Leyla Ugarte‘s Ocean Dreams is a double tribute. On the one hand it’s a tribute to a trend of the season: fashion’s infatuation with the underwater world of mythical mermaids and oceanic life. That much is clear from Ugarte’s styling and photography, the former taking in everything from billowy kaftans to jellfish-like prints, sparkles and sequins and nautical tailoring, while the latter, her photography, used clever backdrops and effects to emulate a vision of the briny deep.
Her more personal tribute is meanwhile to Spanish designer Jesús del Pozo, who the world lost last year. Ugarte refers to him as “a pioneer in Spanish fashion, a genius and one of [her] favorite designers” and features Pozo’s pieces heavily in the shoot both as a tribute to his talent and as congratulations to his team “for the great work they are making in his absence (fantastic F/W ’12 collection) and rejoice for the great designer Josep Font taking the creative direction of the firm and the task to immortalize his legacy.”
With Ana Torroja’s song Como Sueñan las Sirenas (The Way Mermaids Dream) in mind helping to shape the softly colored images, Ugarte turned model Lara Colmenarejo into one of the season’s dreaming mermaids.
View the full shoot at the gallery above.
