Say hello to our Festival Collection! Guest Blog by Ellie Burns

Hey all! My name is Ellie Burns, I am a 19 year old Liverpool based fashion blogger with a passion and an eye for trend. This September I will be attending John Moores University studying Fashion Design and Communications. In the mean time I have been working along side Katie to create a colourful, fun, bohemian style festival collection that we think will blow your socks off this season!

Pen and paper time! Getting the initial ideas and influences down on paper was a crucial part for this collection as it give us a clear view on who, what ,were and when. Looking at both secondary and primary research was really useful as it helped us combine the two together. For example we took ideas from high fashion, catwalk pieces and altered them to create a more realistic look we think would be suitable for every day life.

Lights, Camera, Action! After the collection was complete we needed to plan a photo shoot to capture all the pieces, but who shall we use? After a lot of talking over countless teas and coffee we had a light bulb moment! Because it is a festival collection after all, you always have your partner in crime next to you right? So we decided what better way to capture the true festival spirit than to use two models instead of one. So that was it, we were in search of two gorgeous girls to help us out. But not only did we find two gorgeous girls we found IDENTICAL TWINS! (Rain and Star Williams, age 19) this could not of been more perfect everything was falling in to place.

Location, Location, Location! We didn't want a boring studio with backdrops, we were thinking green fields long grass, flowers and sunshine! We wanted this shoot to be fun and exciting for everybody taking part. One afternoon we made it our mission to find the perfect location so off we went, music on, sunglasses on, milkshakes in hand to search for the perfect field! After driving round for some time we found a perfect yellow rapeseed field located in Cronton, the field was perfect for the shoot, things were going great!

Move over Instagram filters, we want the real deal! We were in search of a photographer who could work along side us. Although this shoot was for Katie’s festival collection we really wanted to make sure everybody involved got something good to take away from it. This would be a brilliant way to boost up their porfolio and help expose there work to a new audience and help get their name out there. Social media was a HUGE help as we found the most amazing photographer Daniel Carroll. Daniel was perfect for the job, he was full of ideas and enthusiasm we had full confidence in him.

Last but definitely not least we were in search of a glam squad! Not that this was a hard task as we all know Liverpool girls are on fire when it comes to hair and make up! Lois Preston (based in Lois Jane Hair & Beauty, Longview Drive Huyton) was our makeup artist and oh was she good… she was UNREAL. The make up look we were after for the girls was glowy bronze, sun kissed and natural! The girls looked airbrushed the makeup was that flawless, it was perfect.
The hair was perfected by Katie’s good friend Georgia Canavan. She’s a mobile hairdresser from Liverpool with a passion for hair! This girl works wonders when hair is involved! If you are looking for effortless tousled locks the Georgia is the girl to see! The twins hair was perfect for the shoot, it lasted all day.

Its photoshoot day! The sun was shining and everything was going to plan! Myself and Katie were busy all morning adding the final touches to the headpeices and packing the car up for a busy day ahead. Ee arranged to meet at Lois’s shop as this was easy for everybody to get to and was close to the location. Even though this was the first time we had all met together, everybody was so lovely we all got on so well, it was perfect. While the girls was in hair and make up Katie and I had the pleasure of picking out outfits for the girls to wear from the fabulous Francesca Couture. Francesca gave us a stunning selection from her new summer collection (available online at www.francescacouture.co.uk) Unfortunately, because of the location, outfit changes was a bit of a struggle not to mention we were limited for time before the sun set. We would have loved to have photographed them all but we couldn't use as many outfits as we would have liked to, however we did use the “NAOMI’ dress both in black and cream,the variation of the same dress worked so well as many of the headpieces we created are made in different colours.

Once the girls were all glammed and ready to role, we all headed down to set, there we met Daniel the photographer he was great with the girls and made them feel at ease doing the shoot! …Okay so maybe sandals were not the best choice of footwear for a field of an evening! Although it looked hot it was super cold! I was tasked with setting our little festival scene complete with poms poms, candles, jam jars and picnic blankets. It was like a mini Glasto scene! The twins were like true professionals, Daniel got the girls to do some fun shoots like piggy backs, laughing, running in the fields and more, this was exactly how we wanted to the shoot to be, fun, exiting and not so serious! After climbing fences and running through fields bare foot it was finally a wrap! The pictures were looking great! We couldn't wait to see the final edits.

Daniel worked his magic on the images to make them look super gorgeous! Here are the final edits for you to all see, now its down to you to decide how you are going to style them with your festival outfits!