A Lady in London

It’s that time of year again. Time for horse races, time for Pimm’s, time for the Queen to arrive in her carriage to the delight of the crowds. It’s time for Royal Ascot.

(more…)

One of the things I love about living in the UK is how much history there is here. For example, this year Ascot Racecourse—a British institution that will always have a significant meaning for me after winning the Face of Ascot competition my first year in London—is celebrating its 300th anniversary.

I’m hard pressed to think of many American institutions that will celebrate their tercentenary this year, not least because America as a country isn’t even that old. It’s a bit funny to think that a racecourse in England is older than my country, but again, that’s one of the things I love about my adoptive land.

With Royal Ascot rapidly approaching, plans for the celebration of the Ascot Racecourse 300th anniversary are well underway. I had a chance to witness them firsthand on Friday, when I went to the racecourse for its only night meeting of the season.

I went to the racenight to attend a reception for the opening of a photography exhibition that will celebrate the 300 years of the racecourse. Alistair Morrison’s My Kingdom for a Horse stared two years ago at Royal Ascot, when Morrison started taking portraits of people involved with the racecourse. From jockeys to patrons, he wanted to capture it all. It was then that he requested to take a portrait of me as the racecourse’s first Face of Ascot.

Two years later, the portraits were finished and the exhibition was ready to launch. On Friday I took a friend to Ascot for the Transformers and Rectifiers Racenight, where the reception was held.

We arrived at 3:30pm on a train from London to Ascot. It was unseasonably warm outside as we made our way up to the racecourse. When we arrived, I gave my friend a quick tour of the grounds.

The bright green grass of the parade ring was glistening in the sun as we approached, and the grandstand had large “300 years” signs on it to celebrate the tercentenary. On the ground floor of the grandstand building, staff members were setting up tables for the annual Festival of Wine, which was to take place that day during the races.

After the tour, we took the escalator up to the Ascot Racing Club box. Once there, models Anna Carissa and Abi Wickes, who wore bright red Spanish costumes in honor of the event’s sponsor, Tio Pepe, greeted us.

Taking a glass of sherry from the proffered tray, we walked into the long, glass-fronted room. Neither of us was a big fan of sherry, so we quickly swapped it out for Champagne. The Spanish ham, on the other hand, was something our palettes could handle.

Over the course of the next hour, we caught up with people I knew from Ascot that I hadn’t seen in a long time, including the head of public relations, Nick Smith, and the CEO, Charles Barnett. We also tasted various canapes, enjoyed the views over the parade ring, and listened to several short speeches about Ascot Racecourse’s 300th anniversary. Afterwards we moved over to the Ascot Authority Box on the racetrack side of the grandstand.

The sponsor there was Gonzalez Byass, so we switched from Champagne to wine as we entered the new venue. As we sipped, we noticed a small exhibition that featured several portraits from My Kingdom for a Horse, which will be on display at Royal Ascot in June.

After perusing the portraits, we noticed that one of them was mine. My friend wasted no time in making me pose in front of it, which thoroughly embarrassed me. When she finished snapping, I escaped to watch the first race of the day. The Ascot Authority Box was right on the finish line, making it a great location from which to see the action.

After the race we moved back inside to have a Spanish-style buffet dinner. The spread consisted of everything from risotto to salmon, chorizo to cheese. We ate quickly so as to have time to watch the next race, and spent the rest of the evening moving in and out of the box as the races came and went.

At the end of the day we tore ourselves away from Ascot Racecourse and took the train back to London. The day at the races had been a good one, and had gotten me even more excited for Royal Ascot and the 300th anniversary celebrations of one of the world’s most famous racecourses.

From the unveiling of Charlie Langton’s statue of Ascot’s greatest racing legend, the four-time Gold Cup winner Yeats, to the appearance of David Austin’s new ‘Queen Anne’ Rose that will honor the founder of the racecourse, there is much to look forward to for Ascot Racecourse’s 300th anniversary this year.

It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since my first trip to Royal Ascot. It doesn’t seem so long ago that my boyfriend and I went to Berkshire to watch the races and I got scouted for and then won the Face of Ascot 2009 modeling competition. It feels like such a short time has gone by since last year, when my time at Royal Ascot involved press interviews, sponsorships, and passing the baton to Callie Moore, the Face of Ascot 2010.

(more…)

With my year as the Face of Ascot behind me, I wasn’t sure when I would next make it back to the races. But at Royal Ascot in June my boyfriend and I were introduced to the executive director of Gloucestershire’s Cheltenham racecourse. He kindly invited us to spend a day at the races in Cheltenham, an offer which we took him up on over the weekend.

(more…)

Saturday was my last day as the Face of Ascot 2009. While I was sad to give up my title, I was excited to meet the new contenders for the Face of Ascot 2010 title. I woke up early, put on my black Karen Millen dress with a big rose on one shoulder and my still-too-big-for-me Cleo B heels, and grabbed my black satin handbag. I was ready to go to Royal Ascot.

(more…)

After a month of getting outfitted for Royal Ascot, my boyfriend, my mother and I headed out to Berkshire on Tuesday morning for the start of the famous five day race meeting. Wearing my fuchsia Karen Millen dress and Cleo B heels, I left home excited for a day at the races.

(more…)

I hate shopping. Nothing ever fits me, I always regret what I buy, and I inevitably spend way too much money on clothes that see the light of my closet more often than the light of day. It would be nice if I had other people to just do all of my shopping for me. In fact, I just did.

(more…)

My picture is up in Karen Millen stores all over London.  The photo from the shoot I did with Models 1 in February has finally made its debut in stores, on leaflets, in newspapers, and of course at Ascot racecourse.

When I got back from San Francisco last month, I stopped by a Karen Millen store with my boyfriend to see if the campaign had started.  It had.  We walked into the Regent Street shop and there in front of us on the table was a poster with my photo and details about the contest be the next Face of Ascot.

My boyfriend took a picture with his Blackberry as I looked around for others.  They were everywhere; tables, racks, stands, and check out counters had my face all over them.  I walked around thinking how strange it was to see pictures of myself in a high street retailer.  Having always wondered how models feel when they see themselves in public places, it was a bit surreal to experience it first hand.

(more…)

My year as the Face of Ascot is quickly approaching its end. Last Saturday I made one final trip out to the racecourse before Royal Ascot in June.

(more…)

With Royal Ascot just a month and a half away, I headed to the racecourse last Saturday for one final photo shoot. My flight from San Francisco arrived at Heathrow at 6:30am that day.  After a quick shower in the arrivals lounge, I was driven to Ascot racecourse for a 10am shoot. Maybe that’s what it’s like to be a jet setting international model.  Harder than it looks.

Once at Ascot, I settled in to the Winning Connections Room, where the group that was doing the shoot was based for the day. As the fashion editor from the Sunday Express Magazine laid out all the clothes, the make-up artist arranged her mountains of make-up, and the photographer took out his equipment, it was strange to see the room in which I had last sipped champagne with the likes of Bernie Ecclestone transformed into a studio for a photo shoot.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

As part of my duties as the Face of Ascot, last night I attended the Pride of Racing Awards at Lord’s Cricket Ground. The event consisted of a champagne reception, a dinner, an awards ceremony for the unsung heroes of the horse racing industry, and a charity auction in aid of Racing Welfare.

(more…)

Models 1, the modeling agency that sponsored the Face of Ascot competition I won in June, recently booked me for a test shoot.

The day before the shoot, I was given an address and the names of two French photographers. I was told to wear no makeup and put nothing in my hair. Other than that, I knew nothing.

(more…)

This week is Fashion Week in London. The city is buzzing with all the hot celebrities, models, and usual suspects on London’s tabloid circuit.

Kate Moss has been in the daily newspapers stumbling out of central London’s swankiest clubs, and the young royals and celebutantes have been snapped watching the catwalk from their premium front row seats.

I haven’t spent my week posing for cameras, walking down the catwalk or otherwise involved in Fashion Week. In fact, I haven’t had anything to do with it at all unless reading about it in the paper counts.

But I still have one claim to fame: my first modeling photos graced the pages of one of London’s magazine’s last Sunday. So if you twist logic around enough, it could be said that I kicked off Fashion Week. Hah.

Back in the world of reality, my magazine debut is small when compared to the work of the girls and boys on and around the catwalk in the city center. But it’s still exciting to have my photos in a magazine, and I’m excited that there’s more to come. Maybe next year I’ll have a legitimate place in Fashion Week. Maybe.

The last time I had my hair and make-up done in anticipation of a photo shoot was right before my high school prom. I went to Stanford Shopping Center to get my face painted at the Laura Mercier counter at Bloomingdale’s and then got caught in horrible traffic on the way to get my hair done in Palo Alto. It turns out that it was Bill Clinton’s presidential motorcade that was blocking my way. Go figure.

Yesterday I got geared up to have my hair and make-up done again, but in a slightly different context and a very different style. The fanfare was for my first official photo shoot as the Face of Ascot. The shoot was for S Magazine, one of the sponsors of the modeling competition that I won in June. Their fashion editor brought me in to model for a spread on fall fashion in one of the September issues.

(more…)