Add Soldiers Cove in Cape Breton to the list of international go-to hot spots for high-end fashion shoots. Soldiers Cove?
Yup. The relatively unknown rural location is getting some play in the Vogue Italia website edition courtesy of Nova Scotia fashion designer Veronica MacIsaac and Halifax photographer Brent McCombs.
“It just goes to show how wonderful and unique some of our scenery is in Nova Scotia,” said MacIsaac.
A photograph by McCombs, featuring of one of MacIsaac’s designs photographed at Soldiers Cove, has appeared on the Vogue Italia website.
The Vogue site gets thousands of submissions weekly from people in the fashion and photography industry around the world, and few are published.
Millions of people around the world regularly visit the site.
“I’ve been designing since I was a child. And this is pretty exciting,” said MacIsaac.
She and McCombs were checking out Cape Breton outdoor locations for visuals as part of a 2012 campaign shoot for Veronica MacIsaac Apparel when they decided to take a chance on Soldiers Cove, even though it was getting late.
MacIsaac said the abandoned structure featured in McCombs’s photo has been in the family about 200 years and is near St. Peter’s.
She grew up in that community learning all about Celtic traditions and designs, and especially the use of plaid, as the daughter of Mac and Rosemary MacIsaac of MacIsaac Kiltmakers.
The dress in the photo is a distinctly Celtic-inspired, pleated-back gown, featuring the MacQueen tartan.
In typical Cape Breton fashion, the model for the shoot was Marsalie MacKenzie, a cousin of MacIsaac’s who also grew up in the area.
The unique capture was the result of the decision to keep shooting even as darkness descended, said MacIsaac.
She said the dress is part of her latest collection that debuted recently in New York City at the From Scotland With Love show.
It is the first time one of MacIssac’s designs has appeared on the Vogue Italia website. McCombs, who owns AlterEgo Photography in Halifax, has had several images featured on the site in recent years.