On Set at Voluptuous Clothing's Spring/Summer Collection Photo Shoot!!!

Hey Everyone!

Recently, I was invited by Karen and Angela Samuels of Voluptuous Clothing to their Spring/Summer 2011 collection photo shoot. I was really excited to get a behind-the-scenes peek at what goes on on-set! I'll have to warn you that this will be a very photo-heavy post, since I saw so many beautiful things (and people) to photograph! Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, so I just want to extend a big thank you to everyone who put up with me snapping random shots of them doing their work!

Speaking with Karen, I was able to gain some valuable insight into the Voluptuous brand. They aim to provide a collection to their customers which is youthful and which fits well, which makes them feel great and which is affordable. Essentially, they are trying to make fashion fun and accessible for curvy Canadian women who are fed up with the much more conservative plus sized designs that the Canadian plus clothing market is already saturated with. Their designs are inspired by runway fashions, which is definitely refreshing considering that much of what is available for Canadian plus women is huge, shapeless, and tent-like, and has nothing to do with what's on the runway...

Voluptuous Clothing is a relatively new company, and has been providing plus size Canadian women with fashionable options for about the past five years. Its founder, Angela Samuels, has been in the fashion industry since 2000. It is her goal to empower young women by providing them with stylish clothing options. Because it fills a void in the Canadian fashion industry, Voluptuous Clothing's sales have tripled over the past several years. Voluptuous would like to branch out to other areas of Ontario as well as other provinces, and they currently have their eye on the Montreal market. Voluptuous has a varied range of clothing options, from club wear and more formal wear to denim and career wear. They currently have four store locations across the Greater Toronto Area (Dufferin Mall, Scarborough Town Centre, Vaughan Mills, and Square One).

It was a pleasure to meet with them and to attend this fabulous photo shoot!

Me at the fabulous photo shoot!

The photo studio

Marek, the stylist and creative director, doing the makeup of model Lianne

Makeup and Hair Artist Dylan working on V Doll (explained below) Nadia

Dylan with model Karyna

Wow - look at all the makeup! Awesome!

Beautiful eyelashes!

Stylist/Creative Assistant Craig posing for the camera ;)

And he's back to work steaming this gorgeous dress to perfection

A table full of accessories to help with the styling. It was all I could do to keep myself from diving in and trying everything on.

Racks of clothes for the shoot

Shoes, glorious shoes! (That was an Oliver! reference, for those who didn't catch it)

Bags, glorious bags! Seriously though, Marek's shoe and bag collection rivals my own. And that's saying something.

Marek tries different shoes and bags with Voluptuous's gorgeous red dress to decide what looks the best for the shoot.

The very talented photographer, Irem, at work.

And the shoot begins with beautiful model Patricia - "wait Marek, you dropped something!"

The camera was connected to this laptop so Marek and Irem could see how the shots were looking on a larger screen and give feedback to the models.

Patricia is rocking this tan and teal dress!

I absolutely adore this amazingly colourful maxi dress!

Seeing this photo just makes me want it even more...!

Karen and Irem discuss the photos

Karen gives a bit of direction to Irem, Marek, and model Patricia

A makeup artists job is never done! Touch up time...

Marek directing Patricia

Just stunning.

Model Lianne in a gorgeous aztec print maxi - these are very in this season and will be all over the place next summer. Get yours this year and you'll be the most fashion forward of all your friends!

Marek giving Lianne's hair a little love in between shots

Awesome animal print dress!

I love this shot because Marek is a blur and Lianne isn't. Marek moved so fast that this is actually what he looked like in person. Just kidding! Sort of...

Loving this sexy LBD...

Up on the ladder to get the perfect shot for Voluptuous' upcoming bus ad campaign

Fixing the hat so that it's just so...

Rockin' a romper.

More touch ups!

This is Nadia, one of Voluptuous' V Dolls. Voluptuous has a contest where Ontario residents can send in their pictures for a chance to be featured in the season's photo shoot. Nadia was a natural!

Another V Doll, Sandra (left) taking the photo of Karen Samuels's daugter, Schylan (who has a music video on YouTube here) on set, just for fun.

And of course, since others were playing... I couldn't resist being a bit of a diva myself on set!

So what do you guys think? What's your favourite piece? Mine is the colourful maxi dress Patricia was modelling. Love! You should all stop by a Voluptuous store near you soon to try some stuff on. I know I'm headed to Square One soon to grab that maxi.

To see more pictures of my day on set, visit my flickr profile. To watch videos I took, visit YouTube or for both, just like the facebook page.