Popular made it's way onto my site last August and despite not gaining the same level of popularity as Teenagers (ironic I know), it was definitely my favourite in terms of set design. With a few new ideas in the pipeline, and a recent surge of activity on Pinterest, now seemed like the best time to reflect on Popular and explore the do's and don'ts of my Mean Girls shoot and how to become a modern day Miss George.
Let it all out Honey. Put it in the book.
There is no doubt about it, Mean Girls is the teen movie of our generation. If you traded Katy Perry's I Kissed A Girl to your friends via bluetooth on your hot pink Motorola Razr, the chances are Mean Girls was your go to sleepover flick.
With all my shoots reflecting on my love of pop culture it was only natural that Mean Girls would come to serve as inspiration. However timing truly is everything and whilst my Heathers idea was completely on trend and was unplanned, I was sadly about three months too late to the Mean Girls party.
Popular was posted in the middle of the Mean Girls revival and as a result, despite my best efforts it got lost in the noise created by bigger brands like Spectrum, which was sad.
Despite my love for the collection (I acually own the Burn Book set and brushes) the marketing around the products left a lot to be desired, in my opinion. Spectrum’s take on Mean Girls was certainly different to mine though I did enjoy the clothing choice for the models.
The link is here, just for comparison, though I do urge you to look at their collection as it is amazing.
Regina George is flawless. She has two Fendi purses and a silver Lexus.
When coming to put ideas on paper I turned to my trusty friend Photoshop and tried to plan social media profiles for the girls. The artistic direction behind Popular was to update the looks of Regina George and her gal pals to the present day, and look at popularity through the lens of modern girlhood, with of course a splash of 00s styling.
To me being a girl in the digtal age is taking selfies, feeling self conscious, fluffy phone cases and polaroid photos. Some girls are brave enough to tie a knot in their t-shirt, others keep them on by the pool. Girlhood is different to every girl. We all feel self conscious and although we preach self love and sisterhood some of us look at our friends and wonder why we can't be like them, which I did want to explore in the shoot.
Popular felt less polished than Teenagers for that reason but Mean Girls is about the imperfect nature of what it is to be a girl. All the plastics feel self conscious and despite appearing to be cold shiny plastic they are real girls with self confidence problems, they just hide it better. The scene were they all gather round the mirror was definately a centerpiece in the planning process so I made sure Regina’s room had a large mirror for the girls to crowd arond and take selfies.
One time I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops. So I bought army pants and flip flops.
What makes the plastic mythic is how they dress and the lifestyle they lead which was what I tried to focus on.
To make it instantly recognisable they had to be in pink hues, because it’s only natural on Wednesdays right?
Unlike 90s heroines like Cher Horwitz, 00s girls rocked mini skirts, tiny bags and bare legs which I made sure was included.
What made their looks extravagant was use of texture and personalisation. All their shoes were fluffy or sparkling. They had statement phone cases and lipglossed lips. Although you’d never believe someone to turn up to school looking like that, I wanted it to seem as though these girls would and you would be envious to look like them rather than think it was impratical.
So then, for my birthday party, which was an all-girls pool party.
Throwing Regina's pool party was easily the best part of shooting and helped to sell you on the lifestyle of the girls. What made it more fun was that it hadn’t ever been tackled in the movie althogh it was piviotal reference and as a pool float conisseur I had to try my hand at it.
No stranger to a pool party myself, I blew up the props of the summer, had my boyfriend blow up one hundred pink balloons, poured the girls some milkshakes (happy hour is from 4-6) and ran around the pool trying to capture the best angles of the girls.
It wasn’t like anything I’d done before because trying to pose as the wind blows you up and down the pool wasn’t easy for the girls but I found the pool photos came out the best of the bunch along with the car.
Keeping the girls in the shirts was a consious choice due to wanting to show them of for Olive and Frank, but also it gave the girls more of a personality beyond simple swimwear and made them seem more extravagent splashing around in a sequined backpack.
Thank U, Next.
Teenagers, had me thinking I had worked out the algorithm of what an audience of my generation wanted. I had figured out that you liked what I was posting which refernced movies you had seen and recreate it in an aesthetic fashion with a style you could relate to. I think my issue here with my shoot was I was bit too late and then slightly too early. I also think like Heathers I could have maybe hammered home the refernces a little bit better which is what people like.
What made Teenagers so different was that no editorial had tried to tackle Heathers before and whilst I loved the imagery I got from Popular and preferred the set design, the photos taken were not recognisable enough without explanation. If they had been to accompany a collab like Spectrum, I might have found Popular would have had more success.
However it seems a certain Miss Grande might be to thank for a recent surge in activity on Popular. My photos taken on my polaroid camera have recently started to take off online which I am thankful for as Popular was such a joy to shoot I wanted people to see what I had tried to create.
I hope this gave you some insight into Popular and it in some way inspires you to throw your own all girls pool party before the summer is well and truly gone. Let me know if you need any tips!
Until then,
Thank U, Next.
Jessica