Janette Ewen

For many years I worked at magazines like House and Home, Chatelaine and Chocolat, so a great deal of my time was spent at photo shoots, styling everything from living rooms to summer fashions to food. These days I work more in TV and so I’m not at photo shoots as much as I wish I could be. (I just need about 10 hours more a day!)

Recently, (to my total delight) Alan Pourvakil, owner of W Studio, asked me to put together ten trend looks using his decorative carpets as a backdrop. We (me and my new styling partner in crime Jeska) had to move quickly, as Alan wanted the images to be featured at his IDS booth and IDS opens today!

The first thing we did was secure my favourite photographer Magda Majczak. She has a great eye and specializes in fashion and beauty and we really wanted the shoot to have a fashion edge. Then we pulled furniture from Telio and Primavera, two very high-end showrooms located at Designers Walk. (I was so afraid we would break something!) All of the furnishings were so beautiful (look at the tassels pictured below, all silk!) and the luxe décor really complimented the carpets we had selected.

Being the frugal shopper I am, Jeska and I also hit up Urban Outfitters, HomeSense, H&M and vintage store Cabaret (which is where we found a gorgeous gold dress for our faded glamour vignette). We compiled enough accessories to create ten amazing trends that really reflect the trends happening in fashion and décor right now. We also had SO much fun.  

So what’s your take home tip? Styling a shoot is really how we all should think about styling our homes. Collect and gather furnishings and accessories that you feel some sort of connection to, then arrange them, rearrange them, and swap them out for other options. They key is to play until the look is right. This exercise, overtime, will train your eye to almost instantly gauge if a look is working or isn’t!