Fashion Behind the Scenes

Sunday, 13 December 2009 19:00

One weekend last month, the Alachua County Fair played host to our fashion story (and cover shot), with models from Dance Alive National Ballet (Andre Valladon and Carla Amancio). Here’s how it all went down.

By Amelia Harnish; Behind-the-scenes photos by Sarah Hsu; Fashion photos by Sean Kelly

While Sean and his assistant, Maria Linares, set up shop at each location, Lifestyle Editor Stephanie Granada and assistant Lane Nieset worked on getting Carla and Andy into their next look. "It was really crazy because we were helping them get dressed behind the fair rides,” Stephanie says. “We were holding up sheets so they could change."

As soon as photographer Sean Kelly saw the bees, he wanted to include them in the shoot. “It was just the kind of fun mood we were going for," he says. "The hardest part was that they were moving, so I had to yell out [to the models] and wait for them to come back around." At one point, Andy climbed on top of the bee!

"It was cool working with the dancers,” Sean says. “They weren't the typical models. They had special skills they could bring to the shoot." They even had an impromptu kiss on the set, which Sean happened to catch. But this wasn’t a closed set: "There were people walking by in the middle of the carnival and they would stop and watch,” says behind-the-scenes photographer Sarah Hsu. “I just wanted to show how much goes into one shot."

To create the effect of an “evening breeze,” editor Maghan McDowell spent a good 20-minutes franticly waving a stiff poster board as the models twirled in front of the Ferris wheel. She even convinced a local vendor to lend us a stuffed animal. “While they were skeptical at first, everyone at the fair was really cooperative,” she says. “Some of them even stopped and started their rides so that we could set up the shot!”