10 Tips for Catching & Keeping an Editor's Attention -- by Michelle Bilodeau
July 29, 2013
This is the last presentation from the 2013 SNAG Professional Development Seminar.
As part of our purple cow series, we recognized that photography of jewelry, clothing, accessories and wearable work were all increasingly using models.
The isolated object with the graduated background is not the only option. In addition, the type of model and the styling of the photos are morphing with purple options and purple brick roads.
As organizers of the Professional Development Seminar, Brigitte Martin, Andy Cooperman, and I felt very fortunate to find Toronto based fashion editor and stylist Michelle Bilodeau.
An experienced speaker and spokesperson from the fashion and design world, Bilodeau (left in photo below) deftly organized her lecture into
"10 Tips for Catching & Keeping an Editor's Attention."
Without a doubt, you will find nuggets of information that you can adapt for generating purple cow visibility for your work. My favorite tip for finding free to low cost professional quality models came out in the Q & A with the audience, so listen to the entire presentation all the way to the very end. I promise. It is worth listening.
Another suggestion from Michelle Bilodeau is to anticipate trends especially if your work aligns with fashion. An example is shown below in this two page spread from Elle June 2013.
In this ad, Tiffany riffs off the Gatsby movie with jewelry and styling inspired by the 1920's. The pearls, long necklace, hair diadem, and bracelet hand ring accessory all pick up on this summer blockbuster.
Another point is how the diadem worn by this model picks up on the fascinator trend from last winter. Everything old, can be new again. Consider new ways your jewelry or clothing can pick up on fashionable trends.
Tiffany's obviously had to be planing months in advance to have the jewelry, photo shoot and ad appear simultaneously with the movie, but you can do this too.
Michelle Bilodeau points out the blogs have a shorter lead time than magazines, but they still need to hear your pitch and see your images a month or so in advance of the next trend.
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