After writer Beatrice Hazlehurst pondered whether hemlines might altogether disappear in 2024, we passed the baton to photographer Alex Frank to manifest the concept. In tandem with stylist Lucy McFadin, the creative duo braved a 20-something-degree evening on New York’s Lower East Side to respectfully poke fun at the city’s confounding fashion sense. Think: ultra micro minis with fluffy snow boots—a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Ahead, we asked Frank and McFadin to recount the onus behind the editorial imagery, detailing everything from where they warmed up to their thoughts on the polarizing trend.
So, just to kick it off, what did the initial creative conversation between the two of you look like when you first started discussing the shoot?
Alex Frank: “When you said miniskirts, I was thinking some Lower East Side Street style, and the makeup artist happened to live down there, so we used her apartment as a home base, and it was perfect.We were right on Orchard Street. It was freezing. The poor model was in a miniskirt in 20-degree weather, but we were pretty quick with our shots and were able to bounce into some bodegas and indoor spaces as well.
“I've worked with Lucy before a few times, and I've always loved her style so much, so—you were thinking street style and miniskirts—Lucy was the first person that came to mind. She mixes high and low, and her street style is so fun and edgy. This is the first time we've worked together as stylist and photographer, and it was perfect because she has such a creative eye. On the shoot, we were bouncing ideas off of each other, which was fun.”
Lucy McFadin: “Piggybacking off of that, I've done influencing and modeling, but I've been trying to put my creative energy into things that aren't necessarily connected just to my personal brand. I used a lot of my knowledge from modeling to help make some of my decisions. Given that it was 20 degrees outside that day, I think I wanted to put her in tights for at least one of the looks. Like Alex said, I love to mix high and low pieces to create an anti-fashion sort of vibe, but I feel like my styling process is very much like, ‘Is this ugly, or is this the most insane outfit I've ever put together?’ And once I asked myself that question, I knew that I did the job right.”
How did you conceptualize the two looks specifically?
LM: “I pulled a lot of pieces from my personal archive; I was honestly just playing dress up all day in my apartment. I picked the miniskirts first since that was what we were focusing on. For the Fendi look, I wanted to include every piece but not [exactly like it was styled on the runway]—like you can see the collar coming out of the sweater underneath. I went with more of a snowy vibe, so she was warm for that one. I wanted to put things in places that weren't expected, so the purse was on the ankle. The fur hat and everything kind of looks like it goes together, but is still mismatched.
“For the second look, I wanted to go much more street style and tomboy. I'm really loving hats, so that's why she was in hats for both of them. But my main inspo was lots of layering, using pieces in a way that you wouldn't necessarily wear them. The jacket I tied differently instead of actually on her shoulders. I ended up going to a few of my friends' houses and pulling some pieces from them, showing them my and asking, ‘Do you have a bag like this? Do you have something like this?’ I didn't want anything too branded or logos or anything like that. I think it came together really well.”
I'm so curious, is that the sweatshirt she was wearing that you have on right now?
LM: ”It is. Literally just a gray hoodie from Amazon.”
Amazing.
LM: “So, we're really mixing high and low with the Fendi to the Amazon.”
And Alex, in terms of photography, how did you use composition or angles to tell this story, especially since proportion is so much of the concept?
AF: “I knew from the start I wanted to do a fisheye, wide-angle, high-flash shoot. I love flash in daylight. I think it just makes everything pop and seem a little bit more edgy. We shot pretty much everything on that same fisheye lens. I did some film and digital and I can never choose which one I like better, but I think that they give a very different vibe. We were also working in really tight spaces in terms of the bodegas, so the fish eye was important there.
“Discussing hair and makeup, we wanted a night-out look, but in the day. Almost like she slept in it– bare skin with a smudged eye look. We wanted the photography to seem like I was following her out on her bodega run, the morning after a night out with her hoodie and her mini skirt on. I always feel like the mix of a fish eye and high flash gives almost that Project X-type vibe, for lack of a better word–it's a mix that I love to shoot.”
Tell me about logistics day-of, did anything crazy happen? I know you're literally shooting in the freezing cold, so you already have quite a challenge.
AF: Nothing crazy happened other than just trying to keep the model comfortable. It was lucky that the makeup artist's apartment was right there on Orchard. We got there and scouted out a few corners. There were all these amazing hat and coat shops on Orchard Street, and the first look with the fur hat and boots was perfect right in front of that.
“We hopped in the Public hotel to warm up for a second, and then we went to the bodega, and the bodega owner was so nice. We had her standing on the cooler in the back, and we thought we were being sneaky, but when we were exiting and we saw all of the security cameras in a big TV right in front of him with a direct view of the cooler, but he didn't mind. It was for the sake of art, so he was okay with it.”
LM: “I thought the locations really played off the outfits. For instance, if it was a miniskirt shoot in LA, it would feel much more expected to have miniskirts and crop tops and ballet flats and bows and that sort of vibe, but I think her outfits were honestly so representative of the going-out scene in New York. Even though it is so cold outside, girls are still wearing their miniskirts. They just have coats on top. There's a much more grungy edge vibe to New York. My friends in LA are like, ‘We don't even wear sneakers out to the bars or going out. That is not allowed.’ And I was like, ‘That is everyone's go-to look in New York.’ I really wanted to use that as my inspiration, as well.
This question is twofold, A) What do you guys think of the hemlines-disappearing pendulum swing, right now? And B) Jumping off exactly what you just said, when you had to shoot it in this freezing cold space, did you sense any sort of irony in this trend?
LM: “Totally. But I feel like fashion right now is all about extremes. So, although we're seeing the ultra-mini-mini skirt through a lot of brands like Miu Miu, we're also seeing them bring back the teacher-vibe—skirts to the ankles. It's all about just playing off two very different highs and lows with fashion.
AF: “Mixing a chunky jacket or a sweatshirt with a super mini skirt or vice versa—if you're in a longer skirt, maybe a tiny top—that's always my go-to, I'm into it. I'm into the extremes, and I agree with Lucy's sentiment about New York. I feel like people are just braving the cold and doing whatever for fashion–I’m always for that.”