Friday 20 April 2012

A Friday Précis: 3 Things To Know

Taking a break from forcing my CV upon every publication I can find a valid email address for, here is a few snippets from the week gone by.

1. Terry O'Neill only takes pictures of people he fancies

Image: Terry O'Neill

So this week, The Telegraph published a Q&A with one of the greatest photographer’s of our time, Terry O’Neill, and trust me he has a few choice words on some of our most beloved leading ladies. With Terry Richardson staying away long enough to let the original Terry say his piece, in the interview O'Neill talks about being underwhelmed by those we so aspire to be , from Kate Moss to Kate Middleton. Their faces are sure to shift serious numbers on the publication front whilst the latest pair of shoes they’re spotted in sell out in minutes but according to O’Neill, they’re nothing special.

After first assuring us that he has slept with some of the most beautiful women in existence  (naturally) before this generation, claiming ''I’ve seen, slept with and photographed more beautiful women than you’ve had hot dinners’’, he moves on Britain’s sweetheart, Kate. Who he couldn;t give a shit about. In fact he goes a step further in saying he wouldn't photograph her because he actually doesn't "fancy her” due to her being too thin. Once finished hanging her out to dry, there’s another Kate he feels he needs to berate before he continue. Next in the firing line, Moss:

"The supermodels were the last great girls, and Kate Moss only just scraped in under the wire...I never rated her – Kate only endured because she was associated with those supermodels."

For someone who ‘scraped in under the wire’, she has certainly proved her worth over the years bouncing back from public scandal and never leaving the top 10 model earners.

The Kates aside, he happens to have only positive things to say about a woman who many women can only muster negativity: Angelina Jolie.

If you happen to have a spare minute, the interview is well worth a read with O’Neill speaking in depth about his own personal changes as well as his sexual exploits with beautiful women. 

2. Vivienne Westwood's Jubilee Collection


Keeping with the slightly tenuous royal theme, Vivienne Westwood has launched a new collection in celebration of the Royal Jubilee. If anyone was to do this, it had to be the alternative Queen of British style.


3. Pumped Up Kicks: My Faux Marant



With Sportwear Lux placing itself firmly in the limelight for SS12, I’ve been lusting after a pair of Isabel Marant  wedge trainers for some time now. However, I don’t earn even a fraction of what I need to in order to afford a pair. This is where the 'Flattery or Fraud' front runners, River Island, stepped in to take the strain off my heart and saved me hundred of pounds. For £40, I'm in love with the concealed wedge heel that gives an extra few inches whilst remained as comfortable as flats. They're not the Marant's I so crave but for now, they'll do nicely.

Until the next...

C. x


Friday 13 April 2012

A Friday Précis: 3 Things To Know


Despite being Wednesday’s child myself and supposedly full of woe, I have decided to embrace Friday in order to post a cocktail of the week’s events. Inspired by the lovely Who’s Jack and their daily round up, I will be picking ‘3 things to know’ from the week gone by in a bid to encourage myself to touch base and because I like lists. A lot. 

It’s a thought in progress so who knows what I’m going to dub newsworthy but to start with here are three things to know this week.

1. Kate Bosworth covers Company Magazine May 2012



Photos David Mushegain 

A 'New Look' Company magazine featuring an old look Kate Bosworth. Perhaps this was destined to grace the cover of another publication seeing as this hair first debuted in August last year. Either way, my loving feelings on the dip dye had subsided greatly until the colour splash got in involved. Ombre hair was everywhere, the cautious highstreet approach to the starker contrast dip, that frankly left me dying (get it?) for something new. Step in the Fanning sisters with their pink ends and Kate with her blue (and my friend Zoe with green – trust me, it works.) However, I can see the dip dye being replaced come AW12 with a simple coloured streak as seen on models at Dans laVie.

Hair aside, why didn’t Company opt for the yellow suit shot? It’s bloody lovely. And with grunge making a very strong comeback, this is a great way to introduce it with just the right twist of Spring.

On a side note, size whatevs? No. Just no.


2. The Eleven Objects Pineapple Collar


This offering from Eleven Objects is bizarre and exactly the sort of thing I want in my life. Specialising in collars (if you hadn’t already guessed), Eleven Objects is ticking the boxes for the impending Hawaiian boom whereby young girls will be ripping the shirts off the overweight funny man’s back. Well, it might at least look that way to some but I’m all for the Stella McCartney prints and the ASOS x It’s Nice That shirts. Loud and garish, just as it should be.



3. A Velvet Memorial
 
And thirdly, and completely unrelated, this is one of the most touching things I have ever  had the pleasure of viewing. I spend a lot of time in London where people are extremely distant and detached and something like this just wouldn't happen anywhere other than the countryside. I’m still not entirely sure who Philip is but I understand he’s a local man and I never did meet Velvet, but I honestly shed a tear and the fact he wanted those who did know her to say a fond farewell.  This came through my letterbox this morning.



Rest in peace, the only dog I've ever heard of eating squirrels.

Until...

C. x


Tuesday 10 April 2012

She Bangs The Drums: Tribal Shoot for Noctis Magazine

Now I've felt unprepared for shoots before but when you're looking at sheer floral camis and thinking 'this'll do' for the male model, you know you've reached new heights of disorganisation. However, when you're assisting a stylist as lovely as Faye, who gets the makeup artist to paint your face for Team Stripes, you just know it's going to work out. With so few options for a last minute shoot, it really pushes you to be creative with the little materials you have. Necklaces turn into tribal cuffs whilst sheer and feminine vests somehow turn into the perfect accompaniment to that pale linen suit jacket.



It was tough, but little did I know at the time that it was a real excuse to get involved. Never before has my creative input been so appreciated, encouraged and credited. Having been sent to Beyond Retro on Brick Lane for a press appointment to pick out anything I wanted to use, it was all hands on deck. A quick trip to D S Dundee in Shoreditch for a quick whiskey with a photographer who actually took my portrait at LFW (London is a small world) and picking up bits and pieces from H by Hudson and Agi & Sam, it was a scramble to meet the tribal objective.


Now, the real tribal feathers and sand approach was already covered - we had to tackle tailoring. A subtle nod in the tribal direction whilst maintaining a combination of sleek high end and quirkly colour blocking. Easy enough right? Well, after teething problems such as Jelis the male model refusing the female tops and Olga being too athletic a build for some of the pieces (sample size hell.), we pulled it off and finished the day with a bottle of Rose. Because, trust me, it was needed.

The Final Shot : my styling of the green vintage Mac.


Weeks of preparation and research swapped in favour of 3 days is a challenge to say the least.

Check out Noctis Magazine Issue III in its entirety here. It's rather good.

C. x

Faster Pussycat: The B Team


Ever been to a party with Pin up bombshells, creatures from the deep, 50’s screen sirens and rockabilly robots? Throw in Teen Wolf, a murdered prom queen and a human sized eyeball and you’ve pretty such sussed The B Movie Ball.

A celebration of the low budget commercial films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, the B Movie covered the less-publicized half of the double feature. Low budget sci-fi and surreal horror were the 50’s B staples and the undisputed theme-du-jour for the B movie Ball in the Old Vic Tunnels.


With a measly budget and time constraints, I was confined to merely exploring the 50’s siren this time around whilst my lovely Maya draped herself in bullets and pink hair to go as an intergalactic space babe. As you do. London being London, the sound effects machine gun she brought with her didn’t make the best of first impressions. However, a true space babe needs her gun (apparently) and this point was thoroughly argued on the door. Sound effects included.

 Oh Hi Vivienne Westwood.


With a band who’s biggest influence HAD to have been Saturday Night by The Misfits, interspersed with Buddy Holly and the like, it was the trendiest bunch of nerds and geeks I’d ever been surrounded with. Being cool wasn’t the main priority; this wasn’t a ball – it was a convention. And perhaps there is something to be learned from these B Movie enthusiasts?



Whilst leaning against the wall to the room in which Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill! was playing, moaning about our heels, a young gentleman reminded us to put things in perspective:

Ladies! It could be worse! There could be zombies eating your brains!

Right on.

Springtime in London


 It’s been a while. 

It seems to be that after throwing myself into the seasonal frenzy of trend reports and the latest platform shoe, I have had no choice but to buckle down behind the scenes and remember that we’re still dealing with an SS12 world despite the AW12 forecast. So, to update, my time since LFW has been spent enjoying the English Spring, with all its promise of pastels and candies falling short (as per) to deliver sporadic bursts of sunshine followed by rain and an Easter chocolate depression. As if, realistically, we really expected anything else. 

Regardless of this, I’ve still found time to busy myself on and off set. Fashionably late with my updates, I’ve been assisting with shooting for Noctis Magazine and the up-and-coming May issue of Who’s Jack. Away from one camera to another, there has been many an event to inspire from Medieval shindigs to Zombie Balls – and that is where I’m going to start. 


I am proud to hold friendships with eccentric young ladies who get up in the early hours of the morning to travel to trader’s markets all in the name of authenticity. After all, what banquet would be complete without a suckling pig?  Unfortunately, as much as I adore a night of costume, my previous status as a vegetarian left me staring at said pig in horror and placed me firmly in the dessert camp grilling figs.

Me attempting sultry, with a feather.
 The beautiful Adrien and Ciara. 


Effort holds so much value at an event such a this. When someone pours their heart, soul and need for sleep into a night, there is such a reward in seeing friendly faces applauding what have have achieved. Even Tim's tinfoil creation was a triumph in it's own little way whilst the girl's opted to raid their mother's wardrobes for vintage furs or, in my case, vintage Laura Ashley. A special mention must go to whoever really made the effort and decided to crack out an aged spirit and left many a head reeling the next day.  

Next up? A B-Movie Ball of course.
 
I have an unusual social life.

C.