Twisted Fairy Tales Collection: Goldishocks

Goldilocks is a heroine who is genuinely not so sickly sweet. The original bad girl herself, she commits Break and Entry, causes property damage, and even has the gall to take a siesta in a bears’ bed!

Patchwork and rustic charm were the foundations of this design. Inspired by the bear characters, I wanted to use animal fur shades for Goldi's frock-honey and dark browns and blacks, trimmed in black lace. The central piece lay in the apron, the prime piece that gave this the urban girly look, fashioned as a partial bodice around the waist. I really wanted to play on a darker vision of the bear, with the creepy teddy bear face on the apron. The red of the glaring eyes really stand out!

  I wanted Erika, my model, set lounging on the bed, to set the atmosphere of the cosiness of the cottage with its rustic beauty through woodwork and patchwork cloth. The bed (a shoebox) was paneled with downloads of dark hardware floors, and laid out with an orangey color tweaked up with felt patches of green and red. The ceramic bowl, showing the porridge Goldi has just wolfed down, came from an Asian paint set. Finally her teddy bear is a tiny token with my birthstone, a garnet, made a brilliant prop-especially since it’s darker reds played well to the palette of the shoot.

It was great to have several strong horizontal shots, with Erika lying luxuriously across the bed, unlike my previous shoots that all were primarily vertical shots. Also, it was refreshing to do a dress that was shorter-though her legs stand out a little too much. Only afterwards, I had the idea of checkered tights! But I’m thrilled that so a small piece, the details maintain an equally punchy impact.