Studio Testing with Chloe @ Elite

To round off the last week filled with test shoots and begin the long weekend in the best way, two of the girls from Elite popped into the studio for a shoot with me, as well as Rosana for hair and make-up.

We were really lucky to see Chloe on her month in town from L.A, where she is signed with Next.

We shot three looks, changing the mood each time, and chatted over Hollywood life, crazy halloween parties, Binx, and the magical place that is New Orleans.

The first look was more natural, hair down, minimal make up, loose knits and comfy fat Nike trainers.

 Look two was more classically beautiful portraiture. Hair back, black and white, a bit more skin and a lot more bokeh.

 The last look was make-up fitted around Chloe's awesome Van Halen shirt and a bit of a jig around our little space!

Chantelle @ D1 Models London

Recognise this lovely lady? Chantelle featured in our Rainbow beauty editorial... and she looks just as stunning without all those bright colours!

David McLeod @ Elite Models London

Australian born model David McLeod, new face at Elite Models, popped in for a test session last week.

Amongst chatting English weather, awesome shoes, and seeing his friends on magazine covers, we captured what we think are some great shots of him! Here are a few...

We snuck this last one in at the end because we just loved David's crazy striking blue eyes, and he said it was his favourite colour!

See out other portraits on our website: http://www.pandorasthoughts.com/portraits 

- P.T

xx

Bridal Look Book For Jasper Garvida

It seemed the world was against us for this shoot. The weather was terrible, the hotel lighting was impossible, even the model didn't turn up.

But pooling our resources, and dragging out of bed our extraordinarily kind and beautiful friend Maria, the Jasper Garvida Look Book shoot went ahead none the less.

Here are just a couple of shots from the day (in between the rain)...

- P.T

xx

Pandora's Thoughts shoot for Jasper Garvida

We were delighted when Jasper Garvida approached us to shoot the look book and advertising images for his second season of bridal wear.

And with the fates and time against us, we managed to all pull together a shoot, that almost didn't happen!

Having just hosted two days of salon catwalk shows at The Bloomsbury Hotel, we were able to use the hotel for the shoot. After two last minute changes of the model - thank you Maria Tokmakova for saving the day! - and a mid afternoon storm, a fantastic team of people made it possible to capture Jasper's 12 stunning gowns in the luxury environment they deserved.

We will be releasing the official look book images in due course, but for now, here are some behind the scenes images courtesy of Emma Taylor - our helping hand for the day!

Special thanks on this shoot go to: Maria Tokmakova - pro model!, Monica Mao - the most hardworking, patient make-up artist and hair stylist, Jasper Garvida for well - everything!, Emma Taylor - our assistant and general lifter of spirits, and The Bloomsbury Hotel for hosting us.

For more from Jasper Garvida womenswear, please see: http://www.jaspergarvida.com/

- P.T
xx

On Location for Monika Zgoda

This past Sunday we met back up with the Monika Zgoda team in Hampstead to brave the crazy weather and shoot the second part to Monika's Look Book.

This time on location, and one that Monika had found and fallen in love with, Inverforth House, between Hampstead Heath and Golders Green, conceals behind it, the most beautiful Pergola and Gardens. It ended up feeling somewhat like a labyrinth, as when we were there, we kept turning the next corner and finding a secret passage, room or new garden.

Monica Mao was back on hand with great make up and hair (and sporting some rather cool red framed glasses that I think everyone complimented her on), and Evie was ever professional, as she took numerous changes in her stride, dancing poses on the edge of a pond and a nasty intermittent wind which we tried our best to shield her from - they were both absolute legends for us!

And what can we say about Monika? Nothing that will say it better than she said it herself the night before the shoot "I would like to apologise to you ladies in advance for my cheshire cat grin tomorrow."

We're still in the editing process for this shoot at the moment, and will update this blog and republish it shortly, but just to give you a taste of it....

Watch this space!

- P.T
xx

Pandora's Thoughts contribute to Factory 311

One of our 2012 resolutions was to be more consistent with twitter, and in keeping up with that Pandora's Thoughts made a new cyberspace buddy.

Fabulous photography agency Factory 311 contacted us on twitter, asking us to drop them an email to contribute to their blog. So after a couple of chats with the guys over there, they posted a short Q&A with us about our humble beginnings, the dynamic of Pandora's Thoughts, and of course... the ever looming impending London Fashion Week!

Here is the interview!
http://factory311.com/blog/photography-and-fashion-with-pandoras-thoughts/


...but that wasn't the end of that.

We thought they were a great forward fashion & photography agency and they seemed to think we were alright too! So after the chaos of Fashion Week had passed, we contributed both in images and words, to their blog, to give them a write up of one of our favourite designers at the moment: KTZ.

And here is that post!

I hope you guys enjoy our little collaboration with them, and we hope that's not the end of our dalliance with this great agency!

- P.T
xx

Look Book Shoot for Monika Zgoda

The first of many, Monika Zgoda was the first of our student season Look Books to shoot this year, as we launched our new student package for Look Book Photography.

Monika is a young womenswear designer, but first and foremost, she is a journalist. In her wisdom, she felt that it wouldn't be fair of her to just go about reviewing others collections and designs without really understanding the process of design and the knowledge needed to actually make clothes. So she put herself through the crazy stress of a womenswear design degree!

That in mind, you might start to make judgements or estimations on the quality of her collection, given that journalism is her true calling. And if you did - you'd be wrong... and you'd take it back upon seeing her garments. We loved shooting her collection so much, her designs are now gracing our business cards, the front page of our website and our blog mast! So, hats off to this talented young woman (now if only we could convince her to keep making clothes).

From meeting Monika over a year ago - Jordanna actually met her in a cab at LFW - we sparked imediately with her, and I think this probably shows in the results of the shoot, as our style and hers matched so perfectly to create something Jordanna and I are pretty proud of to say the least, and I think Monika's a bit pleased with too!

We actually did two shoots for Monika, the first in the studio, and the second on location at The Pergola & Hill Garden at Hampstead Heath, which can be viewed here.

Monika's collection, featured in the images in this post, is a tribute to Diane Arbus - her favourite photographer, and was brought to life with the help of amazing - will be huge - model Evie Howard, and hardworking, lovely make-up artist Monica Mao.

Have a look at our youtube clip from behind the scenes too!

- P.T

xx