Chris Daniels and I did this collaboration earlier this year and I thought Halloween was the perfect time to share it. This was a character I had created for my halloween costume last year and Chris loved it so much that he wanted to create a shoot out of it. We got together over coffee and created a concept of Cruella after her demise. A sort of other reality where Cruella had lost most everything- but still maintained a delusion of wealth and Granduer. So we dreamed up all sorts of normal low class things that this Cruella would find herself doing and then, on my way home, I came across the perfect retro laundry mat as a first location.
My concept of this version of Cruella was something of an Aristocrat gone mad. I didn’t want to be afraid of ugliness, both physically and with the character development, as Chris and I both wanted to create a sort of hyper reality of what would really happen if this Cruella was real. The fun really started when we went to the location as we shot this in a unique way with me being in full character the entire time and Chris shooting in a paparazzi type of fashion. We scared a few people as I was acting quite drunken and maniacal- when I finally broke character after about 30 minutes, one woman looked so completely relieved.
Besides being an exploration of Cruella on the verge- we wanted to start to tap into the concepts of materialism gone mad- Cruella as the metaphor for the ultimate in materialism gone off the rails and the resulting insanity that ensues.
Before and after:
Elisabeth Donaldson 
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