Fashion Shoot Collaboration with LookLab

I have always been a strong believer in collaboration and partnering to achieve common goals! I’m part of a Vancouver Fashion instagram community and on one January afternoon, I met up with two of these friends, Dhia (@imdhia) and Maria (@mariaduchesse), to share some updates and get feedback on a fashion-related venture that I was helping to build: LookLab! “Own the look, not the dress”.

Dhia’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imdhia/ We had first met in the Summer on a photoshoot collab and from there, she supported many of my Personal Development Events as active participant and photographer!

Maria’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariaduchesse/ I met her through Dhia and in addition to a shared love of fashion photography, we also would work out at Steve Nash together!

Photography session with my business partner to capture original content of our inventory! She was the model and I was the photographer.

LOOKLAB: This was an online platform created for women to lend and rent special occasion dresses.

Earlier this month, my Business Partner and I submitted an application for our LookLab venture to be part of entrepreneurship@UBC’s Social Impact Cohort .

Screencap of the LookLab website which we used for our video application to e@UBC’s Social Impact program for entrepreneurs!

Building momentum and growing our community!

Part of my role in the LookLab business was raising awareness and building a community of dress lenders and borrowers.

One tactic to achieve this was to grow our instagram presence, which required fresh new original content! I knew I could count on my fashion friends to help out. They had already provided some useful insights, spread the love to their friends, and now with Dhia’s photography support we were going to organize a Fashion Photo Shoot!

Vancouver Fashion IG friends chatting over coffee!

Of course we had to capture the cute latte art!

The power of asking for help!

You never know who could potentially help you and provide the perfect insight or introduction, which is why I also believe in sharing ideas and brainstorming with your community. Dhia was studying at a local design school, and Maria was a model, who also happened to have a roommate that had worked in Law and Fashion! Not only could they share their candid thoughts as potential users of the business (either a lender or borrower) they were also willing to introduce an additional network of contacts who could be additional users or advisors!

As part of my research and outreach for our LookLab venture application, I also reached out to friend and Fashion Designer, Sandra Zovko of the label Mila Zovko! She was currently in LA and I was grateful for her insights from the Designer perspective!

MILA ZOVKO
Designed in Vancouver | Knit in New York | Italian yarn
www.milazovko.com

Mila Zovko Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milazovko/

On location in Downtown Vancouver – a Winter Setting

I put out a call to others in our Fashion group to pick a date where we could all meet for a photoshoot to display LookLab dresses. The idea was to showcase the pieces we had already sourced from lenders, and encourage more women to be part of this slow fashion movement by either:

1) Signing up to be a lender and helping us to build our inventory or
2) Making an appointment to rent one of our dresses!

We hoped that with new photography and marketing, we could entice more users on both ends of the spectrum!

Ingrid (@thesewcute) who sewed many original creations was available to join us for our scheduled shoot!

Ingrid’s Instagram Feed: https://www.instagram.com/thatsewcute/

After settling on a date and location (my apartment!), Monica helped to bring over a selection of dresses.

Monica and Dhia on a snowy Vancouver Rooftop!

New collection of photos

One thing I have always appreciated about collaborating with Dhia is her professionalism and timeliness! She sends a fantastic collection of raw images and edits within a few days. She knew how eager I was to get new content on both my personal channels and on the LookLab instagram and I was delighted to start using these new images!

At the end of the afternoon, Dhia, Ingrid and I also had some laughs trying to style an impromptu wedding elopement shoot when we realized some of the LookLab inventory would be perfect for a bride and bridesmaid! I happened to have a bouquet of flowers and grabbed that for some photos!

Dhia even ended up featuring one of these photos in her gallery!

Top right corner! That’s me and Ingrid as a Bride and Bridesmaid 🙂

More of the photoshoot collaboration photos below!

I look forward to more brainstorm sessions and joint initiatives!

Successful partnerships – have fun and create value for everyone

Dhia and I had previously brainstormed over her school project on minimalism so I knew she could get behind LookLab’s mission to encourage more women to share clothes and “rent” versus buy a special Occassion dress that will realistically only get worn once!

Stay tuned for more LookLab updates 🙂

UPDATE:

Getting support and encouragement on Instagram after posting Dhia’s photos!