I recently had a small test shoot with Bristol-raised model Ozy Hussian. A Computing student and part-time model, Ozy was keen to show a bit more versatility in his portfolio, which currently contained some good sports/streetwear images.
The obvious thing to do was involve a suit but dress it up in a way that wouldn’t be out of place with Ozy’s personal style.
To make things interesting, I thought we’d approach the shoot as if we were devising a small magazine feature with the title, ‘One high-street suit, four looks’ – the idea to take the same suit and go from workwear through to clubwear. A lot of young guys get their first suit for weddings, funerals, graduations and the like so our imaginary magazine feature would showcase a few cool looks beyond this. So, in other words, I turned personal stylist for the day. Gok Wan – watch out.
The four styles created were:
- A sharp workwear look, where Ozy would look the part thrashing out a big deal with a top client.
- A dress-to impress partywear look.
- A rock’n'roll dress-down gig look.
- A cool night-on-the-tiles clubbin’ look.
Not bad stuff from one inexpensive high street suit!
Lighting-wise I wanted to introduce loads of drama. The model was primarily lit by my Bowens Softlite reflector and a Bowens Gemini 500 studio flash. The Bowens Softlite a kind of beauty dish, which gives a great compromise between hard and soft light. It’s best when you can get it quite close to the model. A slight lick of fill was sometimes used too, provided by another Bowens Gemini and a ‘soft silver’ bounce umbrella.
Hard day at the office? Ozy wears Zara suit, Tie Rack tie, Charles Tyrwhitt slimfit shirt.
Party where it's 'dress to impress'? Ozy wears Zara suit, Primark tuxedo shirt, Primark skinny tie.
Rock'n'Roll. In the band? At the gig? Ozy wears Zara suit, T. Rex tee, vintage scarf, commando-style Dr Martens boots.
In da club. Ozy wears Zara suit, Asos vest top, Wrangler jeans belt.
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