporadically keeping in touch on Facebook, I then saw her work on Instagram last year. When I started my blog in September 2017, I thought about asking her to assist with pictures for my blog (instead of torturing my partner) but never came around to it until February this year. Although I had already resigned from my last job, I was still working and wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. So we met up one afternoon and I shared my idea with her that I wanted to do a little photo shoot and perhaps selling a few dresses on some of the local markets. Luckily, Indira was very keen to work with me because she also wanted to contact me to ask if I am interested in a video or photos too.
We met early morning to beat the heat and my little models did such a great job and had so much fun during the photo shoot.
Indira took the pictures I had envisioned and I am so grateful that she had the time. I hope I can work with her again. She is based here in Dubai and has some stunning pictures in her feed. You can find & follow her on Instagram & flickr:
https://www.instagram.com/photobyindi/
https://www.instagram.com/indi_askar/
https://www.flickr.com/people/photobyindi/
You will see on the website that each dress is named after one of the girls. The Jessica Dress is the dress with the gathered skirt because I loved how Jess looked in her two versions. She has such a great posture and looked like a little ballerina. The Grace Dress has the pleated skirt. I have known Grace for a while and always seen her in dresses and this style of dress just had Grace written all over it. The Lara tunic wasn't initially planned but when I sewn up samples for my classes and took pictures of Lara in the yellow & pink striped tunic, I was inspired to add this tunic to my collection.
Check out my website and shop for all the dresses and fabrics. If you subscribe to my mailing list, you will get a discount code for the shop.
Till date, I look at the pictures of the photo shoot and they make me so incredible happy. My partner sees me looking at these pictures and waits for that little smile on my face. I guess if you have an idea in mind and see it realized, it is a very satisfying feeling.
Thanks for hanging out with me & check below my favourite pictures from the shoot.
