Sonata by Daniela Lozano

The creative director and fashion stylist Khrystyna Yatseniuk @buntarka_stylez, the photographer Daniela Lozano @danielaspixels, and producer and filmmaker Teandre’ Miles @xivisuals bring this fashion editorial exclusively created for Vanity Teen online with the model Carmise Bentley @carmisebentley represented by 1015mgmt @1015mgmt.

This editorial is inspired by Maison Margiela’s 2021 Spring collection. Khrystyna worked with her Stylist Assistant Polina to customize thrift pieces and made them her own. For example, Stylists sewed the vest with white threads and customized a plastic raincoat with red threads. The fashion stylist also used Maison Margiela’s original pieces like the boots and the blazer. Khrystyna made a statement by combining thrift and high-end pieces that resulted in a high fashion modern and underground look to a fashion editorial. 

The photoshoot took place at a studio in San Francisco, California. “I took advantage of the big window that this space had and I took pictures facing that window. I used a black canvas backdrop to give the pictures more see-through and a different look, with some shots I added a second backdrop to add dimension. We got creative and added a plastic bag to go more with the underground vibe.”

The photographer used a Sony7ARII and a 24-70mm 2.8 Sigma lens, and she also took some portraits with his Sony 85 GM 1.4 mm lens, her go-to lenses. “I usually edit my pictures with more vibrant colors that pop and catch more attention but in this case we wanted the pictures to have a more polaroid look so I went for darker colors. My inspiration for Carmise’s posing was Maison’s Margiela’s runways. Looking at their characters I suggested Carmise give me weird poses and facial expressions. We had techno music playing in the background to let him be creative and go with the flow. We had a great time.”

Carmise has worked with Forever21, Amoeba X, New Balance, Under Armor and recently got published at Rolling Stones. I asked him how he felt during the shoot and he said: “I felt alive during our shoot because this is something that I’ve been wanting to be a part of which is high fashion modeling and I got to express that I belong in the world of high fashion because a lot of people said I was too tall to model or I should stick to playing basketball.” 

Talented TeAndre Miles had a chance to film the backstage video which perfectly conveys the vibe and feeling we had during the shoot. The filmmaker had a chance to work on music videos for the band called “Good People” as well as working on collaborative creative shoots. TeAndre was moving in the beat with the whole team and captured the underground atmosphere that was conveyed with his work.

I have recently attended Coco Rocha’s Modeling camp as her guest photographer. It was an experience out of this world. I had the honor to shoot with her as well, I will cherish that experience forever. I would like to end with a quote from her book Study of Pose with Steven Sebring “My work is that of translator: my body is the visual representation of the story an artist or designer wants to tell.” -This is something I want to work with my models for now too as a fashion photographer.

Model Carmise Bentley @carmisebentley represented by 1015mgmt @1015mgmt creative director and fashion stylist Khrystyna Yatseniuk @buntarka_stylez, styling assistant Polina Kechyian @polinaketch, photographer Daniela Lozano @danielaspixels, producer and filmmaker Teandre’ Miles @xivisuals, exclusive for Vanity Teen online!