A Brand Session for Subtle and Sass: Charleston Style, Captured

Creative direction and photography for Subtle and Sass, Charleston, SC

Subtle and Sass needed two things visualized: the accessories on their shop floor, and a service that's harder to put into words — their in-person color analysis and styling consultation, "Your Style Workbook." Rather than treat those as two separate shoot lists, I built one visual world that could hold both.

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The Concept

The brand's own aesthetic, warm neutrals, natural texture, a boho-meets-editorial sensibility, became the starting point. I built the set around dried pampas grass, a rippled glass vase, and soft, directional daylight, so the props did as much storytelling as the products themselves. The palette stayed intentionally narrow: gold, cream, dusty pastel, a single note of navy for contrast. That restraint was the point, it's what makes a Coast Candle tin and a beaded necklace and a block-print maxi dress all read as one brand, instead of three unrelated products photographed on the same day.

Art Direction & Styling

Every frame had a job to do. The still-life setups needed to work as product photography — clean enough for a shop page, styled enough for a social grid. The on-body shots needed to feel worn-in rather than posed: a necklace half-caught in a curtain fold, a hoop earring catching window light through a strand of hair. And the "Your Style Workbook" sequence needed to function almost like documentary work — the owner mid-consultation, flipping through the table of contents, holding a dress up against the light, comparing a palette page to fabric — so a prospective client could see exactly what the appointment feels like before they ever book one.

The Result

What came out of the session is less a set of product photos and more a small, cohesive brand world: one that Subtle and Sass can pull from across their website, their Instagram, and their marketing, without anything feeling like a mismatched add-on.

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More of this project, and the rest of my creative direction and photography work, lives at abigailrhodus.com. You can find Subtle and Sass at subtleandsass.com or on Instagram @subtle_and_sass.