Capture Fashion by Amanda Del Duca

This ‘Collar Coordination’ shoot  has taken me a couple weeks to conceptualize and produce. David joked with me afterwards that he wasn’t sure this project would ever really happen. I had a bunch of random ideas that I wanted to work into the same shoot but wasn’t sure how to execute it in way that made sense. The idea to do a trend-based story came first. David and I usually shoot around concepts, but I have never picked one fashion trend and worked a story into that common theme. I chose collars mostly because I think they are so hot right now and are real versatile. I’ve seen the look on a few celebs I’m currently digging; Lana Del Rey, Alexa Chung, Coco Roca, The Man Repeller –  I realized the collars can look so different depending on how I crafted them and then styled.

Click below to read all the details on the shoot and view additional photos from behind the scenes. xx

I started making the collars about a month ago and leisurely worked on them in my free time. After getting back from NY, I clung to my half finished collars and gave myself a deadline to get them done. It felt good to put my head down and work on something after traveling and playing around in NYC.

I made the blue western collar first. The collar is cut from a men’s Express button-down I bought from Out of the Closet thrift store. I bought the sequin embellishments for 99 cents each and the gold chain at La Casa de las Viejas in downtown Miami. I thought the blue on blue sequin patches were kinda cool and was totes excited to find the collar looking very western glitz.  I not so secretly adore the amazing ridiculousness of Toddlers and Tiara’s, so I jumped at the chance to do a beauty queen look.  I added the horseshoe charm, an old Juicy Couture rellic from high school, and painted nails to perfectly match the collar. Ian did a great job with the makeup and I did my best rendition of tastefully trashy beauty queen curls.

The white and black collars were a no brainer. It was really easy to find good quality shirts in the basics so I picked up one of each to decorate and give it’s own flavor. I really wanted to use lace to put on the black collar for a modern victorian/gothic look.  After cutting the shirt and measuring a piece of lace the collar was literally a ten minute project. I hot glued each end of lace around the the inside of the collar and then used a silver button clip-on earring as the clasp – done.

The white collar was a little more time consuming. I used gold stars with prongs to decorate the tips, which were challenging to work with. I ended up using pliers to get them in the thick collar,before sustaining minor finger tip bruising and major frustration. I also sewed in a clasp, taking about 25 mins to get right and functional. I really liked the simplicity of this collar, but I knew that the I needed to punch up the styling to make it really work. The bright pink Naven blazer from Jessie Boutique was the perfect starting point. I added an earring chain cuff and neon yellow nails to give it a badass vibe, then Ian gave me a dramatic makeup look to complete the rebel princess look.

The last collar I made and incidentally my favorite was clearly inspired by Lana Del Rey. I’ve been heavily feeling her music and overall look since her album Born to Die dropped. After working on the white collar, I knew that in order to use the studs I needed to find a collar with more forgiving fabric. I found this cotton-silk blend shirt from a second trip to Out of the Closet and knew it would be perfect for my Lana tribute. The gold studs went in super easy and then I finished off the collar with a piece of broken costume jewelry as the brooch. The headpiece was fairly easy as well. I bought a mixed color/size dozen roses and a $5 brown headband from CVS. Then cut the steams close to the bud and hot glued them on the headband. I made the headpiece early in the morning and then kept it fresh in the refrigerator til shoot time. It lasted gorgeous for hours.

Big thank-you to my amazing help on this shoot. David Lundblad for increds photography and Ian Glending for making up my face. Love you both! xxx