Fashion: 'In the Mood For Love' inspired collection & narrative concept

Vera Wang based her Spring 2011 collection show on the 1960s film 'In The Mood For Love, a dark story of love lost & found which was set in Hong Kong. Wang wanted to bring aspects of the film through the hair & make-up mixing in the Asian influences & trends of the 60s with her moody, romantic clothes of the season. 

The hair stylist, Jimmy Paul referenced the beehive of the 60s with his huge, teased bouffants. He says, '"I like to use a lot of product, which a lot of people are scared of," starting with tons of Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray on to dry hair until damp.

It is then rough dried with the hairdryer using hands giving the foundation for the teased process easier. Then using backcombing the hair goes from 'flat to sky-high'. A rat-tail comb was used, section by section working their way from root to tip.
Bumble and Bumble Does It All Styling Spray is then used all over before brushing the front down to create a side part. The mound of hair is then gathered at the base of the neck and twisted; for the most part the style fell into two distinct categories: a french twist that rolled underneath to create a wide faux-bob or boosted the hair up.

Jimmy Paul explained, "Women used to wear their hair big in the 60s, so we took that, but are also making it a bit geisha-like to channel the Asian influence as well."

The makeup artist Lucia Pieroni went for soft, shimmery makeup. "The skin is not too powdery, not too shadowy, but very even, like porcelain, but in terms of texture rather than colour.
On the eyes, she used a pastel palette from Clé de Peau's spring collection, applying am opaque pearly pink shadow on to the lids with a damp brush; it was then dotted in the middle of the lid and blended out so most of the shadow stayed in the centre. For darker skinned models a bit of gray & blue shadows were mixed in.

To define the brows, poweder was brushed on a touch darker than each models' natural colouring.

Vera Wang's designer vision of 'romantic east-meets-west sensuality' was brought to life in this show in a way I believe we want in our shoot.

 On a side note when watching the film, 'The Singing Detective' (2003) I noticed a scene right at the beginning of the film which involved a sensual woman smoking in a red dress at the end of a bar out of focus while in the front two men sit talking taking up the majority of the frame. 

Despite this due to the colour, lighting, and central positioning of the female character the eye is drawn straight to her therefore I believe that despite the small size of our main model in our fashion photo shoot in comparison to the male figure she will be the main focus and where the eye will be drawn to.

There was also a scene which could be very helpful as a visual lighting reference;

We are definitely going to be using an over all light with key lighting spots coming from the artificial lamp lighting to highlight certain subjects as well as possible street or moon light coming through the window projecting the window frame on the back wall to create a sense of time.