Fashion Survivor

If there is one part of building a fashion brand that appears glamorous from the outside, it’s the photoshoot.

From the inside, it’s steamers, garment bags, coffee, logistics, lint rollers, UPS tracking numbers, and twelve people trying to solve ten problems at once.

Around here, we’ve affectionately dubbed these days “Fashion Survivor,” a title coined by our creative directors that couldn’t be more accurate.

For a collection as large as Fall, shoot days are broken into three parts (sometimes four, depending on sampling timing), and preparation begins long before anyone steps in front of the camera...though admittedly not quite as far in advance as it should because I am who I am (but I’m working on it!).

Two years ago, while preparing for our Fall 2024 collection, I wanted to explore more editorial photography but hesitated at the investment. Eleanor Leftwich was just over a year old, and every significant decision still felt like a leap of faith.

Then I came across an editorial photograph in a catalog from Mille, another Minneapolis-based fashion brand I’m fortunate to call a friend. It completely stopped me in my tracks. Mille had tagged her creative team on Instagram, and when I reached out to her, she couldn’t recommend working with them enough. That conversation marked the beginning of a creative partnership that continues to shape Eleanor Leftwich today.

In all honesty—and something the creative team and I laugh about now—that first shoot in August 2024 had me riddled with anxiety. It was by far the largest investment I’d ever made in photography, and I distinctly remember calculating how many cashmere sweaters I’d need to sell just to pay for it.

Up until then, when I couldn’t afford professional models, I often modeled pieces myself, working with a local lifestyle photographer whom I still absolutely adore today. Full production teams simply weren’t in the cards yet.

But it only took seeing the very first image on our digital tech’s monitor to know I’d made the right decision.

Kelly and Carrie, together with their extraordinary team of photographers, videographers, digital technicians, hair and makeup artists, and production crew, immediately understood what we were trying to create. They didn’t just photograph the collection, they understood the brand and even more so, me.

We’ve worked with the same production partners ever since.

Ahead of every shoot, Kelly and Carrie establish three things: the location, the overall mood, and the styling direction. From there, we begin building each look.

Fortunately, some of our models wear my shoe size, which means a surprising amount of every photoshoot comes directly from my own closet. Shoes. Handbags. Jewelry. Belts.

We also regularly borrow jewelry from our friends at Filigree. It pays to have true friends in the jewelry business.

Even with all the planning in the world, there’s always room for improvisation.

More than once, samples have arrived the morning of a shoot. We’ve even found ourselves tracking UPS and DHL drivers around Minneapolis, hoping to intercept a package before the next look was scheduled to go in front of the camera. (At this point, several drivers know us by name.) We survive all of this on what can only be described as an undisclosed amount of coffee. #openmugnation understands.

This is when things get fun...and chaotic.

I wanted to show you how we pulled everything together for our Fall II collection, launching next week.