Meet Natalie Vest-Jones, a Fashion Styling and Creative Direction from Solent University. Natalie’s range of skills, from styling to makeup artistry have served her well through her degree, and her final year project. Diversity in the fashion industry is a real passion for Natalie, and it’s something she intends to bring with her throughout her career. “A lot of the inspiration for my imagery is beauty based, and so I think it is really important to show beauty in all different skin tones, sizes, and gender,” she says. “Growing up with multiple cultures in my family (African-American and Danish) has allowed me to find the beauty in being different, and that being different is also more interesting and exciting.” Read on to learn more about Natalie!
What is the most valuable thing you have learnt at university?
While there are many valuable things that I have learned at university, I would say the most valuable thing that university has taught me is how to be critical yet confident in my own work. This has enabled me to evaluate my images and fix things that need improvement so that I can put forward the best possible outcome. The crit-sessions, 1-1 sessions, and self-evaluations that are carried out at university, have helped me develop the sense of security I have in what I create. Being able to point out my flaws always allows for a stronger result, whether it is a pitch, presentation, report or imagery.
It has really helped me to gain a critical but confident approach to my work as it helps me in many situations such as: selecting my best work to display on my portfolio, creating and selecting images most suitable for briefs, and presenting or proposing concepts. Being able to listen to constructive criticism in order to improve and tailor my work for these circumstances, along with many others, gives me confidence in knowing that I have created and provided carefully considered, quality work.
Overall, I am very glad to have learned this from my university because it will allow me to grow throughout my entire career and can be applied to much more than just my creative work. I strongly believe that there is always more to learn and room to grow, so having the skills to critique myself will allow me to always be able to look back at my older work, and see my flaws and what I have improved on. This will ultimately allow me to grow and improve by correcting my mistakes, and cause me to be a bit more confident which each project that I complete.
Tell us about your current projects and work, what have you been working on?
Much of my work is beauty and fashion based creative direction, and so currently I am eagerly waiting for the unfortunate circumstances to pass so that I can safely work on models again. However the projects I have recently finished consist of a mixture of photoshoots, moving image and proposals. One of my favorite recent projects was exploring a contemporary spin on 80s fashion and makeup. I titled this photo series Diamante Disco. For this project, I heavily researched 80s style and history along with current trends in order to produce a futuristic 80s beauty editorial series. I have a strong background as a makeup artist so I enjoyed doing the makeup for this shoot.
I also styled and directed this shoot, as well as challenged myself to photograph it. My purpose for this shoot was to bring back the fun, colourful 80’s beauty trends, but make it diverse and incorporate current trends. This project was one of my personal favourites since I got so much freedom to play with makeup. Another project I really enjoyed was following a live brief to create a promotional video for my university’s student-run and stocked shop. During this project I created a thorough brand analysis and concept proposal, which was then followed by my final outcome which was a one minute video that I directed, styled and edited. The concept of the promotional video was highlighting the hand-crafted and “made with love” feeling that is evoked when you purchase student-made creations.
To develop this concept further and had a custom song produced for the video that featured the sound of sewing machines. And to support the ethos of the student-run shop, I organised student models and a student videographer to help create this film. After releasing the video, Our student shop, Re:So, ended up reaching out to me to ask if they could use my film and images, so I was happy with the outcome as it gave me insight into successfully creating promotional work for a brand. These two projects represent some of my favourite things to work on which is, creative direction and beauty/ Make up. I am excited to get back into more projects when things safely and slowly go back to normal, until then I will be keeping my makeup skills sharp on myself and be generating ideas and concepts for the future.
What form does your project take?
With the Fashion Styling and Creative Direction course, one thing I absolutely love is that we can produce work in so many forms and mediums considering that the course covers so many skills, such as styling, photography, makeup and direction. I suppose, if you consider a mainly fashion styling based approach, you could style for events, photoshoots, films, commercials etc. If you are focused on beauty, the form could be the mediums of the makeup itself, the final outcome of an editorial image, or maybe a red carpet look. If you are taking a photography based route, I supposed the form that your work would take is either digital or print.
And lastly, if your mostly focused on creative direction, the form of your work could be almost anything. I am mostly engaged in creative direction and I would say that most of my outcomes are editorial or advertorial images, and film. But I would love to get more involved with magazines (online and print) and events such as catwalks or presentations. As a visual thinker, I think it is most natural for me that my concepts are brought to life as images or film, and I love the freedom I have with post-producing that can allow me to create anything I can imagine. In my course we learn a lot about layout design and creating images that are on-brand for various magazines both online and in print, so much of my work takes on the form of editorial images.
As for the future, I have always been interested in the combination of music and visuals, and how that can change the meaning of a song, so I would like to have more experience with directing and styling music videos. I would also love to work with a designer as a creative director and stylist and experience developing the set and aesthetic of a catwalk show for a collection. I look forward to one day expanding the form that my work takes to go beyond 2D imagery.
How have you evolved as a young creative while studying / working?
When I first started at university, the only real skill I brought with me was being a makeup artist. I had barely ever held a camera, I did not have a great grasp on what the job of a stylist entailed, and was not very confident in my work. I can see such a massive change in myself now compared to then. I think the main thing that helped me evolve throughout my time at university was my eagerness to learn new skills and my ability to take on new challenges and accept all opportunities that came my way. The biggest changes I have made are, firstly, all of the vital technical skills I have gained in photography, post-production, and trend analysis. Secondly, having confidence in the work I produce and the ability to back up the decisions I’ve made in projects. And lastly, being surrounded by other creatives, and developing my leadership skills.
The technical knowledge has given me the tools I need to produce high-quality work. Gaining confidence has allowed me to work more effectively and take on all opportunities that come my way. And being in an environment filled with creatives has helped prepare me for life after university. Hardships have also allowed me to evolve as a person, as they do with everyone, and they have taught me to wait and see what might be a blessing in disguise. To conclude, I would have never thought I would be where I am now, when I first started at university. I am now able to develop and communicate abstract concepts, produce thorough proposals and research, and create unique imagery. I am looking forward to finding out which doors may open for me in the future and how I might evolve from those experiences.
What are the messages and themes behind your project that you want people to take away? Do explore any topics like diversity, sustainability or politics in your work?
From a creative direction point of view, I think it is vital that my images tell a story to the viewer. I think my work usually tells a whimsical, edgy or light-hearted story because that is just what personally speaks to me and what my imagination consists of. I have never been one for sad or scary films, because I find there to be enough sadness and horror in the world, so I like for the images I create to feel like an escape into happier imaginary situations. With that said, I still appreciate work that includes more dark and realistic themes, since we do not live in a perfect world and those stories need to be told as well.
Diversity is a topic that is ingrained in me and throughout most of my work, regardless of the concepts or briefs that I follow, I always make space to incorporate diversity. A lot of the inspiration for my imagery is beauty based, and so I think it is really important to show beauty in all different skin tones, sizes, and gender etc. Growing up with multiple cultures in my family (African-American and Danish) has allowed me to find the beauty in being different, and that being different is also more interesting and exciting. While working in the fashion industry, producing imagery or editorials that are unique and exciting is the goal, so I find that embracing diversity has endless benefits in this area. Overall, I would say that the common theme in my images is that they are often telling a story of dramatic and fantasized situations, to offer an escape to an aesthetically vivid and inclusive world.
What’s an aspect of the fashion industry that you’re passionate about fixing or having a positive impact on?
One aspect of the fashion industry that I am passionate about fixing is the under-representation of people of colour and instances of cultural appropriation. All cultures have beautiful creations and in an industry where giving credit where it is due is so important, borrowing from cultures (especially marginalized or minority cultures) needs to be held to a higher standard. Most creatives coming out of university have had to do extensive research on various topics for their projects, and I think that if you can give your energy to research one area, then you should also be able to research the culture you might be borrowing from and the possible ramifications your project may have on that culture.
I always try my hardest to represent people from different backgrounds in my imagery because it is only fair that everyone is able to see themselves represented in fashion and because I believe diversity is beautiful. I feel that in the fashion industry, brands have a level of responsibility to not treat diversity as a trend, and to represent their consumers equally since they are the ones who ultimately fund the companies. Not to mention, the negative effect that being under represented in the media can have on someone’s mental health.
Mainly emphasizing Eurocentric standards of beauty, makes others feel less than, and left out. Taking from minority cultures and then not crediting or representing them is a continuing issue in the fashion industry. I take deep interest in this topic as it affects me personally because of my ethnic background and because I have a love for the fashion world. I have written my dissertation proposal on this topic and I hope to one day have enough influence in the fashion industry to educate others on the harmful consequences of cultural appropriation and under representation of people of colour.
What is your plan for the future?
My plans for the future include, finishing my bachelors in Fashion Styling and Creative Direction at Solent University, and possibly taking a masters degree in a fashion communication degree in London. Otherwise, I would love to just dive right in to the fashion industry. Since I am mainly interested in beauty and creative direction, there a few different routes I could pursue. One of my dream jobs would be interning or working as a Creative at the RANKIN Agency because I would love to work in a creative environment with some of the best creators, and help develop concepts and ideas for campaigns and editorials for both magazines and brands.
I have always admired Rankin and his team’s work and ethos, especially in Dazed magazine. I would also love to land an internship in the beauty department of an editorial magazine to gain more experience in the ins and outs of the making of magazines. I am currently the Beauty Editor of our student run online magazine, Anon Style, and I would love to gain more experience in this area. The other route I could take would be to focus more on my makeup, and start by assisting makeup artists in the industry, and hopefully eventually be hired to work as a key makeup artist on campaigns, catwalks or editorial shoots. Either way, my next steps are to continue collaborating with other creatives to produce more work, to keep developing my makeup skills, and to be on the lookout for any exciting opportunities that come my way!