Behind the Scenes at The Whitepepper

This morning, we take a trip behind the scenes at THE WHITEPEPPER. We chatted to Laura, the production co-ordinator about the creative process, inspiration, and ideas behind their future winter vintage lookbook.

Hey ladies! Here at Ballad Of, we are huge fans of all of the shoots THE WHITEPEPPER puts together. Tell us a little about your creative process - how do you come up with an initial idea for a shoot? Ah thank you, that's so nice to hear! When it comes to shoots, the Creative team decide the concept and then Production put it all together. We usually look at the collection as a whole and revert back to when we first started planning it, looking at the themes, colours, inspiration etc and then pick out the parts which would be the starting block for our shoot. For our Fall Vintage shoot we focused on shapes and textures which you see in school uniforms so it made sense for our shoot location to be in a Victorian primary school. What's important is that the shoot tells a story about the clothes and shows our customers how they can be worn but also what we like and represent as a brand.

Your inspiration seems to be very diverse - I remember seeing a shoot inspired by the film Leon - does popular culture inform your ideas? Also, the same with travel? Travel is definitely a big part of our collections! As a team, we all come from diverse backgrounds from all over the world, so it makes sense for us to base our collections on what we have discovered on our travels. Street style plays a huge part in our designs as we are so inspired by how locals dress when we visit new countries. Korean and Chinese fashions and the way they put outfits together are fundamental to our inspiration, but also the Scandinavian minimalist style and their innovative, oversized shapes.

How do you translate your initial ideas to the practicalities of a shoot? We experiment a lot with set design and props and often play around with surrealism. Our clothes tell a story but it's the set design and shoot itself which make them come to life. The set design is sometimes a specific print or shape from the collection which we then play with to create the story of the shoot.

Do you have ideas for shoots saved up waiting for a collection that fits? We're lucky to live in a city where inspiration and creativity surround us! Every day, at least one member of the team comes into work with a new vision or a new way of developing the brand. Shoots are a really fun way for us to play with collections and market them to different customers - I know our Creative team are really keen to do some sort of shoot in a meadow. Maybe in the summer when the weather isn't as miserable and we can play with lighting a bit more.

Which is your favourite shoot to date? That's a toughy! Our Winter 15 lookbook shoot, which will be going live soon, was hugely successful and the images look amazing. Helen Kirkbright our photographer really understood us as a brand and made the collection look amazing and of course, our model Lydia looked fantastic! We are really excited to show our customers and buyers. It's a really clean but playful collection.

What would be your dream location to shoot in/who would you like to collaborate with? We love collaborating with our lovely bloggers and WHITEPEPPER fans of course but we are definitely wanting to expand our celebrity outreach. There are so many cool celebrities who want to work with us, it's just about choosing the right time and making sure everyone is on the same page with ideas. We really enjoy working with new talent, whether that be photographers, models or an eccentric cross-stitcher so are always open to collaborations as a brand. Let's see what the new collection brings!

Check out the vintage collection super soon over at www.thewhitepepper.com @THEWHITEPEPPER