THE. CANDY. SHOP.

A whimsical sugar crush with style!

When it comes to a sweet publication, this is it: The Candy Shop Fashion Editorial --- published in New York's fashion magazine Panache & Style, October 2021 issue!  

How sweet is that? 

Just in time for the month when everyone gets a sugar crush with so much candy for Halloween.  Although this was not an editorial for Halloween, it did fit well within the month's sort of candy theme. 

Inspiration & Planning

The planning was sweet, crunchy, and colorful!  

If you didn't guess where the inspiration came from, I will tell you right now!

The inspiration was a popular board game at the time that I used to play with my siblings when I was little: Candy Land.  In fact, Candy Land was the original name of the fashion editorial.  But, as the planning and production started, it turned out more of a contained environment like a Candy Shop than a "land" per se.

As in any editorial for fashion and beauty, the mood board was key to the creative team from the wardrobe to the props, hair, and makeup.  I am very detailed when it comes to mood boards because I want the team to fully envision the end result of the editorial that I am after. 

Getting the team on board and sharing the same excitement is important to me. 

Usually, I bounce my vision around with the fashion stylist first to receive feedback, fine-tune the vision, and cast the ideal model before finishing up the mood board and approaching the entire team. 

I like to create what I call a "Call Card" instead of the industry-standard call sheet.  I like the card style better because it is more like an invitation to create [together] with an inspirational sneak peek image of what the vision is about.

As in any fashion editorial or photoshoot in general -- at least mine -- putting together all the material for the team is time-consuming but so much worth it.  The creative direction is all mapped out from the concept, color palette, inspirational images, posing to the shot list and mix, and light treatment. 

Beauty & Fashion

Of course! The Candy Shop Fashion Editorial was all about the fashion and the beauty -- not really the candy!  However, the candy colors did play an important role when putting together the final looks.  All the outfits and the overall styling needed to look sweet, addictive, colorful, and playful at the same time.

There was a total of 7 different looks, half of them needed a change of hairstyling and makeup.  So, yes, it was a long day at the Candy Shop Fashion Editorial!

In the beginning, we thought that The Candy Girl needed to pose more like a marionette doll.  As in so many shoots, the vision starts shaping in a slightly different direction.

In other words, even after all the planning and brainstorming, the vision evolves during the actual shoot, and usually for the better. 

The candy girl was no longer a marionette doll, but an alive doll who needed to be stylish and fashionable, but also showed her goofiness and some sloppiness as the sugar crush kicked in from look to look like when eating her popcorn and overdosing with sugar. 

What a treat this fashion editorial was!

Pun intended!

Needless to say, popcorn, marshmallows, and candy wraps were all over the floor; definitely part of the fun for sure!

The Props

Getting the props was entertaining, to say the least.  Candy and sweets were definitely key to conveying the sweet message of the story.  They needed to be visible and show the addictive bliss of a sugar crush.  

We all love blowing bubble gums. I do.  But, before they get big, they usually pop.  Since we couldn't have Hannah chewing gum and trying to blow bubbles and catch them on time before they popped, we had to think of another efficient way to get her to blow the perfect bubble gum. 

The trick was...to blow a small balloon! Say, what? Yep!

How about her "popcorn" shades?  Yes, we crafted them on set!  Check out the behind-the-scenes! 

Her whimsical hairdos were other important elements that finished the total looks. The unusual hair accessories of the funky hairdos were partly made with candy, and of toddler's costume "My Little Pony" that we found in Home Goods!  Haha!  

You can now imagine how fun it was shopping for all these props, and executing the fashion editorial.  

The Creative Team

The creative team is paramount in any fashion/beauty editorial.

But there are some editorials that require more creativity and thinking outside the box like this one. 

Unquestionably, a photographer like me needs to surround herself with creative pillars that give a strong foundation to produce and execute great results. 

Like, who would have thought of crafting matching and drollish sunshades using popcorn or adorning the hairdos with colorful marshmallows? 

Not, me on my own -- that I know!

Many heads think better than one! 

It is only possible with the amazing team I had the honor to work with for this fashion editorial that can make anything possible.

Thank you, thank you! Hats off to you:

• the candy girl: Hannah Morgan @hannahgmorgan @jamestalentgroup
• fashion stylist: Andre Wallace @theartistknownasvoodoo
• makeup artist: Melissa Collazo @melissacollazo_makeup
• hairstylist: Kanika Coachman @kanikastyles
• retoucher: Stephan Tran @stephentran23

In other words a dream team!

Invitation

Feel inspired by the results of The Candy Shop Fashion Editorial.  Putting together an editorial like this is a great idea for real candy brands or candy shops to show a "stylish" side to candy, and include it in marketing material or ad campaigns! 

I invite you to watch all the behind scenes on Tik Tok, on my Instagram grid, and stories under the publications highlights. Also, here on my website, visit https://www.adrianaephotography.com/publications to check out my other published work.  

For models seeing this blog post, feel free to contact me for my rates if you need to expand your portfolio and how we can work together!

The Publication

As mentioned at the beginning, the Candy Shop Fashion Editorial was published in Panache & Style fashion magazine of New York in its October 2021 issue.  The tear sheets are below!