Born in 1981, I spent all of my teen years in the 90’s. When Clueless came out I was obsessed, not with just the fashion, but the music, the cast, the concept made all of my 14-year old dreams come true. And here we are 25 years later, and the 90’s classic is still one of my favs.
Let’s take a step back and flashback to January of this year. I started brainstorming ideas for editorial shoots for my 2021 Senior Rep Team. I knew I wanted something bright and fun, but honestly I was clueless (pun totally intended). I felt like so many things had already been done and any concept would look unoriginal.
I happened to stumble across the fact that this year marks the 25th Anniversary of my personal teen fav, Clueless (the movie was released on June 19, 1995). Aside from being completely obsessed with this movie, I hadn't seen any editorials that resembled this concept, but I wasn't sure if my class of 2021 reps would think the concept was cool or lame. I mean, they were born 7 years AFTER the movie's release, but when I told them about the concept, I was shocked at how many said the movie was one of their favorites!
What I really loved most about the Clueless concept is the fact that here we are 25 years after its release, and the fashion trends that were made popular by this cult classic have made a total comeback - plaid, co-ords, tiny backpacks, fanny packs, are all back and better than ever!
When I started planning for the shoot, I knew that I didn't want it to be like Halloween with each senior "dressed up" in an exact replica of the iconic Clueless looks. Because many of the trends from the movie are still popular today it was easy to find similar looks on hot online boutiques. When stylist, Danielle Sten-Guillermo and I met to finalize the looks, we worked to give nods to the ensembles in the movie, but updated them a little to portray how teens would rock these styles in 2020.
I was adamant about using only seniors on my 2021 Senior Rep Team, so I knew I couldn't feature every character from the film, but I wanted to emulate the looks of the different style subsets in the movie.
We were supposed to shoot back in April, but with the Covid outbreak, we were forced to push our shoot to July. Trust me, there was a point that I thought this all wouldn’t happen before the actual anniversary date which was my goal from the beginning.
We kicked off our shoot in studio and then went to a local high school to obtain some shots straight from the movie. I really wanted to incorporate some of the iconic scenes, so I'm thankful for my amazing friends who let me borrow their kick ass white Jeep Wrangler. We had a blast re-creating some of the scenes with Cher's epic driving skills.
So snaps to all of my Class of 2021 Senior Reps for helping make my vision come to life. And a HUGE thank you to my amazing creative team and some of the brands that are killing the style game in 2020:
Concept + Photography // Desiree Ortman Photography
Stylist // Danielle Sten-Guillermo
Make-up // Rachael Wontrop, Fleurt Beauty Company
Hair // Meaghan Whalen, Fleurt Beauty Company
Calligraphy // Whimsy & Ink Studio
Marvin the Martian artwork // Patrick Ortman (my talented hubby)