🍎The Cloth Monstrosities - Photography Archive #2🍎

These photos are a collection i picked from 2 separate photo shoots shot in the summer of 2024! (around June-August time) The first half of this photo shoot (Image 1 and 3) was modelled by my lovely boyfriend,Dani!!

 To create the costumes for each of these shoots, we brought 2 duffel bags of my clothes (I'm a maximalist, so i have a ton of fun patterns and colours in my wardrobe) out to a field on the outskirts of my town (Its a gorgeous field surrounded by trees just off the main road. A small stream runs just behind the treeline, and its right next to a train line!! I've spent so many summers with friends there its so Night In The Woods coded!!!) Next,we began layering the clothes on top of each other, safety pinning and tying the pieces together until i'd essentially built a costume around him.  For the headpiece, i got a sheer scarf (purely for fashion not warmth kind) and draped it entirely over his head and face, then placed a mask on top. The masks were made by me! They are just plain white masks from a craft shop decorated with alcohol markers, gemstones and cutouts. These costumes,obviously, have to be deconstructed once finished. I love the impermanence of them, and how once you've deconstructed it, that exact arrangement will never be recreated again.

 The initial inspiration behind this shoot was the idea of over-consumption and fast fashion. I'm super passionate about being a conscious consumer (All of my clothes are secondhand or handmade!)and not giving in to trend cycles or buying from fast fashion brands (SHEIN lovers dni!!!!) so i wanted to attempt to personify the concept of "Over consumption" in terms of clothing. This led to me creating literal lore around these creatures, which goes as follows:

"The cloth monsters rise from trash heaps and rubbish dumps, roaming the streets and halls of shopping malls, gathering more and more clothes to add to their forms. They are deeply unnatural, freaks of nature, but they have been pushed out of human society for they provide a stark reminder of the damage we are causing everyday, so they often reside in nature infested areas."

I toyed with the idea of them being partly human/once humans,like the cybermen, hence why in the 4th pic my models arms and hands are showing.

Both of these shoots were taken on stunning sunny days (I miss summer sooo much) in the scorching heat. All of my models did incredible at dealing with this under the costumes, i truly do NOT know how they handled it (I bought them all like 8 bottles of water and lots of snacks as compensation). It wasn't so bad for Dani in our first shoot, as that was taken during the first breakings of summer,so it was a nice, warm day. Plus, the Summers in England don't last long and don't get assss hot as other places (Though we still complain!) so it wasn't too tragic for him. My second shoot,however.....My models are genuine angels.HOW did they do it???? It was a SCORCHING August day (i'm talking a LOW of 24 Celsius, or 75.2 Fahrenheit) and they were walking around town IN COSTUME, still modelling!!! I will forever be grateful for the amazing dedication of my wonderful friends, and their constant support of my art <333 ( Model in image 2 and 4 on the left is my friend Erik, and on the right is Gareth!) To have a group of people in my life rallying around my visions and passions is a blessing i will genuinely NEVER take for granted <333

-Solly!