To capture neo-safari style in its true element, FASHION trekked to the desert, braving strong winds and dune buggy adventures.
By Amy Burstyn
Photography by Jordan Porter
“I wanted to give the safari clothes, which have a more traditional, classic feeling, a bit of a jolt and make it more modern,” says Fashion Director Susie Sheffman. “I wanted to punch it up with what’s happening in accessories, which is a lot of real brights; there’s neons, and a lot of shiny, bright-coloured patents.”
“We wanted it to be like a studio shoot, but outdoors,” says photographer Gabor Jurina. “So this was the perfect idea of a canvas backdrop, but made out of sand.”
“We were taking these miniature dune buggies up and down this sand mountain, but it was funny because Gabor didn’t know how to drive it, so he would start going really, really fast trying to go up the hill and then we didn’t have enough speed so we would start flying backwards,” hair and makeup stylist Greg Wencel explains of the trek into the desert. “So we had to take it on foot from there. We became backpackers–pack mules.”
Sheffman tells us how model Megan McNierney braved the elements: “She was climbing rocks and mountains in sky-high heels and she was freezing and still did a fantastic job.”
“The wind would just pick up the sand and blow piles of it at [McNierney’s] face, it would be stuck in her lipstick, and her eye makeup and her hair–there was just sand everywhere! At the end of that day I took off my socks in my hotel room, and I swear a pound of sand came out–it was insane!” says Wencel.