A Voyeur's View

Last Thurs. I had the pleasure of seeing A LOT of hard work and planning finally come together. Photograher Dexter Quinto, Stylist Alexandra Loeb and myself have been discussing a High End Fashion Lingerie themed shoot for a couple of mths now. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I Don't Do Last Minute CREATIVES and I insist on working as a team to develop all the aspects of the creative so that we're all on the same page the day of the shoot and there are no surprises. Taking these measures ups the chances of a good creative worthy of submission by like a million percent!

Trust me if we wouldn't have done all this planning there could have been some serious miscommunication on ideas or styles. We originally were planning on a different location but once we changed locations we needed to change some of our ideas. We ended up using Alex's parent's house which was beyond GORGEOUS and the PERFECT location for what we were doing! Seriously Stunning!

Originally, Alex and I were thinking something a little more crazy w/ the hair and I wanted something darker w/ the makeup but then once I saw were Dexter was going w/ his style I knew it had to be changed or it just wouldn't mesh. This is where reference pics are so useful. Dexter originally used the word Romantic to describe something and when I heard that I groaned a bit b/c the last thing I felt like doing was another Romantic makeup look...b/c I've been doing that a lot lately...I wanted to get back to my edgy roots a bit more ;) But once I saw his pics I got what he meant by Romantic but it wasn't how I was taking Romantic. I could still do a bold makeup look...just not the dark edgy look I was originally going for. What I think we ended up creating was something that was Romantic but also Raw, Voyeuristic and Sexy at the same time. Our biggest inspiration was this lingerie shoot Steven Meisel had done w/ actress Eva Mendes for Vogue Italia...but don't worry I think we put our own stamp on it ;)

After we had all our ideas on the same page we then had to go about the daunting task of finding the PERFECT model for the shoot. Finding a lingerie fashion model isn't like finding a reg. editorial fashion model. She has to be sexy, curvy and even have some breasts (of course a pair of chicken cutlets can always help w/ this one ;) ). Whenever Dexter is looking for a model for a creative submission he makes up a very thorough outline to submit to the agencies so they know exactly what we are trying to achieve and what we are looking for. This really helps them send us the best suited girls and it shows them that we are taking this seriously. Dexter includes theme and lighting concepts, styling, makeup and hair all illustrated w/ pictures. By far Sutherland sent us the best girls for this shoot. Being the anal person I am I thoroughly looked through all the girls and immediately when I saw Bayan I knew she was PERFECT for the project. What was funny though is her comp card main pic was really not a great representation of her real style and beauty so originally Dexter and Alex passed over her. Once I mentioned her and they took a second look they both agreed that she was our girl!

And what a girl! Seriously, I cannot say enough about what a well spoken, professional, friendly and amazing model Bayan is. If she wasn't so friggin' sweet and good spirited I'd hate her b/c she's 5'11, gorgeous skin, beautiful features, legs for days and 22 in. WAIST (yes you read that right 22 in waist...and 35 in hips - CURVY)!! Oh and did I mention she can eat whatever she wants and lives off candy...bad for me to be around b/c I have little self control around the candy lol. Seriously, she's like perfect...plus she teaches herself to play piano just by watching YouTube videos lol!

The hair, makeup and nails look took almost 2 hrs that day so it's great that Bayan is such a great sport and great to work w/. For makeup I ended up doing a vintage winged liner (very big for Fall), big lash, bold eyebrow look. I also contoured/highlighted the cheekbones b/c anyone that knows me and my style knows I LOVE a good cheekbone...thankfully so does Bayan lol. Throughout the shoot I changed the lip according to the look - anything from nude to bright pink to deep burgundy. For Hair I wanted to go w/ a flat smooth top and then huge, billowy curls...as they day went out it morphed a bit to back combed, ratted bigness but it still worked. This was the first time I decided to do something more then just a typical paint job for the nails. I really wanted to challenge myself as a full artist - makeup, hair & nails. The night before I made false nails that we attached that day (Alex makes an amazing assistant ;) ). I painted the nails a beige colour and then I applied black lace over the polish and sealed it w/ clear polish and then trimmed it to the size of the nail. It looked really cool for the shoot but I'm going to be really - totally NOT practical for real life. The lace even w/ the sealer left the nails w/ texture therefore when you're doing a lacy, sheer lingerie shoot you have to be even more careful when changing...don't want to snag anything!

Alex really out did her self on the styling. She had this great connection to this high end lingerie store and pulled some amazing French lingerie. Plus the jewelery...OMG...she had it flown in from all over and probably had over $10 000 in accessories. Also Alex has one of the sickest shoe collections I know! She wears a size 10 which might suck for real life but is amazing as a stylist b/c guess what - the models can wear your shoes! The shoes were HOT - Manolo Blahnik, Mui Mui, YSL, Stella McCartney, Laboutin etc. See this is what I'm talking about when I say you need a stylist that has connections and can pull the REAL SHIT! This is how you build a story that is worth publication!

Here's where it was all laid out!

So after all of this elaborate planning we finally got to get down to business and shoot. This ended up being a really long day...like 9:30-9:30 but Bayan was so professional and didn't complain once. I swear her energy and spirit was higher then mine at the end of the day. She could see where we were going w/ things and loved the direction so she was totally willing to stick it out and make it work and I thank her for that. Can't wait to see the finished results from this one!

Here's some behind the scenes pics from this amazing day! We ended up shooting an amazing 11 Looks that day...the norm is usually 6-8. How Dexter is going to pick is beyond me...esp. w/ so many amazing double pagers!

Me Doing My Thing
Doing An Even Winged Linger On Both Sides is Secretly My Weakness...Shh Don't Tell ;)
If you look closely you can see her nails a bit...I don't think we have any close ups on the behind the scenes pics
First Look

Don't Hate Me B/C I'm Beautiful
Tiny Waist!
Amazing Colour
We Ended Up Shooting This Look Somewhere Else
Here

I'm Not a Lesbian...But I Think I Have a Bit of a Girl Crush ;)
By the Pool Earlier in the Day