Lauren Engelke photographed on Lake Mendota in Madison, WI. 2017. Wearing Madalyn Joy Designs and denim and shoes from her own collection.
Collaboration and community are two very important C words to me... the third being couture. ;) Building a supportive community and network of fellow creatives allows everyone involved to grow and work together which eventually leads to collaboration. It is so easy to scroll through social media and immediately view everyone as competition; however, I try to immediately replace competition with collaboration. Instead of knocking one another down, we should be building one another up and what better way to do that than collaborating and working together!?
Lauren and I met about two years ago when I was organizing Moda's Couture and Cocktails event and she was featuring her designs. I just remembered her being so sweet and talented that when she reached out to me a couple months ago to collaborate, it was an immediate yes! We didn't quite know what we necessarily wanted to do but we knew it would be fun to work together to create something outside of both of our comfort zones.
Eventually we decided on styling some of my designs in a new way inspired by New York Fashion Week street style. I like to describe my style and design aesthetic as classic with a twist so I was all for styling my designs in a new and fresh way. Lauren's inspirational images really honed in on the trend of pairing dresses with denim. It was something fun that I had never thought to try!
We shot the looks on the frozen Lake Mendota in Madison back in January and I think we both just loved how the shots turned out in addition to the cool, fresh styling. I just absolutely love the mix of the velvet gown with the denim and the sneakers! Such an unexpected yet amazing combination!
I loved collaborating with Lauren because it was just so fun and easy going. I just think it is so beneficial to collaborate because each person brings a unique perspective to the table. Thank you Lauren for reaching out and wanting to collaborate! You totally rocked the looks!
xoxo
Madalyn Joy