Proper: Simon Costin

Simon Costin photographed by Tim Walker.

The universe of fashion fantasy has so many hardworking employees. Flipping through the pages of a magazine, it may not be immediately apparent just how much work goes into the creation of the fantastic, 15-page shoots. One of my goals here at I Want To Wear It. is to highlight the people who's creative genius makes the stunning look seamless. Simon Costin is one of those talented people.

His set work has been an integral part of the photography of Tim Walker. Walker's work is phenomenal, a visual fairytale. Costin constructs the often over-sized objects that fill the frames of Walker's shots with fun, and surreal scenery that one wishes was really real.

Simon had his beginnings as a jewelry designer. His biomorphic, body-centric pieces (and perhaps his notorious use of materials like human sperm) caught the eye of designer Alexander McQueen who asked to use some of his jewelry in a show. That collaboration led to Costin taking on the role of McQueen's creative director, staging shows and creating sets. The size and scope of that work appealed so much to Costin that he took it up full time, leaving McQueen to focus on set design.

Pieces of Simon's Jewelry that make use of samples of human sperm (l) and taxidermy talons (r).

His set work is phenomenal. Sculpting and creating objects by hand when most of the fashion world has moved on to digital manipulation is downright admirable. That giant camera in that Tim Walker shoot? It's real. The huge magazine a life size model emerges from in Vogue? Simon made that out of plastic sheets. Isn't that fantastic?



Currently Simon's branching out beyond sets and exploring a passion he's had since his youth. His lifelong fascination with the folkloric traditions of Britain has led him to establish The Museum of British Folklore.

Intended as a unifying institution, the museum will educate its visitors on all the mythic traditions of British cultures past and present. The practice of hosting festivals and ceremonies and staging traditional rituals is still so alive and well in Britain that Costin's project is hotly anticipated. I (and so many others) cannot wait to see what this visual, creative genius does with an entire museum. For now I'll stare at his set work and dream little dreams of what may be.

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.