The Shoot: Hyde Park Corner

For this season I seem to be planning quite a few shoots themed around countries and traditional costumes. This shoot is all about the Spanish dancer and the Matador fighter, I’ve got a shoot coming up espousing all things Italian and I’m also in the early stages of planning a Chinese themed shoot.

Not quite sure where this is all coming from, but it’s a lot of fun, kinda like playing dress-up when you were a kid only with more expensive and fancy clothes.

It’s also very fun trying to imbue the personalities of the costumes. To me a Spanish dancer, along with being quite sexy, is fierce and unapologetic and fiery. A Matador fighter is strong and severe and I tried to combine these two strong personalities when doing this shoot.

Now the location I chose is the rose garden and the main gate at Hyde Park corner, and it was actually my second choice as I couldn’t shoot at my preferred choice Capel Manor Gardens that day. It was also drizzling lightly and threatening to ruin the shoot completely so I had to use a lot of flash to compensate for the dark skies. In the end I think I just managed to pull it off with this location; thankfully the rose garden was beautiful and had enough in it for a suitable location and though the gate by Hyde Park corner is plain it was enough to show off the Matador aspect of the outfit.

In regards to the outfit itself; it’s been a while since I created two separate outfits from the one skirt and top. Even though the second outfit only had a jacket and a hat, it changes the outfit completely, so much so it’s almost like a new outfit. The skirt is this gorgeous ASOS tiered skirt that just seemed so Spanish to me when I saw it on the website. The gypsy top is cute and simple, and the jacket is an ancient Forever 21 cropped bolero jacket from when Forever 21 first came to Ireland and they actually had cool and good quality clothes. The Matador hat is an ASOS find I’m in love with and it already featured on this shoot at Isabella Plantation. The outfit was completed with my trusty Christian Louboutin Pigalle heels because they’re sexy and I really couldn’t find a suitable pair of shoes in the shops so they had to do, and some hoop earrings and roman coins bangles from New Look. God it’s been about 10 years since I’ve worn hoop earrings and while I used to think they were a bit chavy, I really like these ones. I might even start wearing them again…

In the end I managed to pull it off with this shoot, so I’m curious to hear what you think.

Orange tiered skirt: ASOS, found here – Crop lace gypsy blouse: Honey Punch, found here – Gold trim black bolero jacket: Forever 21, old – Patent black Pigalle courts: Christian Louboutin, found here – Leather studded clutch: Zara, old – Matador hat: ASOS, found here – Rose floral headband: ASOS, found here – Hoop earrings: New Look, found here – Roman coins gold bangles: New Look, found here