Travel behind the scenes with us to the beautiful destination of our 2022 Fall/Winter photoshoot: Salt Lake City
Our 2022 Fall / Winter collection is crafted to explore where the outdoors and urban areas collide. It’s a celebration of serendipity, surprise, adventure, and community. What better place than Salt Lake City to express this vision?
Beneath the Wasatch Mountains, Salt Lake City is a historic town that unites the outdoors and urban environments. Practically outlined in gold, from quaking fall aspens, this town is nostalgic and warm, decadent and easy – just like Aventura!
Join us along our road trip from Sparks, Nevada to Salt Lake City, Utah, stopping to enjoy the salt flats, cultural centers, mountain roads, and cabins in the woods
Day One
We packed the cars at the Aventura office in Sparks and headed east along I-80 towards Utah. The drive takes us through the high desert of Nevada. There may be more wild horses and coyotes than there are people running around the brown hills and mountains in this part of the Great Basin Desert.
We were excited to come upon the Bonneville Salt Flats; a flat, white expanse of a long-lost lake that marks the unofficial welcome into Utah. We get settled into our Airbnb for the night and start plotting out the rest of the week, reviewing shoot locations, model arrival times, outfits and accessory coordination, and, most importantly, food. Even though the day was spent mostly in the car, sleep came easily.
Day Two
Our very first location is the Natural History Museum of Utah. We get to use the outside terrace for our photoshoot, which is amazing. This building was a top choice for us because of its large reflective windows that bring together the beauty of the high desert, mountains, and cityscape against the modern architecture of the museum.
It perfectly tells the story of what we’d like to achieve with this season: bringing together modernity, style, and functionality to clothing inspired by mountains.
After leaving the museum, we headed to Tunnel Springs Park. When we arrived at the hilltop park, a debilitating rain started. “Tom is so big,” photographer and Aventura Brand Manager Caitlin recounts, “that he eclipsed the storm and kept the whole team dry… Just kidding, it was one of the most challenging shoots we’ve worked on together as a team.”
Boy, was she right! Luckily, our team has a natural ability to keep spirits high and jovial during times of stress. We persevered and got a great wintery feel for the images. Go team!
A day as tough as this called for Mexican food, so we drowned our sorrows and tired bones in tacos and margaritas before tucking in for the night.
Day Three
We hit the road before sunrise and drove west out of the bustle of modern architecture and carne asada to the salt flats near the Great Saltair. The salt flats stretched out before us in the pre-dawn light, and rosy hues lit the sky and mountains in the distance. White sands blew around our shoes as we trekked across the flat to capture incredible and otherworldly images. Adventure and fun were the concepts we aimed to capture, with headstands and cartwheels all around.
After wrapping at the flats, we headed to Downtown Salt Lake City and shot near the Public Library. Again, our afternoon was met with challenge…except today hoards of attacking pigeons accompanied a steady downpour. Just as the day before, however, the thoughtful, modern glass architecture of the library took our breath away as it stood juxtaposed with the classic spire of the City-County Building in the background. Salt Lake City is a beautiful example of history melting into modern green spaces.
As the weather and birds cleared, we continued our adventuring, eventually finding ourselves at the cultural center of Salt Lake City. After passing the Eccles Theatre, we stumbled upon one of the most elusive yet iconic murals: the Book Wall Mural. We snagged a few photos here, but we had to keep going to catch golden hour. No one said photoshoots were easy!
We headed back up to Tunnel Springs for our day’s final photographs. The park had a completely different feel in the sunlight versus the rain. Gusts of winds picked up, flowing our scarves and providing a dreamy feel.
Day Four
Salt Lake City is boarded by the Wasatch Mountains to the east. This beautiful range is the eastern edge of the Great Basin Desert and the western edge of the Rockies. Today we were driving into these mountains and staying in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was the day we were most looking forward to!
As we drove to our first location near Jordan Pines, we were surrounded by the golden color of changing aspen leaves. Misty clouds hung low over the ridges of the mountains. We shot in the shadows of Kessler Peak, enjoying the incredible views, thinking how crazy it was to be on desolate salt flats a mere 24 hours before.
After exploring the autumnal wonderland to find our perfect shot, we checked into a new Airbnb. This one was a charming mountain cabin with rustic details like Christmas tree cutouts on the cabin shutters, vintage ski memorabilia, and a wood-burning fireplace set in a stone hearth. It was even featured in a Hallmark Christmas movie! It’s the perfect embodiment of what our designer Alyson calls “Chateau Relaxo”.
Day Five
Back to Sparks we go, aided with the most excellent 2000s hits list playlist and a full memory drive of gorgeous fall photos.