Detour is a comedic, slightly absurd editorial, basically a visual fever dream, and I mean that in the best way. It was inspired by those weird, completely nonsensical dreams we all have, where you wake up and go, What just happened? When I was conceptualising this shoot, I wanted to lean into that chaotic dream-logic and just have fun with it. I asked myself: What’s the most ridiculous scenario I could build a fashion story around? That’s how I landed on the idea of a hippopotamus chasing two models, who are just trying to go on a road trip but keep running into the most bizarre obstacles. It’s about the fun in the fear, the comedy in the chaos. I wanted it to feel like a fashion editorial that could double as a comedy sketch. Something that makes people laugh and also makes them wonder, What was going on in that girl’s head when she came up with this? From the first image to the last, the story unfolds like a linear sequence of increasingly outrageous events.
It opens with Marty looking up in excitement, being attacked by falling oranges. At first, he finds it fun-like, Wow! Oranges from the sky! But the fun quickly fades when the oranges start trampling him. He scrambles into the van to escape, only to realise: this is no friendly fruit. These oranges are out to kill. I loved the idea of turning something as harmless as an orange, round, soft, innocent into a threat. There's something really playful about making a fruit the villain of the story.
Meanwhile, Cosima is having the time of her life inside the caravan. The first shot shows her relaxed and joyful, with a bright blue sky overhead. But as things start going wrong, the sky turns gray and ominous. Suddenly, she’s tiny in comparison to a huge flower pot that looks like it might crush her. She starts screaming for help.
The weather played a huge role in setting the tone for each moment. I was really intentional about using natural light and the changing skies to represent emotional shifts. The bright blue skies symbolised happiness, while the darker, overcast backgrounds brought in a sense of danger and fear. Even though the weather was unpredictable, it ended up working in our favour, it helped shape the narrative visually.
In the next sequence, Marty is meant to be navigating the route using a map, except it’s not a map. It’s just a book. So of course, he’s completely lost and confused.
We also included a duo shot of Marty peeling an orange, which could be interpreted as them “defeating” the enemy. Maybe they made it through? But then, Cosima screams. They turn around, and there it is: a hippopotamus. From that moment on, it’s full-on survival mode. They scramble back into the caravan, trying to figure out where the hippo is or how to outrun it. But now, it’s not just a hippo, they start encountering all sorts of wild animals, including snakes. One shot shows Marty being choked by a snake, while Cosima is nowhere to be seen. The final shot? A hippopotamus on a rampage, emerging from the van. That’s how the editorial ends. This shoot was really about pushing myself creatively exploring how far I could take a comedic concept, and whether I could bring the same level of thought and vision to something humorous as I would to a cultural or emotionally resonant idea.
Detour is wild, weird, and a little bit chaotic but that’s exactly what makes it so much fun. I struggled with ensuring the location and the weather does not interfere with the concept I was trying to put forward, I used the mishaps in real life to my advantage by turnign them into mishaps happening in the story.
