Nights (and Days) in the Gardens of Spain

Hola amigos!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  It's super duper hot here in Cairo (my current home-away-from-home), but I know it still feels like winter back in Canada, so here's a post for my peeps to heat things up :)

A while back, before I officially debuted my line, Corinne Monique, I designed and made a few capsule collections.  This post features one of those collections entitled 'Latinada.'  The collection was inspired by Spanish, Mexican, and South American painters and composers, by Latino and Hispanic artists who conjure up images of faraway terracotta-tiled, sunkissed villas and ladies with flowers in their hair, swaying in the breeze.  Press play & close your eyes...

{ http://youtu.be/aSf8Z5xuMBQ }

{ http://youtu.be/sIvmYMXB7FQ }

Now open your eyes!

Miquel Barceló

Ricardo Chavez Mendez

El Greco

Joan Miró

Francisco Pradilla Ortiz

Diego Velázquez

Francisco Goya

Frida Kahlo

Salvador Dali

Pablo Picasso

Joaquin Sorolla

Diego Rivera

Besides art and music, I was also inspired by fashion editorials and ad campaigns which had their own fiesta flare, which you can see here.

At the time of shooting the collection, I had only dreamt of visiting such exotic places, so the collection and the photoshoot were both imagination- and not reality-based, so don't be looking for authenticity.  However, just this past Fall I was lucky enough to visit my Cuban friend in Madrid Spain and even got a glimpse of some of the artwork above in person at the Museo del Prado, Museo Reina Sofia, and the Museo Thyssen!

And now for the actual collection and photoshoot...let's get spicy ;)
I had the extreme pleasure of shooting two of my gorgeous friends, Vania Georgieva (who is one of the most amazing models I have ever had the opportunity to work with) and Karina Vera Davies, both of whom are beautiful inside and out.  I also had my stunning sister (who you've seen before modelling a dress from this very collection) assist and my lovely mother helped me scout out all the locations - the Allan Gardens Conservatory in Toronto, where they were very nice about letting us run all over the conservatory, each time in a new outfit haha, and other various locations around Toronto, including the outside wall of the Segovia restaurant.  I had fun styling my ladies and making the shots look like we had done an on-location shoot somewhere south of the border instead of in downtown Toronto.

And that's it :)  I hope you enjoyed!

Whether you're siesta-ing or fiesta-ing today, I hope you're able to take a minute to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in your own way :)  I myself am hoping for some salsa...both of the food and dancing variety ;)

Adiós muchachos!

Corinne

xoxo