Tuesday 27 April 2010

Boho Girl

Okay, so the title of the post is a teensy bit misleading as Daniella isn't purely a boho girl......she likes to mix up her style: a little bit girly, a little bit luxe-hippy, a little bit edgy but always, always accessorised. Piles of rings, strands of necklaces, geek glasses, hats: Daniella's room is a treasure trove of gorgeous things she has picked up on her travels. A stylist from Toronto Canada, Daniella loves to mix vintage with high street finds and a little bit of designer as well.

Daniella's long dress, denim shirt and hat in these photos are all vintage. And the mandarine/clementine? That was my daft idea! It got a bit squished in my bag on the way to Daniella's- ick!






p.s. I wanted to do a separate "I am running off to Australia" post but I am all out of time - I haven't even packed yet and my plane leaves in a few hours (hopefully with me on it!) Anyway, so I am heading off to photograph at Rosemount Australia Fashion Week in Sydney, and also going back to see much loved family and friends. I haven't been home for 3 years so I am a wee bit excited :)))) Very nervous about photographing in Australia as I haven't done it before (please everyone be nice to me!).

Hopefully I will have some Aussie pics to show you in a few days. I have a brand spanking new Apple laptop (my first piece of Apple equipment except for my ipod) which I have absolutely no idea how to use so bear with me if my photos look completely and utterly crap when I am away. It is going to be a bit hit and miss......please let me know if my photos look really odd (you can email me if you don't want to do it publicly!).

Right, now, off to pack, which will probably involve just throwing a heap of clothes in my suitcase and sitting down on the top of it to close it :)

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Ms Alix

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010




Running With The Fash Pack.....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Dree Hemingway

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010


Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Outside Chloe

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Denni from The Chic Muse (again!)

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Julia Sarr-Jamois, Fashion Editor, Wonderland magazine.

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Sunday 25 April 2010

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Another one of my absolutely favourite girls to photograph, the divine Miss Louise Ebel of Miss Pandora.

Love those Miu Miu shoes!!

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Vika Gazinskaya in a piece from her collection.

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week SS 2010

An old photo I found in my archives from last September: adore her hat and that little bit of sparkle on her striped top. Not to mention her perfectly tousled hair......
Outside Chloe.

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Jacquelyn Jablonski

After Kenzo

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

The beautiful Tala (whose mum is gorgeous as well!) from My Fash Diary who is studying at the London College of Fashion and has just finished a internship with Tom Ford.


In case you were wondering, Tala's fab peep-toe ankle boots are from Gucci and she insists they are very comfy to walk in!

Running With The Fash Pack.....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010


Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Franca Sozzani, Editor-in-Chief, Vogue Italia

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Zoe

Coloured gels, scrims, modelling lamps, monoblocks, snoots, sandbags - my brain just freezes when it comes to studio lighting equipment. I prefer working with available light but that's probably just because studio lighting scares the willies out of me. I have assisted on a few shoots where photographer's have used incredible sets and lighting but it was all so complicated (and so much else was going on) that I failed to take in a lot. Plus I had the Fear of God put into me by one of the other assistants who regaled me with the story of an incredibly high boom, a hapless assistant, a very hard concrete floor, a very, very expensive light and the terrific noise that a light makes when it plummets to the floor in the middle of a shoot. Not to mention the look on the photographer's face.

But former model turned photographer, Zoe Zimmer, has a studio. With studio lighting. And a wind machine*. And she knows how to use it.
Zoe lives between LA and London (her Oscar winning film score composing German Dad lives in LA) and has been photographing professionally for just over a year. And in that time she has photographed Morgan Freeman, Heidi Montag, Joel Madden, Liberty Ross, D.J. Mbenga.... You know, just the usual people you photograph when you are starting out!

Leaving school after her A-levels, Zoe took a gap year (she ended up having another 2 gap years because she wasn't sure what she wanted to do), and then started a Business Management degree. She lasted 1 1/2 weeks, decided it wasn't for her, and instead moved into modelling full-time. So how did she make the switch to photography? While sitting in her Dad's studio, Zoe was flicking through some of his books when she came across some images by the famous American lesbian photographer, Catherine Opie (they were the self-portrait 'carving' images), and Catherine' story really spoke to her. It was a "BAM!" moment. A couple of days later she had booked a lighting course and secured a camera (she has since upgraded to the excellent Canon 5D Mark II camera).

Her photographs are dark and moody rather like her personal style. Zoe wears lots of black and lives in her leather trousers "real leather trousers! none of this pleather, 'jegging' ****!" accessorised with lots of jewellery she has picked up on her travels. In these photos her little denim shorty shorts (which looked incredible on her super long legs!) are from a vintage shop in LA called "Wastelands", her belt is from "Jet Rag" another vintage shop in LA, her tank top is from American Apparel and jacket is an old Chloe piece she has had for ages.

And her gorgeous jewellery? All her rings are from either Tibet or Egypt, her watch is Cartier, and her skull bracelet is from Chrome Hearts (her favourite jeweller, and that of Mr Lagerfeld as well!) as is one of her necklaces. Her other necklace is full of charms she has picked up from around the world. Have I mentioned I LOVE jewellery?! Oh, only about 50 times on this blog!

Zoe's other camera is a Leica (a gift from her Dad) (above left). Her mood board holds cards of the various models she has photographed (middle), the "Enter" sign used to be the opening screen on her website (bottom right).

One of her favourite photographers is Miles Aldridge . His beautiful book is open on Zoe's lap (collage below, bottom right).

p.s. you can click on the collages to make them bigger

*fascinated by the wind machine. One shoot I assisted on the photographer used a big sheet of cardboard and a strong-armed assistant to create the wind. Probably the piece of cardboard is more in my budget than the wind machine!

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

These photos make me so happy!

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Denni Elias from ChicMuse in her fantastic Dorothy-esque shoes (by Marc Jacobs in case you were wondering).

Running With The Fash Pack....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Ece Sukan, Editor-at-Large Vogue Turkey (and stylist/ vintage store owner), wearing a multitude of textures, layers and colours. I would look a complete mess if I tried this but on Ece it just works. Her sheer emerald green organza jacket is genius.

Running With The Fash Pack....London Fashion Week A/W 2010

Love this guy's style: grown-up Savile Row but with an edge (note the earrings and the stubble).
p.s. British Esquire magazine is running a competition to find Britian's best-dressed man. The awesome £30, 000 prize includes a full wardrobe of clothes from Harrods and a beautiful Longines watch. I have seriously thought about doing a little gender swap (for a day!) just to enter! Details on how to enter the competition are here.

Running With The Fash Pack....London Fashion Week A/W 2010

Will Cordel on Savile Row. Will was assisting Sarah Mower and Tim Blanks from Style.com during London Fashion Week.

Running With The Fash Pack.....Paris Fashion Week A/W 2010

Got a cross-stitch that your mama/maman/grandma/nanna has made for you and not sure what to do with it? Attach it to your t-shirt like George here has! You get super-dooper brownie points for visibly displaying their work of art and look kind of cute in the process!

George's gorgeous leather jacket is vintage by the way.

Saturday 17 April 2010

Amber and Her Flash Trash

I get to meet loads of extremely talented and successful people through wielding my camera, but never have I met someone so young and accomplished as Miss Amber Atherton (she is 19) who I met up with last week at Albion Caff in Shoreditch. Over orange juice (her) and latte (me) we talked about her modelling career (she is signed with Premier Model Management but has been modelling since she was littlie), her studies (she is in her first year of a three year Fashion Management degree at London College of fashion), her role as Style Editor at Beyond Black Magazine, her recent stint interning at Hermes and her upcoming internship with Vogue UK in the fashion features department. Oh yes, and then there is the possibility of some tv presenting, and her successful online jewellery boutique: My Flash Trash. Phew! You exhausted yet?

The daughter of an airline executive (her dad) and an entrepreneur (her mama), Hong-Kong born Amber started her boutique while she was still at boarding school, buying and selling pieces of jewellery she had sourced from around the world. In 2008 she established My Flash Trash which sells unique, handmade jewellery which Amber hunts down on her travels and through countless hours spent on the internet. She brought along two of her favourite pieces for our little catch-up: the pretty perspex pink and orange necklace (above) from Lua Lua, and the vertebrado necklace from Spanish designer, Ines Susaeta (bottom collage on top of the novel by E.M Forster, currently her favourite author). Whoops, and the pretty bangles are from Heirs & Graces (bottom collage top right).
Amber loves jewellery, as you would expect, and adores a good handbag and shoe: Chanel and Christian Louboutin being key words here! She mixes those investment pieces with vintage and high street buys. I was salivating over her Chanel tote when Amber informed me that she also had a beloved black 2.55 which got stolen recently. She was remarkably okay about it...... I would still be utterly miserable (particularly as I like to cart my whole life around in my handbag).

Amber is incredibly articulate and focused but also very, very sweet and funny. It is impossible not to like her and I just know that she is destined for success in whatever path she chooses. Plus she took me to Shoreditch House after coffee so she gets an extra scooby snack from me :)

Love, love, love that Yves Saint Laurent purse: