Layer By Layer.

Over at the SHOWstudio shop you can pick up all sorts of ephemera crafted in the quest for fashion shoot perfection. There are set pieces from shoots that appeared in W, Vogue, The New Yorker, etc. Hand-made by set designers and prop stylist like the extremely talented Shona Heath and Simon Costin, items include giant fiberglass cherries, furry rabbit ears that sat atop Alber Elbaz's head, and a giant, furry poodle puppet. But, if you want an item that was there for it all, for every shoot, offering necessary support and guidance and important stability for all the creative types, including the models, you need only purchase one thing: The floor!

Yep, you can by a block of the photography studio floor signed by photographer Nick Knight. It is a relic composed of layer after layer after layer of paint rolled on to the floor to provide a fresh white coat for the next morning's shoot. It's like a supremely stylish onion of sorts. It's mind-boggling how something as thin as a layer of paint can add up to inches of thickness over time.

The blocks on offer may be just wide enough for you to stick on a pair of stilettos and play Kate Moss in front of the mirror. Maybe.

Proper: Shona Heath

Prop stylists and set designers are hidden fashion heroes. Their work makes photoshoots, fashion shows, and store windows the jaw dropping spectacles that they are. They are the ones who know where to find that three foot plastic golden goose, the two hundred vintage paperbacks in shades of blue, or the taxidermied polar bear that you may or may not have noticed in the background of your favorite fashion magazine's latest editorial. In an effort to give them their proper due and bring them out from the shadows of behind the scenes, I'm going to feature them as the front and center stars they are.

Photo from SHOWstudio.com

First up is Shona Heath. Her work has appeared in Dazed & Confused, British and American Vogue, Another Magazine, and many more fashion pubs of note. She's often partners in crime with fashion photography fairytale teller Tim Walker and helps him create his unbelievably fantastic story shoots. Here's a sampling of her work:













If I make enough cash in my life to afford her spectacular services, I'm going to hire Shona to decorate my house. I've always wanted to live on the other side of the looking glass. Shona is represented by CLM. You can see all of the images above, plus more from her portfolio on their site. Shona is listed under artists as a set designer.