A little bit of love for Gloucester Road

Yesterday we had a lovely visit from Molly Jones. She is a third year UWE student studying Graphic Design. As part of her final project she has 'branded' Gloucester Road in Bristol. Our shop is just one of the many businesses that makes up this street, the longest stretch of independent businesses in Europe. She delivered us a huge stack of hand-printed carrier bags, with beautiful designs and quotes that sum up what Gloucester Road is all about. We are passionate about independent retailing and the important part they play in creating strong communities and building local connections, and as such we are very pleased to be a part of this great project.

Check out her website to see other examples of her work.

Behind the Scenes

shoes for or male model

selecting and styling the womenswear to be modelled

checking the lighting

test shots of Amy

looking from this angle you can see our shop!

Charlie ready for action!

Amy starts to pose!

Our website is becoming a popular place for our customers to get styling ideas and keep up to date with what's new stock wise in our Bristol boutique. So I thought it might be interesting to show how we create the photo's we use online, as it is a bit unusual!

All the photographs you see on our website are styled and photographed by our little team at fox + feather. We don't have a big budget so we have a few little tricks to help us along the way.

Firstly, we don't use a photography studio. Instead, at 6 o'clock when the shop has closed, we clear out our shop floor and build our own little studio 'in house'. We carry (not drag...promise...) all the tables to the sides of the shop and set up our 'infinity' back-drop. This is basically just a huge roll of paper that hangs off a big roller. We have different coloured backdrops to suit the season and style of clothes we are shooting that night.

Then the photographer (also known as Scott, my fiance and website manager!) sets up our lighting and does a few test shots to make sure everything is looking good.

Our current womenswear model is Amy Burnett. Some of you may recognise her from working in our Bristol store, she has been a part-time sales assistant with us for the last 18 months. Amy's hair is usually done by the lovely girls at AKA hairdressers who are a couple of doors down from us on Gloucester Road, Bristol. Our menswear model us currently my cousin Charlie Harrison. Charlie is studying at Bristol University and we had to bribe him with beer and pizza to do this for us! His hair is normally done by the lads at Franco's. I think maybe I'll do another post about these hair stylists, as they are all so good they deserve a bit more then a quick mention.

The styling is done by myself and Nia (a fashion student at UWE), who also works for us part-time. We pick the outfits to be shot, and then go shopping for shoes and any other props we need to complete the look. We tend to find most of our women's shoes in Office and Zara, and we normally end up in Schuh for the men's shoes.

We do the make-up ourselves, so you will notice it is pretty simple!

And that's about it. We put on some music, start taking photo's and work through the night until the job is done.

And here is what we end up with! A great selection of photo's that we can use on all our social media platforms.

Gone Fishing!

Fishermen coat by Native Youth- £65

There are a lot of boys with beards at the moment. It is obviously the new hipster look. But as far as I am concerned a good beard belongs firmly on the face of a lovely Cornish fisherman. Yeah, some boys can pull the look off, and may even look attractive (though I would still think twice before accepting a bristly kiss)  but a beard should always be accompanied by wellies or at least some well worn elbow patches. Yes? Ok maybe just me there.

My point was supposed to be about fishermen being a good style to aspire to, hipster or not. So, our new menswear range (which by the way is available in our Bristol store and our online shop) has a bit of a nautical theme. Think waterproofs, stripes and hard wearing canvas. Our pick of the collection is this fisherman jacket by Native Youth. We love the yellow sleeves and contrasting navy body, with white detailing. The trousers are also online, they are the Bellfield Cooper Chinos and they look great with the jacket and the stripe breton top (also by Native Youth). 

There you go lads- nautical look sorted!

Clare x