A Lady in London

The other day I had another photo shoot for the Face of Ascot.  This shoot was unexpected, as it came in the wake of an exciting new sponsorship from Karen Millen, a UK fashion retailer that I love.  Part of the sponsorship involves the retailer publicizing the racecourse’s biggest event of the year in its shops throughout the UK.  Being the Face of Ascot, Models 1 organized a shoot to get a photo of me for the posters and promotional materials for the sponsorship.

I headed down to Old Street the other morning for what was anticipated to be a six hour shoot at a studio off City Road.  When I arrived, the PR manager from Ascot was off picking up the hat from the millinery.  I introduced myself to the marketing person from the retailer and the hair and make-up artist, who promptly told me that not one, but two children had been conceived in her home.  Wow.

After a bit of conversation, I tried on the three dresses that the PR manager had picked out from Karen Millen’s High Summer collection.  All three were form-fitting satin dresses in bright, bold colors that ranged from sapphire blue to shocking pink.

When the PR manager arrived, she chose the dress she liked best: a knee-length royal-purple-and-bright-fuchsia halter dress.  Then came the hat.  Actually, then came the box.  The hat was from much-talked-about London milliner Steven Jones (yes, millinery is alive and well in England), and the box was the size of a large sofa cushion of the overstuffed variety.  I started to wonder if whatever was inside was actually going to fit on my head.

We opened the box to find massive layers of tissue paper.  As we peeled off layer after layer, a pearl-colored hat materialized.  It had a small, round base off of which there jutted several pods of tulle with creamy roses resting delicately on top.  To balance it out, there were two gently-curving straws rising up off the other side, and several beige ones circling the base.  It was quite a hat.  In fact, it was such a hat that it even had its own name: Pittypat.  Awwww.

Dress chosen and hat appropriately fawned over, we got to work on hair and makeup.  The former was a low bun that rested just behind my left ear, while the latter was fairly natural.  I put on the dress, and the hat was put on for me after several consultations with photos of how it should look.  It wouldn’t do to wear the hat improperly.

The photographer, a man who went by Mike, was all smiles.  I later learned that he was one of Models 1′s favorite photographers, and had done shoots with loads of people that were much more important than I, including the Spice Girls.

We did a few test shots and changed the backdrop from white to blue, then got to work.  Most of the shots were variations on one pose, so aside from a few hair changes, make-up retouches, and decisions about which side was my “good side” (I never knew I had a “good side.”  Should I be self-conscious now?), I had fun changing the tilt of my chin, the position of my arms, and the degree of my smile.  A few hundred shots later, there was a shot everyone was happy with.  The shoot only took three and half hours from the time I got there until the time I left.  Not bad.

When we finished, I changed back into my street clothes and the make-up artist was kind enough to brush my hair out.  I’m still amazed at how much work it takes to get just one photo, but I’m excited to see the end result in stores come spring.