sillyberry
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2009
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In this week's Washington Post Magazine, they had an article on TTD (didn't see it posted - my apologies if I missed it!). To think, I hadn't heard of this phenomenon until I stumbled on this forum!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/31/AR2009083101836.html
They also held an online discussion: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/09/03/DI2009090303036.html
ETA: I'm just now reading the online discussion, and some people responded negatively to TTD. But I think it's awesome!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Take 2
They found the perfect dress. They had the perfect ceremony. Now they don the dress again -- and get a little dirty for the sake of art.
By Ellen McCarthy
Sunday, September 6, 2009
ON A RADIANT JULY DAY, Michelle Coates had her hair and makeup done by a stylist, slipped into her designer wedding gown, drove out to the country and submerged herself in the frigid waters of the Shenandoah River. Actually, the early-evening dip came only after Coates had walked through a sunflower patch, lain down on a railroad track, peered through the window of a rusty old Chevrolet truck, pulled crickets out from the tulle of her skirt, hopped on top of a hay barrel, and maneuvered through the mold and cobwebs of an abandoned gas station.
What she never did that day was say, "I do."
That had happened a month earlier, in Las Vegas, when the bride pledged her life to Damion Coates, her boyfriend of three years, posed for traditional photos and kept her $2,000 Maggie Sottero gown immaculate through dinner and late-night dancing. At the river, however, she was all dolled up for one of the newest trends to emerge from America's wedding obsession: the Trash the Dress session.
It is and isn't what the name implies. The ultimate goal of a Trash the Dress shoot is art: to produce striking photos of a woman in a symbolic white dress in a setting in which she would never normally be found -- a gritty alley, perhaps, or a dark coal mine. She is often alone, but is sometimes shot with her husband, and it's rare that the gowns are fully destroyed, though the most honest brides say there is something cathartic about getting a little messy after so many months of fixating on perfection.
"I'm more about the experience and the memories that we'll have forever than just having a dress in a box," explains Coates, a 30-year-old Veterans Affairs employee from Woodbridge whose dress really did take a beating during a four-hour shoot that spanned eight locations that photographer Allison Britton had scouted.
"The whole bottom half is light brown -- it's not good," Coates admits. But despite the risk that her gown would be damaged, she had hired Britton after seeing the results of other Trash the Dress sessions the photographer had shot with local brides. "I thought it was so awesome. You're a regular girl, and you can kind of be a model for the day. It makes you feel different."
Damion, on the other hand, was a little leery. After looking at some Trash the Dress Web sites, "I was like, 'Oh, yeah, that's kind of cool, but would you really want to trash your dress?' And we went back and forth." Eventually he got on board. "I was like, 'Well, I guess you're never really gonna wear it again, so if you want to ... '" For him there was a bonus: "I got to see her in her wedding dress again, which I liked a lot."
Trash the Dress gives brides One More Day. One more day with eyes on them, in the dress they may have dreamed of for years and are often just a little bit loath to let go of once the big day is done.
But this is as much about the photographers as it is about the brides. The trend was started by John Michael Cooper, a Las Vegas wedding photographer who was sick of the standard routine. Okay, now the couple with Grandma Jane. Now the couple with Grandma Ethel. Like many who end up in the business, this was wasn't his original plan. He wanted to shoot old Hollywood-style portraits that reflect his personal aesthetic -- moody, a little dark, verging on spooky.
When a fire burned a thicket of mesquite trees at a nature preserve near Las Vegas in 2000, creating a "wicked little forest," Cooper's reaction was immediate: "I want to do a bridal session there." The recent brides he'd worked with declined his offer to be shot sitting in black ash, so Cooper bought a wedding dress from eBay, asked a friend to wear it and headed into the forest.
He coined the phrase "Trash the Dress" in a 2006 article about the work, though some photographers now disdain the term and have adopted the more affirmative "Rock the Dress" when pitching the idea to clients -- and hoping to add another day's work to the bottom line.
As the phenomenon has spread, photographers have broadened the approach to include almost any shoot that breaks a bride and groom out of the typical wedding context. Often the itineraries are designed to reflect some aspect of the couple's story or interests: scuba divers in the water, nature lovers on the path they walk with their dogs.
And in the process, photographers find themselves unshackled from wedding day constraints. "I get to have creative insight for once," says Britton. "And there's no time limitations."
Still, photographers say most of their brides balk at the mention, and explanation, of a Trash the Dress shoot. It takes a certain kind of bride to try it, one who's a little artistic or rebellious or a bit of an exhibitionist.
As for Michelle Coates, she's still soaring from the thrill of her big days -- both of them -- and waiting to see what the dry cleaner can do about her light-brown dress.
Ellen McCarthy is a staff writer for The Post's Style section. She can be reached at [email protected].
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/31/AR2009083101836.html
They also held an online discussion: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/09/03/DI2009090303036.html
ETA: I'm just now reading the online discussion, and some people responded negatively to TTD. But I think it's awesome!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Take 2
They found the perfect dress. They had the perfect ceremony. Now they don the dress again -- and get a little dirty for the sake of art.
By Ellen McCarthy
Sunday, September 6, 2009
ON A RADIANT JULY DAY, Michelle Coates had her hair and makeup done by a stylist, slipped into her designer wedding gown, drove out to the country and submerged herself in the frigid waters of the Shenandoah River. Actually, the early-evening dip came only after Coates had walked through a sunflower patch, lain down on a railroad track, peered through the window of a rusty old Chevrolet truck, pulled crickets out from the tulle of her skirt, hopped on top of a hay barrel, and maneuvered through the mold and cobwebs of an abandoned gas station.
What she never did that day was say, "I do."
That had happened a month earlier, in Las Vegas, when the bride pledged her life to Damion Coates, her boyfriend of three years, posed for traditional photos and kept her $2,000 Maggie Sottero gown immaculate through dinner and late-night dancing. At the river, however, she was all dolled up for one of the newest trends to emerge from America's wedding obsession: the Trash the Dress session.
It is and isn't what the name implies. The ultimate goal of a Trash the Dress shoot is art: to produce striking photos of a woman in a symbolic white dress in a setting in which she would never normally be found -- a gritty alley, perhaps, or a dark coal mine. She is often alone, but is sometimes shot with her husband, and it's rare that the gowns are fully destroyed, though the most honest brides say there is something cathartic about getting a little messy after so many months of fixating on perfection.
"I'm more about the experience and the memories that we'll have forever than just having a dress in a box," explains Coates, a 30-year-old Veterans Affairs employee from Woodbridge whose dress really did take a beating during a four-hour shoot that spanned eight locations that photographer Allison Britton had scouted.
"The whole bottom half is light brown -- it's not good," Coates admits. But despite the risk that her gown would be damaged, she had hired Britton after seeing the results of other Trash the Dress sessions the photographer had shot with local brides. "I thought it was so awesome. You're a regular girl, and you can kind of be a model for the day. It makes you feel different."
Damion, on the other hand, was a little leery. After looking at some Trash the Dress Web sites, "I was like, 'Oh, yeah, that's kind of cool, but would you really want to trash your dress?' And we went back and forth." Eventually he got on board. "I was like, 'Well, I guess you're never really gonna wear it again, so if you want to ... '" For him there was a bonus: "I got to see her in her wedding dress again, which I liked a lot."
Trash the Dress gives brides One More Day. One more day with eyes on them, in the dress they may have dreamed of for years and are often just a little bit loath to let go of once the big day is done.
But this is as much about the photographers as it is about the brides. The trend was started by John Michael Cooper, a Las Vegas wedding photographer who was sick of the standard routine. Okay, now the couple with Grandma Jane. Now the couple with Grandma Ethel. Like many who end up in the business, this was wasn't his original plan. He wanted to shoot old Hollywood-style portraits that reflect his personal aesthetic -- moody, a little dark, verging on spooky.
When a fire burned a thicket of mesquite trees at a nature preserve near Las Vegas in 2000, creating a "wicked little forest," Cooper's reaction was immediate: "I want to do a bridal session there." The recent brides he'd worked with declined his offer to be shot sitting in black ash, so Cooper bought a wedding dress from eBay, asked a friend to wear it and headed into the forest.
He coined the phrase "Trash the Dress" in a 2006 article about the work, though some photographers now disdain the term and have adopted the more affirmative "Rock the Dress" when pitching the idea to clients -- and hoping to add another day's work to the bottom line.
As the phenomenon has spread, photographers have broadened the approach to include almost any shoot that breaks a bride and groom out of the typical wedding context. Often the itineraries are designed to reflect some aspect of the couple's story or interests: scuba divers in the water, nature lovers on the path they walk with their dogs.
And in the process, photographers find themselves unshackled from wedding day constraints. "I get to have creative insight for once," says Britton. "And there's no time limitations."
Still, photographers say most of their brides balk at the mention, and explanation, of a Trash the Dress shoot. It takes a certain kind of bride to try it, one who's a little artistic or rebellious or a bit of an exhibitionist.
As for Michelle Coates, she's still soaring from the thrill of her big days -- both of them -- and waiting to see what the dry cleaner can do about her light-brown dress.
Ellen McCarthy is a staff writer for The Post's Style section. She can be reached at [email protected].
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