With clients  such as The Arctic Monkeys, This Is England’s Vicky McClure, Ellie Golding and Eliza Doolittle, Sara Darling’s CV reads like our dream dinner party guest list. Working with some of the most eclectic and creative set of individuals that British talent has to offer, Darling was an obvious choice for our Faces Of Scout ad campaign when it came to working with our faces and their wardrobes.

Darling gives us her view on things post shoot with a recap on the optic industry’s exciting new eye candy, set to make things that little bit sweeter.

‘When I heard new eyewear brand Scout were launching in the UK, and were looking for a stylist for their campaign, I began to get excited!

Having worked on shoots on the brand’s creators at Glasses Direct before, I knew that they would have come up with something special, resulting in a top selection of frames, along with some sassy models to compliment them. However, this shoot contained the sassiest yet!

As Scout Eyewear has been designed and inspired with the attitude of ‘anything goes’, the models were chosen for having the same kind of attitude when it came to their wardrobes. Hunted out and selected via the competition set to ‘Find The Faces of Scout’ where entrants sent in pics of their style over twitter and facebook; the entries were endless! So, on a grey rainy day a few weeks ago, five lucky winners were informed and the process of styling them working with their own individual looks began…

None of the competition winners were models, (but that was the beauty of this competition- all about style, not about perfect cheekbones and honed and toned torsos) and all varied in their style with many a cheeky tattoo and piercing! They also all came  with bags of energy! However this might have been something to do with my bulging suitcases full of stylish treasures to style with!

I had only had their photographs and question and answer sheets to work with. And this must have been a tough decision when the Art Director and the Scout team had to whittle down the potential faces from the vast entries…these models had not been seen in the flesh! But they all photographed amazingly well and had a desire to be in front of the camera and had a certain je ne sais quoi….

Their style icons ranged from Audrey Hepburn to ‘my nan’ and their jobs ranged from trainee chef to bar worker and tattoo artist, so the banter was eclectic and electric!

Self confessed “messy” Sadie wears a lot of vintage and is not a shy girl, so the cocktail shirt and multi coloured jacket are from her own collection of clobber, but with the 80s always in fashion at Beyond Retro, you can pick up similar, one of a kind pieces there.

Sadie, Livvy & Keely wear East in red, Festival in pink and Harper in grey and red

Her necklace is from the Star Cross’d Lovers collection by Bobby White and is clashed up nicely by the neon orange HipHop watch.  And just to make it even more mis-match, her girly side is highlighted with a cheeky Das La Vie tutu, with battered cream Chelsea boots and socks from Beyond Retro.

Liv on the other hand is a much more delicate creature, her jumpsuit is a not so subtle star number from New Look, which I added a 70s poncho from Beyond Retro, black turban from Topshop and jumbo pink Ice watch to complete the look. With style icons including Alexa Chung, her taste is very eclectic!

Livvy wears Festival in Tortoiseshell

Alessandro  fell in love with pretty much all the pairs of glasses from Scout Eyewear on offer; and his style worked well with the preppy frames. His floral denim jacket is by Horace, cross necklace from Topshop and T shirt by Topman, and creepers by Underground, which now has a spangly new store in Berwick St. Finished off with a Simeon Farrar cap and silver necklace from the Bobby White collection.

Team Scout!

David is a big clothes fan, and spends a lot of money on shopping! His top is from Asos, shorts by everyone’s favourite Ragged Priest, red cap is New Era, pink Caterpillar boots by Martine Rose and socks by American Apparel.

For her second look, Sadie wears jacket by Turkish designer Zeynep Tosun, chain patterned leotard is Urban Outfitters, black trousers with gold piping are Beyond Retro, black and gold heels are by luxury footwear label Cleo B- also hot in the AW collection are cassette tape style heels which are so much fun!

Liv sticks to her girly style and wears the colour of the summer canary yellow dress from Topshop, coupled with a vintage gekko embellished patent belt and studded leather jacket. Her Clarks union jack boots add to the urban feel and she is topped off with a cheeky red bow and jewellery from Bobby White.

 Alessandro is wearing a streetwise Varsity jacket by Crooks and Castles, a green t shirt by American Apparel, tie dye shorts from Beyond Retro and a gold dove necklace by Bobby White.

David’s last look is vintage rockabilly with tweed trousers and braces from Beyond Retro, pink t shirt- Simeon Farrar; shoes by Ted Baker and turquoise watch by HipHop. He states it was difficult to chose his favourite frames, but when pushed he decided on the festival with the blue edge.

David Nation

Our fifth model Keely is a professional tattoo artist, who was a big fan of the sixties; Not wanting to pigeon hole her I dressed her up in Beyond Retro tartan trousers and big bovva boots from PPQ at Office, coupled with a chiffon shirt and jacket and fur hat from uber cool Italian label Cycle.

She also slipped fabulously into a pencil skirt and buttoned up Fred Perry polo shirt, which just hinted at her tatts, but really it is more about the glasses! Her favourite frames are the Marylin tortoishell.

Regardless of the grey backdrop, the day was a resounding success and we survived the Great British weather.

To read more from Sara, click here