THE FARM AFFAIR / Case study

Somewhere between the real world and a storybook.

A little wild. A little strange. Somewhere between earth and imagination.

Creative Direction · Fashion Editorial · Photography · Art Direction · Beauty Direction
Fashion editorial
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Somewhere between the real world and a storybook.

The Farm Affair began with the idea of reconnecting fashion with nature, but without treating nature simply as a beautiful backdrop.

We wanted to create a world that felt slightly unreal. A girl. A horse. An open field. An eccentric piece of clothing.

Everything familiar on its own, but when brought together, something more whimsical begins to emerge.

The Farm Affair is an editorial about the meeting point between fantasy and the natural world.

A little nostalgic. A little strange. Deliberately romantic. Almost like discovering a character from another time wandering through a farm.

THE FARM AFFAIR: Somewhere between the real world and a storybook.

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The Idea

The visual direction was built around contradiction.

We wanted the model to feel otherworldly without becoming disconnected from the environment around her.

Her styling has an almost doll like quality. Sculpted hair, pearl detailing, graphic white lashes and exaggerated beauty choices create a character that doesn't entirely belong to everyday reality.

But instead of placing her inside an artificial fantasy set, we put her somewhere completely organic.

Grass beneath her feet. Trees around her. Natural daylight. And most importantly, a horse beside her.

The result sits somewhere between fashion editorial, pastoral portraiture and a modern fairytale.

THE FARM AFFAIR: The Idea

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Fashion Meets the Pastoral

At the centre of the editorial is the designer clothing.

Its illustrated print, structured tailoring and layered silhouette already carry a sense of visual storytelling. Rather than photographing it against a minimal fashion backdrop, we wanted to give the garment a world to inhabit.

The structured silhouette creates an interesting contrast against the irregularity of nature.

Fabric against fur. Print against landscape. Construction against movement. Fashion becomes part of the environment without disappearing into it.

And because the garment itself feels contemporary and unconventional, the imagery never becomes traditionally pastoral.

That tension was important. We weren't trying to recreate the countryside. We were creating our own version of it.

THE FARM AFFAIR: Fashion Meets the Pastoral

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The Horse as a Character

The horse was never intended to function simply as a prop. It became the second character of the story.

Its scale, movement and physical presence immediately change the relationship between the model and the frame.

In some photographs, the model appears almost protected by it. In others, their bodies overlap and become part of the same composition.

There is a softness to the interaction that makes the imagery feel intimate rather than staged.

The horse also brings something fashion photography cannot completely control. Unpredictability. And that became part of the beauty of the project.

THE FARM AFFAIR: The Horse as a Character

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Designing Around the Unpredictable

Working with a live animal meant that traditional posing and rigid shot planning could only take us so far.

A horse doesn't understand the composition. It moves. It looks away. It changes position. It reacts to its surroundings. Instead of fighting that unpredictability, we designed the shoot around it.

The photographer, model and wider creative team had to respond to what was happening in real time, waiting for moments where the movement of the horse, the model's expression, the garment and the composition naturally aligned.

Some of the strongest photographs came from precisely those moments.

The process became less about controlling every element and more about creating the conditions for something unexpected to happen.

THE FARM AFFAIR: Designing Around the Unpredictable

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Building the Character

Beauty played an equally important role in constructing the world.

The hair was intentionally polished and youthful, with pearl detailing introducing an almost storybook femininity.

Then came the white lashes.

Rather than conventional glamorous makeup, the graphic lashes make the face feel slightly surreal, almost illustrated.

There is innocence in the character, but there is also eccentricity. She could be a young aristocrat. A modern princess. A character from an old children's book. Or someone who simply wandered into this landscape from somewhere else.

We deliberately never answer that question.

THE FARM AFFAIR: Building the Character

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Between Vintage and Surreal

The photographic treatment helped complete that ambiguity.

The warm, slightly grainy colour treatment gives parts of the series the feeling of photographs discovered from another era.

Earthy greens, faded blues, warm skin and softened highlights remove the hyper polished quality normally associated with contemporary fashion photography.

The black and white images shift the mood again.

Without colour, attention moves toward shape, gesture and the relationship between the model and the horse.

Together, the two treatments allow the project to exist somewhere outside a clearly defined time.

Not quite vintage. Not quite contemporary. Not quite fantasy. That uncertainty became part of its identity.

THE FARM AFFAIR: Between Vintage and Surreal

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Rooted Fantasy

Surrealism doesn't always require creating something impossible.

Sometimes it comes from rearranging familiar things until reality feels slightly unfamiliar.

That became the creative philosophy behind The Farm Affair. We didn't want fantasy created through elaborate sets or excessive post production. We wanted to find it within reality. A real landscape. A real animal. A real garment.

A deliberately unusual character. The surrealism comes from the relationship between them.

THE FARM AFFAIR: Rooted Fantasy

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The Outcome

The Farm Affair became an exploration of fashion, femininity, nature and controlled unpredictability.

The editorial moves between romantic portraiture and eccentric fashion imagery, between polished styling and an environment that refuses to be completely controlled.

And somewhere within that contrast, a small world emerges.

One where a strangely dressed girl spends an afternoon wandering through a field with a horse.

Whether she belongs there isn't really important. For a few photographs, the world belongs to her. A little wild. A little strange. Somewhere between earth and imagination.

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THE FARM AFFAIR: The Outcome

Kiqa’s role

Creative direction, fashion editorial, photography, art direction and beauty direction.

Disciplines

Creative DirectionPhotographyPost-Production

Project overview and photographs: Kiqa Productions.