Menswear on my mind

It's been such a long time since I've updated this! My mind has been in several places, most of which include styling, university and internship applications, so sitting down to write a blog post seemed like a lower priority.

I have a shoot next Saturday with my favourite photographer Faye Sampson (www.fayesampson.com), and it is officially my first ever menswear shoot. It didn't ever occur to me how difficult it is to style a man if you aren't one; it's impossible to work out how things will sit on the figure unless you haul a male around Oxford Street to try everything on for you. I always assumed that men have less complicated figures than women, especially the narrower silhouettes of male models, but now a manic world involving scenarios of models not fitting into skinny jeans and tearing shoulder seams has manifested in my head. Thankfully I have a trusted and wonderfully stylish male who is assisting me on the wardrobe for this shoot, and will also be there on the day to take on my job role.

From Shortlist Mode Issue One: Women Don't Come Here

Despite the difficulties, styling a menswear shoot has given me an opportunity to release my own cravings. I am obsessed with ridiculously oversized brown bags, and normally make a bee-line for every man-bag I see which fits this description. I have yet to purchase a man-bag for myself, as the ones I pick out are usually met with a lot of sighs and criticism about my strange taste, but this shoot has given me an opportunity to buy many, and possibly keep one for myself. For a very small and feminine girl, I do have an odd taste in bags, and possibly subconsciously asking to get mugged, but one day I'd love to own a bag in which I could potentially fit myself. There is one candidate, a brown Barbour travel bag which I mentioned in my Bag of dreams post, but unfortunately I cannot afford this beauty after blowing my budget on the three other shoots I have coming up, which I will mention in a later post.

Another fashion obsession I want to incorporate into this shoot is leather detailing. Elbow patches, wallets, belts, gloves, leather look trenches (inspired by Burberry): I'm going to go all out to make sure my models look slick and stylish as hell. And after this shoot, I'm going to merge some of these styles and trends into my own wardrobe to not only help my upcoming 'women in tailoring' shoot, but to aid my own attempt to look super fashionable.