It’s been almost 2 years since we’ve been back to London and we were SO excited to return again. As we did in 2016, London was the first stop on our international AfroArt tour. We were able to capture so many fantastic images for the amazing little models there. Check out a few of our favorite images below.
Our first stop on our world tour was London! This was such a great stop for us because we had so many amazing friends that we met along the way to help us with our first trip. We arrived at our AirBnB spot and to our surprise the neighborhood felt a little like Brooklyn to us. Busy streets, mom and pop stores and restaurants and taxis on every corner were the sights and sounds of our first day on our tour. After lugging all of our luggage up through a tiny stairwell we arrived in our small but roomy spot to look around.
The small apartment was nice but there are a few quirks that we had to get used to (throughout most of Europe). First was no shower curtains or doors – there’s a tiny half door that doesn’t cover most of the shower so it’s likely that the floor will get pretty wet when showering. Also, most apartments were small therefore only had a washer but no dryer. We were just thankful to be able to wash our clothes at the end of the stay so not having a dryer wasn’t a biggie. Overall we liked our quiet little apartment even though it was a little far (about 30-40 mins) from Central London. One thing that we learned for sure is that London traffic can be a bit cray cray so we knew we’d have to add in an additional 30-40 minutes at least to get anywhere on time! 🙂
The next day we decided to head to Trafalgar Square to do a little location scouting. This was the central/more touristy part of London so there were lots of people and tourists walking around.
Kinda reminded us of Times Square with street performers walking around and protesters making a statement.
A few short blocks and we were able to find the Big Ben and London Eye. We were surprised at how close we were able to get to the Big Ben but knew we’d have to find a way around the tourists if we were going to get shots there during our shoots.
Now, let’s talk food and shopping. Just so you know – I am NOT an adventurous eater at all and didn’t plan to start on our world tour, lol! Reg is much more adventurous than me but we knew that getting sick on this trip was NOT an option. We had a tight schedule and multiple big shoots planned so we decided to stick w/the script for the most part. Our friends at Isossy Children did manage to greet us during our stay and take us to a pretty cool restaurant and they actually got me to try some fried duck which was pretty good!
Shopping in London can probably be compared to shopping in NYC or any other big city in the US. There were amazing shops everywhere but we looked forward to hitting up Next Direct. It’s like a little bit of H&M and Target mixed all together. Super cute kids fashions were all around for great prices. We did a little too much damage in Next and realized we had left one of our shopping bags in our Uber. To our surprise, our super sweet Uber driver drove all the way back to find us and deliver our bag. We are forever grateful to Zohaib for going out of his way to return our items.
Finally, shoot day arrived and we were all ready to go with our models lined up, adorable clothing from Alex and Alexa and Caramel Shop UK. The weather held out nicely and was much better than expected for London.
Somehow even being cramped in a teeny tiny hotel room in Trafalgar Square, we managed to get all of the kids ready to go with help from our hairstylist Dionne Smith. We obviously started to get a little silly at the end of the day but we’re so thankful for all of the parents and kids who hung in there with us with no complaints!
Check out a few photo highlights from our London shoots below. With each of our shoots we wanted to not only showcase and highlight various local designers, but also wanted to show a little bit of the culture and environment in our photos. We fell in love with the red phone booths everywhere and knew we had to incorporate them in our shoot.
This photo below cracks me up because the poor guard couldn’t smile or move, but I’m sure he wanted to laugh with the kids being silly in front of him. We were just surprised that they allowed us to get this close to him. Our first lesson on this trip was to not be afraid to ask for what we want. 🙂
We started out the morning with a larger group of kids and had so much fun exploring the “sophisticated” side of English style. These boys and girls looked so cool showing off their London swag. 
Farouk James is always a little showstopper with that amazing red hair. 
We truly enjoyed our time in London and had such a great time with all of the kids and new friends we met there. There are so many other places we wished we could have explored but we are glad we’ll have some new areas to explore on our next visit!
Photography: CreativeSoul Photography
Models: Riley-Ann, Alexander, Catherine, Farouk, Amari, Tamia
Clothing: Stella McCartney via Alex and Alexa; Caramel Shop UK
Bow ties: Cutensity
Hair/Makeup: Dionne Smith
