Sticky Trap: Food Type collab with Nick Fancher

The correlation between candy and fashion was not initially obvious beyond the choking hazard, however, candy's saccharine mockery of adult vices (smoking, hard drugs, and expensive jewelry being easy examples) intrigued me. These vices can stem from childhood habits, and the tension felt reminiscent of bittersweet adolescence. Trap fashion inhabits this ambiguous space, therefore I focused my research and devised a series of type related pieces. 

I brought fashion photographer Nick Fancher the concept and split art direction, lettering construction, and retouching duties while he photographed, produced, and color processed files. I prototyped twisted, coated wires reading "Queen"; each was submerged into a hyper-saturated syrup for four hours. The pieces hung dry and the best one was chained by yours truly. Twenty candy necklaces were broken apart and placed into a $, then restrung vertically using the original elastic string, fishing line, and wire for weight bearing support. To counter such a large Kanye-esque piece, I made candy-ass knuckles out of taffy baked onto modeling clay. Smartee rings were ground to match the model's finger size. To subsidize these looks, I created gum ball hoops, a marshmallow rope charm bracelet of printed and traditional gum balls, and a bib necklace of lollipops and fondant.

To break into the fashion world, I needed a fashion-able copilot. Enter Columbus based photographer Nick Fancher. Nick carves light the way some discard a candy wrapper: instinctively, deftly. Like mine, his work is scrappy and resourcefully produced, which made him the perfect partner. He not only shot but produced the set, bringing the best people to the table. The final set is mouthwatering but powerful, pure hard candy.

Photography & Production // Nick Fancher

Styling // Whitney Moore

Hair & Makeup // Leigh Ann Ehmann

Modeling // Isabella Silveirra