Shooting Peek & Beau - By Anna

A few weeks ago Emma discussed the design decisions behind our mini-brand Peek & Beau, time for the next step: Photoshoots!

Once our designs are made real and samples are (almost! First samples almost always have some fun surprises that require a bit of rigging on photoshoots – they haven’t yet been through the fitting and refining process required to go into production) ready to be photographed, we start organizing photoshoots. For our main Playful Promises collection this usually requires a lot of juggling with models, locations and the dreaded budget, however Peek & Beau was a little easier!

We decided to shoot some simpler shots at our in-house studio, using coloured lighting to make the images pop. As this line was a little more alternative and experimental than Playful Promises we wanted to use a model that gave off an effortlessly cool vibe to match. Georgina Clifford at Profile caught our eye because of her awesome undercut!

I love the idea of exploring what is “feminine” and how lingerie plays a part in this discussion – much of the Peek & Beau collection steps away from traditionally feminine lingerie shapes to more androgynous options, combined with lace textures and cut outs. Styling Georgie’s hair with curls, eyes a heavy blue and black with nude lips balances a punk aesthetic with a softer edge. 

Thanks to Richard Marz for this BTS photo - sneak peek of a piece that is arriving in August!

As we loved this collection so much, we decided we’d like to invest in some more elaborate imagery to sit along with the shots we’d already done. We’d followed Tilly Dinmore(a.k.a Demonpuff) for a while, and just adored her style – she was just who we had in mind when we thought up Peek & Beau!

As I was visiting LA in January, it seemed a great idea to fit in a photoshoot with Tilly (we also shot our competition sets  and some extra imagery on Miss Miranda the same day). Tilly was super bendy from contortion work, which makes for some interesting poses – the shot on the swing was a little harder to get as it was covered in a slippery fabric!

We can’t wait to share the rest of the images with you once they arrive in August, and we’ll be shooting next season’s collection at the end of May, so keep an eye on the Peek & Beau instagram for behind the scenes pics.

Shop the Peek & Beau collection at Playful Promises

Designing Peek & Beau - by Emma

Peek & Beau started off when we at Playful Promises recognized a gap in the market for alternative lingerie. The popularity of our Magdalene set with its kitsch, tongue-in-cheek naughtiness sparked this idea for me to create a mini-brand that encapsulated this darker side of Playful Promises.

Many of the Playful Promises customers are somewhat led by alternative fashion, so creating a line specifically for this audience was a natural transition from our usual feminine flirtatiousness into an edgier - but still as quirky - range. Myself being somebody who crosses from mainstream fashion into counter-culture, I also wanted to create products that people like me would want to wear.

‘Attire to flaunt’ being the tagline for the Peek & Beau line was also very important, as we noticed an influx of alternative fashion and using lingerie as outerwear, so designs that lent themselves to this way of styling was paramount to the design process.

Peek & Beau is heavily influenced by the macabre; tarot, the occult, religious iconography, horror B-movies, gothic architecture and retro fetishism. We often look to couture designers that use similar inspirations such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Iris Van Herpen and Givenchy, as well as photographers such as Tim Walker, Nick Knight, Mert & Marcus, and Paolo Roversi.

For the 2016 collection, we went to LA to shoot with alternative model Demon Puff AKA Tilly Dinmore. Tilly encapsulated everything we wanted the mini brand to represent – somebody who follows alternative fashion, is quirky and cute, and is also influenced by retro fashion, just like we are at Playful Promises. 

Look out for more from this collection in August, but in the meantime, you can shop these new looks at www.playfulpromises.com!