Uma Wang

First off sorry for the lack of updates as of late...my life has been severely disappointing and boring :( lol! Anyway, Chinese New Year is OFFICIALLY over so work should start to pick up again!!!

Last night I went out to dinner w/ a designer friend of mine Uma Wang, Michelle - the model used for her last catalog that I worked on w/ her, Nela - a mutual friend and Todd's photo assistant and a photographer that Uma is sort of in talks w/ to shoot her next collection for iLook Magazine. We went to a French restaurant and I had a couple of glasses of red wine and we all split some apps and I had a chicken salad for my main (still trying to be healthy). I avoided the bread basket and dessert so I'm pretty happy about that for me b/c those are both major lures. Man I haven't drank much the last few mths and 2 glasses of wine and I was tipsy!

Overall, dinner went well although I'm not sure if Uma is going to go w/ this photographer or not. He is very well established and has some AMAZING work but I'm not sure if his style is right for her. He's very slick and clean and she likes more raw and blur so I just don't know if it's the best match. Although, I'm just happy I got to have a meeting w/ him so that I'm on his radar and hopefully he'll hire me for some future shoots b/c he works w/ big budgets and lots of advertising :) Plus meeting him through another potential client looks a lot better than me just cold calling him for a meeting.

After dinner we were all walking down the street minus the photographer and we just happened to run into Uma's brother...how crazy is that...millions and millions of ppl and we run into her brother. He invited us to Sky nightclub so we went there to meet up w/ some of his friends in VIP. It's so weird b/c the Chinese are so subdued in VIP and just sit there and drink, smoke and play this dice game that I don't know. I wanted to dance! I love dancing but we didn't stay that long...Uma seemed a little stressed and had to get home not too late.

This whole upcoming shoot is actually kind of a weird situation b/c Todd has shot her clothes for 3 yrs now but she wants to try something new and go in a bit of a new direction...but not too different so it's hard finding that balance for her I think. She still wants it to feel the same b/c she does have clients that know and trust her and her aesthetic but still be different and new. She loves the last shoot but wants a different photographer it's all a little awkward to be honest. I mean Todd is a good friend of hers and he actually introduced me to her in the Summer when I worked on her last collection. Plus she wants to use Michelle the same model as last time and Nela helped out w/ the graphic designs on the clothes. So basically, it's all the women Todd worked w/ last time minus Todd...umm awkward much! I guess business is business but still it's a fine line when friendship is also involved. Plus I'm kind of in a situation do I tell him I'm working w/ Uma? If yes, what do I say? Should Uma tell him she's going in a different direction (well actually everything is the same EXCEPT him)...I mean they are friends too. Plus he is going to find out eventually, wouldn't he find it weird if someone didn't mention it to him.

Other than the awkwardness of the photographer situation I'm really excited about the shoot. Uma really trusts my opinion and what I think is best for the collection. Her clothes are totally amazing and one of her things is she always works w/ 100% cashmere...umm luxurious much! Plus her style is amazing...not Chinese at all. She's willing to take chances and really gets fashion so that's great and exciting b/c so many designers in the Chinese market really don't understand fashion...I know that might sound crazy but they don't trust me! The location sounds amazing and I'm excited about another mag to put on the resume so that's cool too.

Below are some pics from her last collection...there are so many amazing pics but here are just a few:
Okay seriously impossible for me to choose just a few! I love so many of the shots from the last shoot! Which also kind of makes me think - If it ain't broke don't fix it! But again it's not my decision to make.