Interview: From Festive to Fearsome — Mitchell Royel Speaks Out on The Holiday Hire's Dark Edge

Disclaimer: The photos attached were recreated in the fashion district by Mitchell Royel and do not feature the original Holiday Hire. These images are purely illustrative and not representative of the actual individual. While creating these visuals, we were vibing to "Red Eyes" by Alexx Mack.

Inside the Secret Joker Shoot That Was Never Meant to See the Light!

Before the Lights Went Down

Every story has a turning point. For Elixir by Royel, that turning point had a name, or at least a nickname: The Holiday Hire.

He arrived the way seasonal staff always do. Quietly, on short notice, brought in to help carry the weight of the busiest stretch of the year. Nobody expected him to stay long. Nobody expected him to matter. He was polite and easy to like, with a boyish face and a habit of looking down when he smiled, as if he were keeping a joke to himself.

But within weeks, everything around him started to shift.

Loyalties moved. Old tensions came to the surface. Conversations that had been whispered for months suddenly happened out loud. The Holiday Hire never stood on a table and declared war. He didn't have to. His presence alone forced Elixir by Royel to face questions it had spent years avoiding. By the time the season ended, so had Elixir.

People who were there still argue about how much he knew. Was he simply the spark that landed in a room full of gasoline? Or did he understand exactly what he was walking into?

What very few people know is that on the same day it all came apart, he was somewhere else entirely. He was standing under blue lights, dressed in purple and gold, being photographed in total secrecy.

The session was led by Mitchell, the creative director and his photographers who styled the look alongside his creative team at the time. Mitchell’s creative team owns the full rights to every image captured that day, and until now, not a single frame has been made public.

The brief was simple to say and hard to pull off: channel your inner Joker.

Not the Joker. There was no greasepaint, no green hair, no scarred grin. Mitchell had no interest in a costume. He wanted the energy. He wanted the calm before the chaos and the smile that doesn't reach the eyes. He wanted the sense that the most dangerous person in the room might also be the most polite.

The wardrobe did the heavy lifting:

• A deep purple dress shirt covered in ornate gold baroque motifs. It was regal and almost theatrical, like something pulled from a forgotten opera house.

• A black velvet bow tie, fastened neatly at the collar. It was proper and buttoned-up, a little too perfect.

• Dark vintage suspenders lined with repeating gold diamond patterns that caught the light like small, sharp teeth.

Then came the lighting. A cold, cinematic blue washed across one side of his face and shoulders, leaving the other side to fall into shadow. Above him, a warm golden light caught the tips of his tousled brown hair, the only warmth in the frame. The background was a dark, textured navy, blurred just enough that a gilded frame and the faint outline of a guitar headstock hover at the edges like half-remembered dreams.

In nearly every image, his gaze is turned down. His eyes are lowered and his expression is unreadable. He isn't threatening anyone. He doesn't need to. The tension lives in what he's not doing.

It's the portrait of a man who looks like he's waiting. Patient and composed. Maybe even kind.

And maybe not.

We sat down with Mitchell to talk about the shoot, the man at the center of it, and why these photos stayed locked away.

Q: When you first met The Holiday Hire, what was your impression?

Mitchell: Honestly? I thought he was one of the most wholesome people I'd ever met. Warm and respectful, the type who remembers your coffee order. Everyone liked him right away. But I've been doing this long enough to know that the sweetest faces often hide the most interesting stories. There was something underneath. A stillness. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Q: Where did the Joker idea come from?

Mitchell: It came from that contrast. To me, the Joker isn't about makeup or madness. It's about the person everyone underestimates, until they don't. I saw him as someone who could make anyone who messed with him truly sorry they did. Not loud, not violent. Just... inevitable. I wanted to photograph that version of him. The one people never got to see.

Q: Walk us through the styling. Why purple and gold instead of something darker?

Mitchell: Black would have been too obvious. Too villain-of-the-week. Purple has a history of royalty, power and theater. Pair that with gold baroque detail, a velvet bow tie and those patterned suspenders, and you get someone who looks dressed for a celebration. That's what makes it unsettling. My creative team and I built the whole look around that idea: he's dressed for a party, but he might be the reason the party ends.

Q: You shot this on the very day Elixir by Royel came to an end. Was that a coincidence?

Mitchell: (laughs) I'll let people draw their own conclusions. What I'll say is that the timing gave the shoot a weight none of us planned for. While one chapter was closing, we were in a dark room capturing the side of him that nobody believed existed. Looking back, those photos almost feel like a quiet confession. Not of anything he did, but of who he could be.

Q: Why were these photos never released?

Mitchell: They were never meant for the public. This was a concept, a private study of duality. The wholesome guy and the hidden edge, side by side in one frame. Releasing them at the time would have turned them into gossip, and they deserved better than that. I own the rights, and I've always protected them. But some stories don't stay buried forever. Maybe it's finally time people saw what I saw.

There's a reason these images feel so arresting. They don't tell you what to think. A downward glance, a perfectly tied bow tie, a shadow cutting across a quiet face. You fill in the rest yourself.

Was The Holiday Hire the villain of Elixir by Royel's final chapter? A bystander caught in the crossfire? Or simply someone who knew exactly how much power a polite smile can hold?

Mitchell isn't saying. The photos, for now, are doing all the talking.