Planning the shoot:

This is a shoot I started organizing last year before Christmas and shot at the end of January with photographer Max Wanger. The concept was friends having a good time together. When I was planning it, I spent a lot of time location scouting, looking for just the right house that had a casual feel.

Scouting locations:

I didn’t want a modern, suburban-looking house. I wanted something that looked urban, that had character and charm, but was also a bit bohemian. After many days of scouting, I found this great house in Hollywood. It’s a Craftsman-style bungalow with nice front and back porches, a beautiful backyard and garden, and an outside dining area. It also had nice rooms inside that worked well for the different themes we wanted to shoot.

Covering several themes:

One of the main themes of the shoot is friendship. I also wanted to capture a Christmas theme. A lot of what we have as far as Christmas content for the Ivy collection is family oriented. I wanted to shoot this in a way that’s authentic and showcases younger people celebrating the holidays.

Getting the look:

One of my aims is to help make the models feel very comfortable on set. I’m always trying to bring out natural smiles. I’m the joke teller, trying to get a laugh to capture that natural reaction which always looks so much better.

Casting talent:

I use models from a number of different sources. Sometimes I’ll contact agencies. Sometimes I’ll post castings online or reach out to friends and friends of friends. I also like working with actors — people who aren’t print models. I like people to act through scenarios. I’ll usually tell a story and ask the talent to act out the scene. This way, we’re capturing a realistic moment.

I wear many hats.

Selecting the wardrobe:

When I’m doing a shoot like this, I like to get the wardrobe from different sources. It involves a lot of shopping, which I do myself. I also have talent bring things from home, so we end up with a mix. I had a wardrobe stylist on the day of the shoot who helped mix and match items. And every time we do a different scene, we change wardrobe to make sure we get a variety of styles and a range of colors.