by karrie marak 

Fashion has been a part of my life since I first discovered Harper’s Bazaar. Before then, my fashion consisted of faded 501s, white v-neck tees, Doc Martins and virgin, straight hair. Nothing very fashion fabulous comes our way in good ol’ Arkansas. Oh the joy of learning about haute couture and Chanel; about Gucci, Jean Paul Gautier and Karl Lagerfeld. The fashion gods worshipped by my favorite models—Kate Moss and Christy Turlington—became my obsession and nothing made me happier knowing items and people so beautiful existed. Having this knowledge kept me going in my small town until I was old enough to move to a city where I could actually visit the stores like we were all old friends. I never in a million years thought I’d actually be working around my old friends. I have the dream job!

With that said, I take you on a behind the scenes tour of our fashion accessories shoot for our May issue.

Our accessories couldn’t be better. There are too many for me to pinpoint as my favorite, so I’m blessing them all with my slight fashionista opinion and stating out loud that these are the finest, my most adored, accessories in the history of accessories. I say this because I heart Neiman’s!! I love being surrounded by all the designer logos blazenly imprinted on each item, like the Prada, Gucci and Hermes we chose for the shoot. Walking into this fashion mecca called Neiman Marcus, I almost got on my knees and hollered to the Heavens’, “Thank you God that you’ve allowed me to dip my soul into the fashion pool called Chanel! For letting me walk the aisles of Escada and come out glowing. For giving me the chance to rest my bones in a freakishly fabulous pair of Louboutin’s!” Standing in Neiman’s is like being surrounded by fine art and I’m the studious student learning from each stitch in the collections. Choosing the dress and accessories takes Abby and I hours. We leave carrying several heavy bags out to her car—giddy like tipsy birthday girls. The good kinda tipsy—Neiman’s fashion tipsy.

The studio is located by Fair Park in Dallas. I love the old, red brick building that makes me think of New York. We walk in the door to buzzing models and clicking cameras. Classic rock rockin’ and rollin’ us towards our fashion climax of Spring. I can’t believe Summer is almost here and along with summer, comes more fashion and more fun! I’m pumped. Abby, aka Scarlet O’Hara, starts to execute her plans for the shoot. I’m hanging back, taking notes like the good nerd I love to be. 

Dixie, our photographer, glides into her studio with the confidence of a queen holding court. Prepared and inspired, she smiles while she shoots—she knows she’s good. She hands me a camera so I can take pictures of the behind the scenes stuff we want everyone to see.

Rosio, our raven-haired makeup artist, who could actually be a model, opts to beautify instead. A wizard with her makeup wands, she works her magic effortlessly and coolly. She transforms our fresh-faced model into a glamazon.

Abby, in her yellow and black outfit and her perfect southern charm, quickly takes the camera out of my hands and points it at me. I’m the only one in the room that looks like I’ve been walking in the desert in the mid-day sun. I’m feeling not so pretty next to all these glorious beauties. Why do I look like I’m the only one working when everyone else in the room is sickenly hot? I raise my trusty notebook to block my face and to avert attention from me so Abby can focus on the gorgeous model that just walked out of hair and makeup. She lit up the room like a blazing fire and all eyes fell on her. Our beauty, Deanna, is stunning in the yellow Escada dress we chose. She doesn’t have on a stitch of makeup and she still looks hotter than most people I know.

After taking several shots of her sans accessories, the true fun begins. Abby actually starts clapping when the first shot of Deanna in the Perfectly Pink Jewelry. I suddenly do the same. Its very cheesy and looking back on it, kinda embarrassing but we couldn’t help it. As the model strips herself from each item of jewelry and adds on the next set, Abby and I are still cheering her like she was our favorite soccer player on our favorite team. The visions that we both had of how this shoot was suppose to look was finally being executed perfectly and we stopped trying to not look like little kids in a candy store. We were so thrilled!

Three sets of accessories for one dress. Three looks to die for! Time flies by and four hours later, we are still just as excited as we were when we began this fashion journey. It’s almost over when Dixie turns on some sexy John Mayer and we groove to his voice as we wrap things up. Good-bye Gucci. Good-bye Louboutin. Until next time Chanel. We will be keeping tabs on you until our Summer Fashion Shoot.