by Mo on October 16, 2008
Around the Site
New Darlings
Our neighborhood of online darlings is growing everyday! Check out the new boutique Designs AO3 pictured left.
Get to know your fellow Darlings better…every week we interview a Darling in the blog, interested? Let us know!
Email trish@smashingdarling.com.
Fashion Shows
Darling Designers in LA
The City of Angels is in for a treat, if you are in LA don’t miss out! October 16 and 17th Darling designs will be found on bodies strolling through lush rooftop gardens…
Read more:
Oct 16: Brooklyn Royalty
Oct 17: KRELwear
Where to Find Us
Seam Collective
Next weekend come join us as we head to Jersey City in support of Seam Collective.
We can’t wait to see more from designers like Deepti Moti Babani, pictured left, as well as millinery from our very own Darling Anne De Pasquale…
Read more here, and spread the word!
by admin on June 16, 2008
This week’s volunteer for our photo critique is a designer of something near and dear to all our hearts … shoes! We’re so happy to have Ricardo Tovar on our site, and wish that more shoe designers would join us as well.
To begin with, we really like this designer’s very sleek shoes but the overwhelming consensus is that we just need to see more. Give us MORE, we say! Ideally, we’d like to see more alternate views of each shoe (most only have one shot), closeups that show off details, and even model shots if possible. We’d also like to learn more about the shoes from the descriptions, too … no detail is too small to include, and the more info you’re able to give, the more comfortable a buyer will be with making a purchase. You really want to make them feel like they’re holding the shoe in their hand (or slipping it onto their tootsies!)
In terms of photo quality, the shots could definitely use a bit of tweaking. The lighting appears to be from a small source like a built-in flash, which leaves things looking a little harsh, with some hot spots bouncing off of the highly reflective leather. We’d definitely recommend experimenting with some different lighting setups to get a brighter, cleaner, and softer look. We’d love to see backgrounds that are more complimentary to the shoes, too … the wrinkled fabric in these is a little distracting and, unfortunately, doesn’t put the shoes in the spotlight they deserve.
Overall, we think this is a boutique from a very talented designer that just needs a little more attention, and a bit of an injection of the designer’s own style, imagination, and personality. Another thing to try might be to look online for some stores or designers that you admire, and pay particular attention to how they market their shoes. Almost always you’ll find some spark of creativity that you’ll be able to apply to your own work. Here are a couple of places we found that we thought did a very nice job of showing off their shoes:
Marimekko (above): http://tinyurl.com/5anwzs
Patrick Cox (above): http://www.patrickcox.com/
Anthropologie (above): http://tinyurl.com/5arw73 (some cool ideas for backdrops here!)
We’ve suggested a lot of things here (as we always try to do!) and we know it can get overwhelming. So here’s something else to consider. We’re very aware that most of you out there are first and foremost fashion designers. If all of the little details and minutiae of producing photos and writing descriptions gets to be too much, don’t forget that often the best answer is to outsource these marketing-related tasks to someone else. If your talent is designing and not showing your pieces in their best light, then let someone else do that for you. There are tons of fabulous photographers and copywriters out there who can lend their talents to making YOU look great.
So if you’re spending too much time stressing over photos, just remember that sometimes the best answer (and the one that can best free you up to concentrate on what you’re best at) is to get some help!
As always, we wish Ricardo Tovar (and all of our smashing designers) nothing but the best, and we hope that our critique will be helpful. Anyone else have thoughts or suggestions? As always feel free to email them to us at …. or comment below. We have also run out of stores to critique so if you are ready to do some spring cleaning on your store (or show everyone how amazing you are) email me at: julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.
by trish on June 1, 2008
Love these close up images of Juliedarling wearing her Barbarella ring by Go Robot. I think she would agree with me, it is a perfect accessory for summer.
by admin on May 26, 2008
There’s much to commend in the Broken Teepee Designs Boutique from Montana … we don’t know about the teepee, but we don’t see much that’s too broken here!
First, we love seeing this much product in a boutique – there’s lots for shoppers to see here and plenty of places to look to find something special. We also absolutely love this designer’s item descriptions. They have a very personal feel and are colorful, fun, and engaging – the perfect complement to the style of the jewelry. The photography has a good degree of consistency (especially on the main images), and the designer has made very good use of alternate views – almost every image has LOTS of alternate shots to look at.
In terms of the photography, there are a few things that pop into our minds here at the SmashingDarling world headquarters that could help to set this boutique apart:
1. Carry the style though – As we mentioned, we feel that this boutique has a great thing going with the intertwining of the style of the jewelry with the marvelous descriptions. These two elements working so well together creates a colorful personality for this boutique and lays the foundation for some excellent branding opportunities. To that end, the first thing that we would recommend is to carry that style through to the photos themselves. To us, the jewelry has a fun, colorful look with a strong connection to nature that we feel could be continued into the photography more effectively than it is. Many of the images use a gray backdrop with a fade to black that just seems a little somber for these vivacious little gems.
Our suggestion would be to really play up the personality of the jewelry in ways that start to create a unique branding for the store. Don’t weigh colorful pieces down with heavy, dark-toned backgrounds. Get them out into light, try higher key shots that are brighter and more airy. Maybe even try more earthy backgrounds that relate to Montana and reinforce that strong tie to nature – think stone, sun-bleached wood, rough-hewn fabrics, and other simple, natural elements. Remember, though, that the key with backgrounds is not to go over the top – they should always enhance the shot and create a stage for the product, not overwhelm it.
Sea Dreams Earrings
2. Show us your softer side – In terms of lighting, many of the images in the boutique seem to be just a bit of harsh side … hard edged light, strong dark shadows, and often a very angular light quality that appears to come from a small light source. While hard light and deep shadows can certainly be used to create drama in a shot, we’re not sure that they’re very well suited to the jewelry’s personality here. What we would recommend is using a large light source like a softbox (B and H Photo is a great start), or otherwise diffusing the light that’s falling on the jewelry to help create more evenness and soft shadows.
One inexpensive way to get that soft light quality without a ton of special lighting equipment is to photograph jewelry in a light dome or PortaCube. These products essentially create little pockets of soft, diffused light for you to set up your products in (almost like having a tiny, all-white studio.) Check out Calumet Photo’s products: Click here
Lady Slipper Necklace
3. Sharper Images- Lastly, we notice that a fair number of the images are not especially sharp. This could be a very, very easy fix – as simple as shooting with a tripod or making sure that you’re shooting at a narrrow enough aperture. If you find that you just can’t get those razor-sharp images that you’d like even with a tripod, you may find it’s time to upgrade your camera. All lenses (and cameras) are not created equally!
Flirtier Bracelet
Again, congratulations to the great start that Broken Teepee Designs is off to, and we hope that these ideas might really help to create a unique identity for this boutique. So what does everyone else think? Give us something good! As always, we can’t wait to hear from you and hope that our ideas are helpful. Let us know by either commenting below or emailing directly at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.
by admin on May 19, 2008
Third time’s a charm, they say, and we’re absolutely charmed by this designer’s luscious jewelry. We’d like to begin this critique with some correspondence we received from her. Natha writes:
When people see my jewelry in person and see the quality and craftsmanship, I make many sales quickly, but my web sales are really slow … I would like some ideas on what to do to make it easier for and encourage customers to purchase from me. My photography is professional but does it show the jewelry in it’s best light?
We think her comments are right on target and reflect what a lot of designers new to electronic media and internet marketing have experienced. Getting people to buy something when they can’t hold it in their hands and see it on takes a lot of work, and good photography, we feel, is absolutely key. That’s what these critiques (and the photo tips in earlier blog postings) are all about!
To kick things off, Luscious Metals is to be commended for a high degree of consistency in the boutique images, and the choice to go with clean, clutter-free backgrounds can be a very pure and professional look that brings out the best in metallic objects. The descriptions are clear and well-written, too. This boutique is off to a very good beginning, and the designer has clearly put a lot of effort into producing good photos, many with a good mix of alternate views and strong model shots.
That said, here are a couple ideas for how they could kick the imagery up a notch:
1. White it out – Our first recommendation (which is true for everyone) is if you’re going to use the high-key look, make sure the background is pure white. A number of the images in this boutique are more towards the gray, and unfortunately these end up looking a tad muddy. To make those sparkly metals pop, it’s gotta be pure white. The good news is that this is a very simple adjustment to make in Photoshop (and if you’re using a professional photographer, he/she could definitely take care of this for you easily.)
Starlight Necklace
2. Dimensionality – One of the most important considerations when shooting against white (especially with small items such as jewelry) is to be sure to keep things from looking too flat. In this case, many of the items in this boutique look as if they have been shot from directly straight-on (or overhead) angle, with the product resting directly on the backdrop. While this is great for showing detail, often this approach can lack a little bit of dimension and “dramatic” feel. What we would recommend first is to mix it up a bit … try different angles, and experiment with focus and depth of field to isolate detail. Another approach that may be worth trying would be to move the jewelry out a bit from the backdrop and make the lighting a bit more angular, using directional lighting to cast a soft shadow and add a little depth (while still keeping that high-key look that you’ve established.)
Circle and Bar Earrings
3. Get a little closer – Come on, don’t be shy. Seriously, though, we feel that the images in this boutique could benefit from a little bit less white in places, and a tighter focus on the product. Get that lens in as close as possible, and crop excess background out as necessary … don’t forget that the focus is the product and too much empty space can cause your product to get a bit lost.
Message Bar Necklace
We hope that these ideas might start some wheels turning (not to mention sales!) and we again thank Natha Perkins for allowing us to take a close look at her boutique. As always, our comments are meant with the greatest respect and we appreciate the work that you ALL put into making your boutique the best it can be! Anybody out there have more to add? What do you think about this boutique? We know you have something to say … let us know what you think by either commenting below or emailing directly at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com. We are also running out of volunteer’s for the critique. Anyone interested in being next?
by admin on May 12, 2008
Introducing our second victim, uh, I mean … critique – Aelisheva
Many thanks to all of those who were kind enough to participate in last week’s critique – your comments were intelligent, constructive, and greatly appreciated. And a special thanks to those who emailed to volunteer themselves to be critiqued.
The first of those we’ll be critiquing is a store whose designs are absolutely smashing – Aelisheva.
The first thing that strikes us is Aelisheva’s great use of live models. The models are always very appealing, professional looking, and very complementary to the clothing.
As a whole, the products are very well lit, with only a few exceptions that appear a bit on the dark side. Considering that there’s a pretty wide mix of photography styles here (some shot outside, some in, some with models, some without, different types of borders and backgrounds) the items in the store still work together as a whole very well … the unique style of the products is really what holds everything together quite well in spite of all the different styles of the photos themselves.
Another thing that Aelisheva does very well is the written item descriptions. They are very thorough and often contain complete sizing information. Great job here!
As far as suggestions, there are a few areas in particular that we feel could really help this store be a total knockout and start driving sales (as well as get images on the homepage.)
1. Text info on images. No question about it, we’d love to see the date stamp, designer logo, and photographer information removed from the photos that use them (this is true for not only this store but for everyone site-wide.) This alone is unfortunately enough of a factor to keep us from being able to use an image on the homepage. If a designer is concerned about copyright or security issues, we highly recommend putting this information in the item description or in the boutique policies page. Placing this text information directly on images only serves to detract from the image itself, and in some instances can be downright distracting. Think of the huge fashion houses who spend literally millions on their photography … have you ever seen a date stamp or photo credit directly on one of their website images?
2. Multiple views. Next thing we think could be really beneficial to this store falls under the category of variety. Some of the products rely on only one or two alternate images. As always, we tell everyone the more photos the better! Different angles, closeups, detail shots … the more you show, the more comfortable a potential buyer will be with making the purchase. The photos should make them feel like they’re standing in your studio holding the piece in their hands.
3. Consistency. Another thing to consider is possibly establishing a more uniform approach to product photography across the board for this store. Obviously we would never recommend for anyone to take a cookie-cutter approach, but shooting with a similar style or feel can be a big factor in helping a store brand itself through their photos and developing its own look to help set it apart form the others.
We hope that these ideas are helpful – we are so impressed by Aelisheva’s designs, and we wish them all the best. Now, how about other ideas? What do you guys think would help take this store to new heights? Please feel free to let us know by either commenting below or emailing directly at julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com. Can’t wait to hear from you all!
So, who’s next? Suggest someone’s store to be critiqued next week (or volunteer your own) to be critiqued by emailing me at: julie[at]smashingdarling[dot]com.
We promise to always be nice and offer ideas and suggestions that we genuinely think will help take your photography (and hopefully your sales!) to the next level.
by trish on May 9, 2008
May 7th, 2008
Okay, okay, we didn’t really get smashed. That’s a little hard to do when you’re on opposite coasts. But I did have a smashing time interviewing Trish and Julie, founders of the fabulous indie fashion marketplace Smashing Darling. For the uninitiated, Smashing Darling is home base for a slew of indie apparel and accessories designers, who create virtual boutiques to sell their wares to indie fashion fans like yours truly. In addition to being an online fashion house, the site allows designers to post profiles and videos, hold online sample sales and get direct feedback from people who visit the site. Visit the site, and you’ll find Bay Area names like Funk Divine, Mzz Rzz, FiftySeven-ThirtyThree and The Urge to Adorn.
Read on as Smashing Darling fills us in on the feel-good nature of indie fashion, hot places to find indie fashion, the most important things to do when launching a new designer label and more.
Click here to read the interview at SF Indie Fashion.
