Day to Evening

Sorry its been a few days since our last post, but we've been BUSY. Its a hectic time of year for high schoolers, especially seniors, but we're gonna stay as updated as possible.

So much for the pretty spring weather, we're right back in winter here in Virginia! Mother Nature has been a little confused here lately, especially with snow in the forecast all week the week of Easter. But enough about our weather woes, that's just explaining why the outfits are a little inconsistent. We took to downtown for this sleek, kind of city-inspired shoot. The ensemble starts out with a structured red blazer over a black tee or tank. Our favorite piece here is a pair of super-skinny black leather pants. Pulling it all together is a classic Burberry plaid scarf, which completes the outfit, but also adds a little extra warmth that's much needed! A great thing about this particular outfit is how easily the styling can change it from a day to night look.

This look sticks to a strong red and black color scheme, and is easily styled to fit your occasion. With some natural locks and flats, its perfect for your day around town. When the sun goes down, put the up hair in a tight, sleek pony tail and maybe change up the shoes with some red pumps for a solid night out ensemble.

 

Outdoorsy

Hello again, its a beautiful day and we're loving it. Hope this cold winter is turning to spring for all of you too!

In today's world of fashion, many looks are derived from things that usually wouldn't make one immediately think "clothing". An example of this would be the "military" look, which usually boasts a natural color palette with very structured pieces. Well this would be one of those looks. When putting this ensemble together, we immediately thought things like "nature" or "outdoorsy", so that's the direction we took with the shoot. Plus the weather was cooperating perfectly for the shoot, as you'll notice how nicely Megan's hair and skirt is flowing in the wind, adding to the natural look we're going for.

Megan's "wow" piece for this look is the hi-lo skirt. We loved the natural flow of the material, and although the pattern is very abstract, the colors and textures reminded us of florals. She has it paired with cami of a matching color of the skirt, which is layered with a cropped denim jacket that obviously fits with the naturesque theme. Finally we have the hiking/combat inspired boots that are actually the same pair featured in the last shoot, but being worn completely differently. We intentionally did this to show how versatile certain pieces can be if you're creative with how you wear them.

Here's to more beautiful spring days like this one!
-H&M

Mix and Match For Some Edge

Two shoots and two posts in two days, we're on a roll! We hope all of you new viewers are enjoying what we do, just as much as we enjoy doing it :).

One of Megan's favorite looks is what she calls "edgy". This look may seem hard to pull off, but it's really easy to put together with the right pieces and the right occasion. When going for an edgy look, try a lot of mixing and matching with different pieces. Play with different patterns, textures, colors, and structures that you usually think wouldn't go together. Here Megan has an indigo purple tube skirt with very soft, flowing horizontal lines. Then she has a fluorescent yellow lace top which is a complementary color of the skirt, with a different pattern, but a similar soft structure. Now throw that idea out the window, as it is layered with a very structured, black-and-white jacket. The colors of the jacket could go with basically anything, has a similar horizontal pattern as the skirt, but a very contrasted structure. The finishing touches are lace tights, which have a similar pattern as the top, and colors matching the jacket; and a lightning bolt necklace, just for a finishing accessory. Last (but definitely not least) are the shoes, a pair of combat/hiking inspired boots with a flannel underlay that pulls in the purple color of the skirt.

Now, what a mess and hard time it seems to put something like that together! All the colors, patterns, textures, coordination and blah blah blah! That is just an explanation of this look, not all edgy looks will have such coordination. The best way to put an edgy look together is to simply EXPERIMENT. Put some of your favorite pieces together that usually wouldn't "match", and just go from there. When you've got a good look, you'll know it! 
-H&M

"Grunge"

Megan described this photoshoot as "grunge". I had never heard that adjective before but after saying it about 1,000 times yesterday I think I got the feel of it. With this crazy weather in Virginia we're going from hot to cold on a daily basis, and since we're keeping this as updated as possible, the weather will affect our posts until things start leveling out. But that's beside the point, so can we just talk about this outfit please?! Megan's combinations never cease to amaze, and here is one of our favorites. Here she has a camel leather jacket, with a cream infinity scarf and simple long necklace. The necklace is just a little extra detail which helps pull the top half of this ensemble together.

Now for the good stuff. The focal point here is is a pair of dark wash leopard print skinnys. The colors for the entire outfit were centered around the subtle black and brown tones in the pants. And of course we have the all time favorite, a camel suede wedge.

Megan's planning for this outfit was really quite simple. She says her strategy is to pick one "wow" piece to be the focal point, around which the others are centered. Then just choose different pieces with different textures and flows but the similar color scheme. I think we can all agree that this strategy works out quite nicely, and could also be really easy for anyone to accomplish! So here's "grunge", from H&M.

P.S. Our favorite shot from this shoot is the third one below!

Flashback to the Beginning

Well we haven't gotten a chance to do another photoshoot, but we really want to keep this blog as up and running as possible, so here's an older picture of Megan (Fall 2012). This is when we first started doing photoshoots and just realizing how much we both love fashion and photography. We've both come a really long way since then, and hopefully we'll continue to grow in the future. With this new blog (and corresponding Instagram account @handmfashionblog) we hope to expand our knowledge and passion for this art form by sharing it with all who want to see!

By the way, this picture shows a rare occasion- Megan in a somewhat outdoorsy/country look. Although we would drop everything in an instant to make a move to our city of dreams, NYC, we are in fact from the south. So this is acceptable.... in GREAT moderation. ;)

More From Our First Shoot

Here are two more of our favorites from our first shoot. We are already loving this blog and are just proud of ourselves for putting it together. As we wrap up the photos from our first shoot, here's to many more photoshoots, posts, and lots of fashion. But most importantly, here's to us creating a blog that (hopefully) many readers like you will enjoy viewing, just as much as we love making it. See you soon,
-H&M

The first signs of Spring!

Time for our first post! The mountains are finally starting to dethaw after a long winter here in Virginia, and so we thought it the prime opportunity for our first shoot. Here's Megan in a cream lace dress with a camel skinny belt. The dress is layered with a simple denim jacket, and accessorized with a neutral toned long necklace. She's also wearing her favorite shoes, a camel suede wedge by Steve Madden. Today's nice weather is hopefully the start to a wonderful spring season! Thanks for viewing, and since we're new to this, any comments or advice is greatly appreciated! Until next time,
-H&M

Getting Started

Hello everyone! It's Heath and Megan here, starting our very first blog! We're both very new to the blogging world, but figured we'd give it a go. Our topic is simply fashion. We have a love for this, what we see as, an artform and are really excited to share it with the world. Each post will feature a photo of our very own Megan, modeling the look for that particular post, taken by Heath, the photographer. Hopefully the post will start coming soon! Until then,
-H&M