Nouveau Victoria

Mini Top Hat in Lady Chiltern and Orange Rose Sash Cover

Sometime this summer I was approached by Heather Thompson of Gatherings Magazine, whom I worked with during the Alice in Wonderland shoot, about coordinating a feature for her fall edition.  She wanted to feature some of my accessories in a Modern Victorian style arrangement focused on fall colors and soft, romantic scenes.  She had already selected her photographer, the amazing Amber Beckham, who's now branching out into fashion photography.

Mini Top Hat in Orlando and Floral Collar

 With a limited budget, we searched our own wardrobes for things that could be assembled to look psuedo-Victorian.  What resulted was an interesting combination of valuable vintage and heirloom pieces and some unusual Goodwill finds, which, when layered, gave rise to looks that were both modern and old-fashioned.  I did my best to coordinate the colors of the accessories while using them to push the color scheme out into the autumny loveliness that Heather was hoping for.

A key acquisition in this production was Chalita Tharpe, a makeup artist I'd met at a runway show, who not only knew exactly what would work best for makeup, but also took over the hair design, which was going to be my, much less successful job.  That being done, she hung around to help the inexperienced model (that would be me) some tips on how to make her body look interesting.  Without her and Amber giving me direction all the time, it would have looked like we had grabbed whomever was around to wear our clothes. Which we had.

 Having had to cancel because of a little fringe of tropical storm that bounced off this fair city(causing the lacking models problem), we had a perfect evening weather-wise: clear blue skies with light floaty clouds, and a cooler than usual temperature as a result of the storm.  Given all of the clothing layering that was going on, I was really grateful.
And let me just say - I was seriously sore the next day!  The hours of standing and twisting and stretching, and holding myself up at odd angles...it was exhausting.  No life of modeling for me! I plan to stick to the decorating of models, thanks very much.

Floral Hat in Victoria, Purple Rose Sash Cover and Purple Shoe Clips

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Heather does with this in the magazine (as well as the rest of it, it really is a lovely magazine)!  I will post up a link when it comes out!