Wedding Looks Inspired by Juno Calypso

Styled Shoot

2 May

Words by Erin Balfour (she/her)

When I tell you that your wedding styling inspiration can come from anywhere, I really mean it. Take this styled shoot for example. To say its vibes drew from sources very untypical for wedding inspiration is to understate massively.

Join me on my messy retrospective of this 2018 shoot, and see how you can let your imagination just run, and you’ll still be able to take elements out for your wedding style.

This is not an advice piece. It’s a let yourself dream, like I did, with no boundaries, piece. See where your mind goes…

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I called it all, the brief and Pinterest board, ‘LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE’. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, many American TV shows were “filmed in front of a live studio audience”, which they let you know during the credits. To me, that became a vibe and it’s a legit Gen X/Xennial cultural memory. You can see its look in films like Late Night With the Devil and Woman of the Hour, and it’s even referenced in TV show Mr Robot.

The main character – in this case our bride – was influenced by artist Juno Calypso’s ‘Joyce’. Either she’s preparing casually for her elopement – is her lover arriving soon to pick her up? – or she’s simply playing dress-up with all the motifs of weddings. She’s not lonely, she’s owning it.

Inspiration List In Full

Juno Calypso
It Follows
Glitch effect
The body horror genre, largely Videodrome, lately The Substance
Gucci’s 1997 advert campaign
Gloss make-up
Sugary, sickening kitsch
TV-VCR technology as it emerged
Mixed-up tech from different eras
Imaginary tech, e.g. the shell compact from It Follows
Imaginings of a San Francisco summer in the 1970s
Itziar Orbegozo style storytelling
Tamagotchi
Sickly pink satin sheets and plastic heart-shaped mirrors.
Pulp chic.
Make-up of high-shine lips, glossy + shimmery lids; dewy skin; stars on cheeks, 1970s Disco style
Florals in pockets, shoes, tucked into waistbands, and dirty red roses not arranged but held, strewn…
Blancmange and sugar mice

I used Pinterest to pin imagery from all these places in my imagination and what came out was an overall vibe. Something that then informed the specifics. I find that if I try to nail specific details first, I stall. I prefer to scrapbook every idea and then weave a thread through that chaos.