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

Teenagers has just dropped on my website and is finally making it's way over to a feed near you thanks to the OG girl gang Olive and Frank. With that said, now seemed like the best time to give you insight into the making of Teenagers, what Heathers actually is and my style tips for creating the ultimate 80's mean girl look.

Greetings and salutations, welcome to Westerberg High.

Heathers is one of my all time favourite movies, long before the ever popular Heathers: The Musical but admittedly after my discovery of the teen movie.

Like any 90's kid, my first taste of the cool girl clique was Mean Girls though for those who have never seen Heathers it is basically the same, only darker. Before there was Regina George, there was Heather Chandler and she makes her look like a pussycat.

Heathers defined the concept of "the mean girl" and unlike the 90's who sited "booger" as a zinger of an insult, Heathers wasn't afraid to cut deep spawning famous quotes such as "did you have a brain tumour for breakfast?" and "fuck me gently with a chainsaw" all from the original HBIC Heather Chandler.

The 80's/90's were the best decade for movies but maybe not for fashion.

Introduced to "real movies" (80's and 90's) by my mum and her sisters, they tend to be the backbone that inspire my work, though I always try and put a signature Jessica spin on every shoot I style and direct.

Heathers spoke to me particularly due to the film's fashion, each girl having their own unique colour which has a different meaning. Whereas the plastics wear pink only on Wednesdays, Heather Chandler will always wear red, have a red room, use the red croquet ball and you'll have to kill her in order to 'be' it (no pun intended).

The challenge of Teenagers was taking the film's aesthetic of 80's prep and keeping that wearable to a younger generation. Most cosplays I see of Heathers are exactly that and as much as I love my girl Heather C, those shoulder pads and golf socks should stay in '88 where they belong.

So how do you make '88 fashionable in 2K17?

Looking at each character individually I noted what was cute and what needed an overhaul.

To keep it current I made each girl an Instagram profile to moodboard their looks and after making a few I started to get a few reoccurring themes.

Skater skirts, sports shoes, long socks, statement jackets and baggy shirts became the wardrobe of the girls whilst slushies, high ponies and pom-poms were must-be accessories.

From that moment I had Olive and Frank in mind and I admittedly hounded poor Chloe from their social media department until she agreed to collaborate with me on the project.

Regardless of outcome the centrepiece for the entire project was always going to be Heather C's "Heartbreaker" jacket which my mum even offered to buy as a gift if Olive and Frank said no. Though Veronica is the film's heroine, Heather C is a "mythic bitch" and nothing said mythic like the O+F jacket.

Olive and Frank made the shoot for sure and all outfits featured are still on sale if you want to unleash your inner 80's bad girl.

Despite being an 80's shoot, there's deffo a 90's influence.

If at any point you looked at the edit and thought Clueless you weren't alone. Both Paige (Heather McNamara) and Krystyna (Heather Chandler) asked if I had seen Clueless before Teenagers to which the obvious reply was "Ugh, As If" (I actually went as Cher for Halloween in 2015).

One of the best styling tips I have ever remembered was from the stylist behind Clueless about Cher and Dione's socks. Both characters are mostly seen wearing them over the knee to look more high fashion and less schoolyard which under the knee typically suggest. Thigh high socks plus Cher's famous yellow plaid skirt made it's way into Teenagers though Heather M's skirt is purely a coincidence.

I hope this gave you some insight into Teenagers and if you have not yet seen Heathers you will. What's your damage? You so totally won't regret it.