Ellos X-Mas&Party magalog...

Ellos magalog is a magazine that comes out monthly and it has its focus on design and inspiration. The designers play a very important role in its development and they have the liberty to showcase the products based on how they envisioned the trend and their concept.

After the designers receive the so-called flat-plan- a basic scheme of the magalog which includes among others the placement of photos on each page (basic photos, location photos, campaigns and still lifes) and how many pages must be covered by each concept, they start building the outfits for the magalog according to the product category; the products that need to be showcased are the A products (volume products/trendy key items) which have a really good retail price. The designers, design manager, the stylist and a representative of the marketing department attend a “Handing in” meeting where the designers present the outfits to the stylist and explain how they want the products to be showcased. In our case, the meeting I attended was about the X-Mas&Party magalog, which comes out in November 2015 and the photo-shooting takes place next week in Stockholm. The main goal of the meeting is to make sure that the stylist and marketing department deliver through the photos what the designers want to express with their collections. The outfits are presented, combined with different accessories, placed in the magalog page order to see if it is cohesive and meets the magalog theme. The designers may give indications about details like make-up, hair, accessories, which garments need close-up photos in order to evidentiate sequins, embroideries, prints, but also things like the rolled up sleeves of a shirt, an unbuttoned shirt...small details that create the feeling of the trend and the concept, just as the designer envisioned it....but always keeping in mind the Ellos customer.

In the end, the magalog presents a story in which the outfits, locations and the fashion still lifes merge together. This process is not a common thing amongst fashion companies, but since the Ellos catalog has been changed to a magalog, the design plays a great part. It was really interesting to see how this process takes place and how big of a role the designers have in the creation of the magalog....

Mirela