This September, I went to NYC during fashion week, amongst many exciting work meetings and attending my friends fairy tale wedding, in which I had the honor of designing her wedding gown (okay, that's going to be my next blog!) I had an incredible fashion shoot, and it was everything you would expect out of NY during fashion week.
My day started with meeting Shelbi at her Brooklyn apartment, she has walked my recent runway shows in Vegas so I was thrilled to shoot with her in the big apple. Makeup was laid out on the kitchen table, by the amazing makeup artist, Anabel. I had met her at the 2010 Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas, where she did the makeup and body-painting for the official MU campaigns, her work is breath taking, you got to check it out here or send her a message if you need some glam done! Anabel started doing her magic with make-up, as I ate a bowl of model-approved healthy lunch made by Shelbi, and planning the locations to shoot with the photographer, whom was to meet with us in the city. I didn't realize I had planned the shoot on 9/11 and at 5pm call time in SoHo, the madness of fashion week combined with rush hour, pushed us at an hour and a half delay. But hey, I wanted the full NY experience, and that wouldn't be without the madness of it all.
Once we had the first outfit on Shelbi, hair & makeup ready and $140 on an uber ride later, we got dropped off in SoHo right by our first location. There we met Ryan, our shoot photographer whom works for Buzzfeed and is a talented street photographer. His website is a must-see, check it out here to view his street captures worldwide. I had been looking for a non-traditional fashion photographer for this shoot, as I wanted to capture the model connecting with the city and have a story, rather than capture pretty fashion poses. Ryan, captured all of that and more so effortlessly and Shelbi, as always was a natural.
We kept the entire shoot easy by figuring out locations as we walked around SoHo and picked wardrobe to the locations we loved to shoot. With Shelbi's rockstar personality, making the changes a breeze from subway to the streets, we were able to shoot all the looks I had planned. We captured the historical SoHo architecture of the buildings, the infamous yellow cabs as perfect props in the shots and of course it wouldn't be a shoot without an original NY pizza shop as the backdrop. The streets were busy as some were rushing to get home from work, tourists in awe of the magic of the city and fashionistas rushing down the streets to make it from one show to the next, made me feel as if we were almost invisible. The lack of judgment in the streets is an incredible sense of freedom to be completely yourself without feeling restrained or worried about anyone's opinion; this is one of the reasons why I love New York.
This shoot is just a small teaser of more to come from this incredible city with some exciting news for my line, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy our recent work. To shop the designs, go to our shop on the menu or click here and enter code: NYC19 for an additional 30% off at check out, as my thank you for reading my blog.
with ♡
Ermelinda
Ermelinda Manos Designs
@ermelindamdesigns
Photographer
Ryan Hague
@ryanhague
Model
Shelbi Byrnes
@shelbi2b
Makeup Artist:
Anabel Vargas
@anabelvargasmakeup