I’ve had a lot of fun planning and building backdrops for my Etsy listing photos recently. I’ve had this idea for fall photoshoots since late August but had to wait six long weeks for the leaves on the stubborn trees in this warmer-than-average microclimate that I call home to finally start falling. As the trees began to look bare for my family back home (a whole two hours South-West from where I live now) summer decidedly faded into Indian summer here, so I put on my sleeveless, flannel top – a bit of a clothing oxymoron, but perfect for this climate – and spent an hour in the forest collecting leaves like a crazy person.
Author: Melissa Harrison
Moving in the Right Direction
Fall has always been my favourite season. The clear blue skies, wool socks and warm apple cider of fall will always beat the sticky humidity, dusty road work, and stinging, biting bugs of summer for me. There’s so much pressure to enjoy the short Canadian summer, but fall changes things. Fall is all about relaxing, snuggling up under a big blanket with the person you love and watching the leaves change so slowly, you’ll hardly recall when it actually happened.
I look forward to working with fall fabrics all year long. The rich textures, romantic colours and woodsy prints give my creativity the jump start it needs after a lazy summer.
The first fabric I’ve chosen to work with this year is a french rose, mustard and charcoal arrow print on cream designed by Andrea Lauren. When I saw this fabric, I thought the colours were perfect for this time of year, when the seasons start to blend, so I planned a dress with a cut to match.
The Brunch Dress
When I was about three years old, my parents allowed me to watch a John Waters movie. It was a copy recorded from television. I’m not sure if it was recorded specifically for me or if my parents recorded it for themselves to watch later and I just happened to get my sticky fingers on it and ram it into the VCR one day when I got tired of shoving Hot Wheels in there. It seems quite reckless of them now, but perhaps they didn’t know who John Waters was or perhaps they were too busy with my new little brother to notice at the time. What ever the reason, I sure am glad they did decide to show me / didn’t stop me because that movie has been my very favourite ever since. Good thing that movie was Cry-Baby, it could have been a lot worse.
After Work Pool Party
I never know what to wear to a pool party. Nobody really had pools in the neighbourhood where I grew up so I never saw my parents spending time with other adults around a quiet backyard swimming pool. For me, pool time was put your bathing suit on, ride your bike to the community pool, splash around with the other children and dry off on the bike ride home. There was no prolonged lounging poolside with your nice clothes on. Even the adults were already in their swimsuits, soaking up the unknown danger in a world where sunbathing was still a wholesome pastime.
Movies, television and pictures aren’t much help either, everyone is already in their bathing suit to some degree by the time they hit the backyard. The only examples I can think of are modern movies where, for some reason, everyone at the rooftop party seems to be completely unaware of the presence of the big, lit up pool in the middle of the floor until someone inevitable falls / jumps in. These people aren’t dressed for a pool party, they’re dressed for cocktails.
So how does one dress for beer and burgers with a little splashing in between? Well, I usually go for a toned-down garden party look, some light, fit-and-flare, knee length number that I can easily change in and out of – but that didn’t seam right for a casual, after work, Friday evening thing. So instead, I decided on something I rarely wear outside of the house: shorts. The result is a cute day to night nautical look.
