Yes, this plate is insanely packed. This was the moment I realized that I had to rethink my plating overall. Originally I had each character on a plate of his own except that Niall’s plate looked really spare and weird.
I knew putting the two together was too much, but the only other option was to add more items from the Gucci collection, which, I’ll be honest, for the men I wasn’t that crazy about.
As it is, I made some pretty weak choices with this designer. Too much red and black! Also, Lonan is doomed to have a closet full of black jeans apparently. That’s okay, though. Sometimes it just is what it is.
I did try to challenge myself to attempt a plaid-like/checked design, which is pretty much near-impossible without gradients. You can see in the colored version of Niall’s pants at least that these things aren’t nearly as ugly as they look in black and white.
I also wanted to take a stab at some printed t-shirts. The cats are hideous (but that’s really what they looked like!). I like the snake and it was fun to draw. Niall’s satin jacket was a late addition and I kind of fudged some of the details, but it came out all right.
Part of the problem was that I was just trying to follow the lead with the women: Gucci there, Gucci here. Bad idea. I won’t be forcing that again! Still, each plate offers its own interesting problems to solve and I’m glad I didn’t just pitch this one out. Also, I like their shoes.
Though, Lonan: I’m pretty sure those boots don’t actually go well with those pants rolled that way. That said, it seems totally in-character for him to make that mistake. I’m sure Niall would tease him mercilessly for it.
I have one more sort of overstuffed plate for Lonan and Niall, but afterwards things will even out. The characters will share plates so that there’s a balance. I always like keeping a single character per plate (in case someone only likes x and not y), but this makes the process easier. And I like making the colored thumbnails with multiple characters instead of just one.
All of these first eleven plates came from mixing and matching on farfetch.com, but I’ll be getting into actual runway stuff after this.
Next up: gowns from Marchessa!
[click this link or the black & white plate to download a printable .pdf]
