Time for another round of “Ask T”! This is not so much a styling question as it is a stylist question:

Hi Tamia,

I really like your work in A-Line magazine!  I’ve always wondered how you get the clothes for photo shoots. Do you have to buy a bunch of stuff? If so, who pays for it and where do you keep it?

~K

Hi K,

I’m freelance, so I usually pitch an idea or concept for a shoot, then the editor suggests tweaks/adjustments according to the timing and theme of the issue. From that point, it’s my job to set up the shoot, including a date, location, photographer, models, hair and makeup artists, and of course, clothing and accessories.

The clothes are “pulled” or “sourced” from local retailers since it’s a local magazine and we’re too far away to work with showrooms and designer PRs in NY and LA.

So, instead of flipping through lookbooks and picking the skirt from Look 4 and having it messengered over (apparently, even when that’s possible, it’s a hassle–hence services like The Runthrough), it’s more about researching boutiques, visiting retailers to make an introduction, and getting a feel for the type of merchandise each shop carries.

Pictures and Pick-ups

For each shoot, I pick out several looks (outfits) from local shops, including clothes, shoes, and accessories. There’s a lot of running around, jotting down notes and taking pictures of various items at each store to keep track of what’s out there and which shops have what I’m looking for!

Once I figure out which pieces will work best together, I pick them up from each store the evening before the photo shoot. The items are loaned, meaning they’re returned to the shops after each shoot. There’s a merchandise loan form that we use to keep track of the stuff we borrowed and guarantee their safe return, or payment if something happens. Nothing has ever happened, but it’s nice to have backup in place!

Styling for publications in a city like Cincinnati requires a slightly different process than it would in a place like NY or LA, but I’m fairly anal about the way I like things to be organized, so it all works out!

Hope I answered your question!

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5th and Vine, 1907

I recently wrote an article about Cincinnati’s shopping history for the December issue of A-Line magazine. Real talk: writing is NOT my favorite pastime. But research? I’ve been doing research projects since encyclopedias and card catalogs were the only way to find information and I LOVE research. LOVE IT. If it were up to me, I’d forego all that “writing” jazz and and just list a bunch of facts I find interesting. And since this is MY site, and it IS up to me…

How Bazaar

Often credited as the first shopping mall in the US & Located on East Third Street, Frances Trollope’s Bazaar housed a coffee shop, a ballroom, and an ice cream parlor in addition to selling clothing, home decor, and trinkets from England. It was a flop, and closed after only two months in business. A partial view of the Bazaar building can be seen in the 1848 Cincinnati Panoramic Daguerreotype at the Public Library downtown. I-71 now runs through the place where it once stood.

Showing Off

When you wanted to show off your custom-made dress, women wore their new finery to promenade along the street in front of Edmund Dexter’s residence on 4th Street, right in the heart of fashionable Cincinnati. I suspect this would’ve been a prime location for street style photos!

Retailer publishers

Some department stores published their own fashion magazines with news from Paris and illustrations of the latest styles, much like the popular Godey’s Lady’s Book and Harper’s Bazar  (you KNOW I would’ve been all over that). It struck me that the magazines and editorial content published by retailers today–ASOS, Barney’s, Net-a-Porter, etc.–isn’t really a new idea.

Frock On, Ladies

Founded in 1908 and in business from the ‘20s to the ‘70s, Fashion Frocks (currently home to the American Sign Museum) was the Avon of dressmaking. Housewives across the country acted as direct sales representatives for the company. Each Fashion Frocks “counselor” would receive a kit with sample sales cards showing the finished dress (including fabric swatches), postcards for marketing to other housewives, order forms, and a selling guide to “save you time and trouble and help you make friendly, satisfied customers”.

In the late ‘60s, the model expanded to include merchandising parties, and women would give parties in their homes where guests could try on different styles and shop the catalog. So, yeah, that tactic has been used to sell everything from Tupperware to flavored body oils.

What the heck are “Cape effects”?

Clothing manufacturers in Cincinnati were active as well. A sales letter dated September 1932 from Louis Levine and Sons on West Seventh Street noted that their newest styles included “…new cape effects, new neck and sleeve treatments, and we are using a number of new extremely good looking materials, both in silk and woolens.” I’m not sure what “cape effects” are,but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a fan of Levine dresses,so…

Small but not forgotten

And let’s not forget some of the other smaller, less well-known shops like Klein’s, LaMode Skirt Co. at 601 Race, the Parisian Corset Store at the corner of Race and Opera Place, Lawton’s, Heldman Clothing Co. in the Pugh Building, not to mention the numerous shoe manufacturers — Julian-Kokenge Shoe Co, P. Sullivan Shoe Co., Homan-Hughes Shoe Co., and Krippendorf-Dittman, which now houses the Sycamore Place Lofts.

Fashion Forecast

I literally screamed (and scared the heck out of my cat) when I found an article called “Made in Cincinnati Designs Swing with Color and Style” in the May 1971 issue of Cincinnati Magazine. The fashion forecast? Cut-out granny boots and sandals “that lace up the leg” were predicted to be hot sellers that summer.

Knockout collaboration

Even international designers were aware of Cincinnati’s fashionista reputation. Lucile, also known as Lady Duff-Gordon (remember in Titanic, when Rose mentioned she was a designer of naughty lingerie?) was a world-renowned couturiere who saw fit to visit Cincinnati. She was one of the first designers to take advantage of opportunities for commercial endorsement, lending her name to advertising for shoes, brassieres, perfume, and other luxury apparel and beauty items.

High-low fashion lovers take note: She produced a two-season lower-priced, mail-order fashion line for Sears Roebuck & Co. in 1916–17, which promoted her clothing in special deluxe catalogues. Versace for H&M and Missoni for Target? Yeah, it’s been done.

Further research

If you have time, I’d definitely suggest spending an hour or four in the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, as well as checking out Cincinnati Views, the Greater Cincinnati Memory Project, and this fun(ny) 1949 Cincinnati entertainment map.

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Time for some more indie magazine love!

Joie is a women’s lifestyle magazine covering art, craft, living, design, fashion, and more.

Who’s Jack is a lifestyle magazine for men and women, filled with fashion, music, art, design, and film.

Faint is an independent fashion, art and culture magazine featuring international artists and designers.

Collect/ive is a fine arts magazine focused on giving exposure to young artists. Minimal words, plenty of pictures.

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So, between stuffing my face with everything from crab rangoon to cotton candy at Taste of Cincinnati and cleaning like a crazy person last weekend–I mean, I was wiping down baseboards y’all–I picked up the new issue of A-Line magazine and had a read.

It includes my lifestyle feature with Leah from High Street, whom I have decided to officially adopt as my light-skinded big sister from another mister. Tiffany photographed her at the shop and at her home, and we all had a blast.

I also did the street style piece on the back page:

FYI, I’ll be at The City Flea next this weekend (where does the time go?) taking street style pics, so Cute Up* and come down!

*See what I did there? Cute Up is like Suit Up, but for girls! AHAHA!

I think I ate too much cotton candy.

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We’ve already started setting up for Final Friday PopShop!  This time, we’re at 1435 Main Street (next to ForkHeartKnife) today from 5-10 and tomorrow from 11-4. Come and see what kind of fun you can have with balloons and string…

On the way to the A Line Magazine party yesterday, I saw the clearest, colorfulest, most beautifulest rainbow forming a perfect arc over the city. Skittles fell from the sky, and leprechauns scattered excitedly through the streets.

At the party, they handed out goodie bags, colorful macarons, and free cocktails. In other words, a trifecta of perfection.

Have you had a chance to pick up the first issue? I did a little street style piece on the last page, check it out!

See you this weekend!

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A few of my favorite online indie magazines:

Fashion Journal

Fashion Journal is a free Australian magazine for women and men, and prides itself on fea­tur­ing local and inter­na­tional design­ers and street fash­ion trends.
fashionjournal.com.au

Coco Eco

Coco Eco is a digital magazine with a focus on sustainable fashion, beauty, celebrity, and cause. Subscriptions are paid, but you can view the current issue on the site.
www.cocoecomag.com

Matchbook

Launched in January, Matchbook is feminine, cute, and neat, covering cover past and present fashion, decor, the arts, travel and culture.
matchbookmag.com

Tangent

Based in Australia and started by a photographer and a stylist, Tangent is “a playground for people who appreciate fashion as art. It targets people who indulge in their identity and want to discover every secret corner of fashion first.”
tangentmag.com

Noted

I have to say, when I was going through my bookmarks for all of my favorite indie magazines, I noticed that many of them hadn’t published new issues in quite some time, others were offline altogether. I guess my experience is true for others as well–publishing a small magazine is hard, not-very-profitable work.

I also noticed that much of what’s out there is heavily whitewashed. Is diversity really that difficult? Seems like there’s an opportunity there somewhere…

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I’m a big fan of independent publications, so when I come across magazines I enjoy, I like to share! Right now, I’m reading Pure and Papercut.

Pure is created in Portugal and available online (free, baby!) as a downloadable PDF. Fine, I don’t actually read it since my knowledge of Portuguese is limited to Teena Marie songs (RIP Lady Tee), but it’s fun to look at the pictures and see what they’re up to on their blog.

Papercut is dedicated to the emerging fashion community, and focuses on art, culture, and current events. Also: pretty pictures!

The Editor

Even if you don’t run an indie magazine, you can run your blog like an editor! I have a weird, lifelong love for forms–when I was little, I used to take stacks of deposit slips and mailing forms from the bank and post office and fill them out for fun. Yes, that IS as sad as it sounds. Go ahead and laugh. I’ll wait.

Luckily, Terra Black developed The Editor, a blogging planner that helps satiate my slightly OCD organizational tendencies by providing plenty of boxes and lines and note-taking space to scribble ideas and strategery.

Have I ever mentioned the time I spent, like, two hours picking out the perfect planner and portfolio at Staples ON MY BIRTHDAY? No? Let’s forget I mentioned that, then…

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