Take a peek behind the scenes of the Spring/Summer 2018 campaign, Cali Living.

Spring is in the air, ladies, and it smells so sweet in Malibu. For the next couple of months we will be showing you all of the stylish new Spring/Summer shoes on our social media spaces, and we’ll even show you how to style them on our Journal. From laceless sneakers to classic sandals, our newest collection is redesigned in a refreshing and innovative way. But before we do that, we wanted to take you behind the scenes of our latest photo shoot so you can get a glimpse of what goes on behind all of the glitz and glamour.

We shot over the course of two days, at two different locations. The first shoot day was at a stunning mid-century modern beach house in Malibu. Large circular windows provided overwhelming views of the Pacific Ocean which was just a few feet away. Spray from the huge crashing waves below splashed those of us who were on the top story of the multi-level deck! It was awesome. Once we wrapped at the beach house, we made our way to the iconic Malibu Pier. The weather was warm and the sun was shining – it was a perfect day to shoot on the pier. Visiting tourists were eager to know what we were shooting, and even snapped a few sneaky photos themselves.

Day two brought us to Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey. This beach has almost four miles of ocean frontage and nearly 300 acres of sand. Not to mention, a bike path that crosses through it, volleyball courts, fire rings and picnic tables. It is one of the most popular beaches in Los Angeles County and an iconic place to shoot. Day two was all about having fun under the sun! We rode around on beach cruisers, scooters, skateboards, and we even used an awesome retro 1984 Volkswagon Vanagon Riviera (which had been built out as an adventure mobile) for some shots. The sweet ride has padded side walls, custom curtains, rotating speakers, a couch that flips down into a bed, and custom built cabinets. Hello dream-mobile! We ended the day with a gorgeous sunset and huge, satisfied smiles.

Have a look at a few candid behind the scenes shots below.

We had a dream team for this year’s Spring/Summer photo shoot! Celeb hair and makeup artist, Suzy, glammed up our two models, Yared and Caitlyn. Melodi Meadows brought her unique Cali style to our shoot as our stylist. Photographers, Derek Wood and Joanna Rentz, created the gorgeous shots that you see on our website and Andrew Garcia captured the vibe in video form! Produced and directed by Blowfish Malibu superstars, Karen and Nikol.

When one thinks about the fall and winter seasons, orange leaves, crisp wind, and shorter days may come to mind. But here in Southern California we experience a different kind of fall and winter from the rest of the country. While other states may feel the change in weather and season, Californians slightly and subtly slide into Fall. Though small, we do (believe it or not) experience change and of course there are places in Southern California that receive snowfall. But for our 2017 Fall/Winter campaign, we couldn’t help but be inspired by our vast desert landscapes.

Located 45 minutes north of Downtown LA is 932 acres of spectacular rock formations known as Vasquez Rocks. Since 1935, these otherworldly formations have been used as a backdrop in motion pictures, television series, and in moving and still-image campaigns and advertisements. After our location scout, we quickly decided that Vasquez Rocks would be the perfect backdrop for “Desert Wanderer”. (Even though it was close to 100 degrees when we were there!)

That’s one of the tricky parts about fashion photo shoots; we shoot them a few seasons ahead of time. Wardrobe plays a huge role in our campaigns, as we see our vision come to life. We were lucky enough to work with professional and well-known stylist, Melodi Meadows. When asked to describe her process, she said, “we were inspired by a bohemian grunge look, so we pulled from cool festival looks and kind of put our own spin on it, and added a fall vibe to it. We focused on a lot of layering with leathers and lace, and used cool hairpieces. Then we just mixed it all together.”

For this campaign, we decided to do something a little different and chose to shoot just one model, when usually we use two. But of course our model, Karina, was amazing and didn’t need a counterpart to showcase all of our product. Not only is she beautiful, but she was a true champ as we shot for over eight hours in 100+ degree weather! Overall, we could not have had a better crew for the Fall/Winter campaign – everyone was truly fantastic!

Take a look at it all come together in our behind the scenes video below:

Photographer (Derek Wood): @derekwood

Videographer (Andrew Garcia): @matrimonymedia

Hair & Makeup (Suzie Kim): @suziekmakeup

Stylist (Meloldi Meadows): @babynative

Model (Karina Nichols): @kaarines