Self-Styling at KVmedia Studios, the theatre of illusion!

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I know I've said this before, but my goodness, what a difference a little styling makes!

The following photos were taken within a 2 hour shoot at KVmedia Studios in London with Nigel Ferguson. I did my hair and makeup throughout, but Neil wardrobe styled the first shot with a neon green buckled Versace waistcoat and my patent ballet heels.

I styled the second shot into a 1920s fashion theme, using my turban, fox, a favourite LBD and Fabulously Fetish shoes. It's fun to see a 20s style shot in full colour- not something one would have seen much of in the actual 20s!

See the difference? And people comment on how "over"-filled my wardrobe is! As far as I am concerned, every individual on earth has an almost infinite number of aspects of themselves that they could express through different costumes, if they wanted to, so it truly isn't possible to have "too many" clothes, shoes or accessories! Not the most scientific of theories, perhaps, but then where is the fun in boiling the photographic theatre of illusion that is modelling down to bare facts? I prefer the deception, fun and fantasy of costume and styling, any day!

If you are a photographer who would like to shoot with me at a discounted rate at KVmedia Studios on 22nd April, there are just two "package" shoots left, a 2 hour one @ £100 and a 3 hour one @ £150! Please click here for details or email me directly at contact@anitadebauch.com to reserve your shoot, before they're gone! ;)




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Beautiful Buttocks Coconut

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I shot with an actual coco de mer (Maldive coconut) at my last shoot with Aneil Sharma at KVmedia Studios. These rare seeds have been highly prized for centuries and European nobles in the sixteenth century would often have the shells of these nuts polished and decorated with valuable jewels as collectibles for their private galleries.

I did the hair and makeup, but the concept was all Aneil's!

The coco de mer really does look like a woman's genitalia at the front and a shapely derrière at the back- I mean it really, really does! I could hardly get over the similarity. It seemed amazing that a plant could just so happen to grow into such a shape! It was very smooth and tactile. One of the plant's archaic Latin names was Lodoicea callipyge, which is Greek for "coconut: beautiful buttocks"!

On that note, it's time for me to meet my model friend Helene for pre-runway class afternoon tea! We'll be spending hours this evening pacing the floorboards in high heels while one of the world's top runway choreographers coaches us- I believe her last clients were Karl Lagerfeld and Vivienne Westwood. If we can be half as good as their runway models by the end of the course then we'll be kicking callipyge at London Alternative Fashion Week!

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'Anita De Bauch: Chameleon'

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This is the cover of Sean McCormack's second "me" book, Anita De Bauch: Chameleon, which just got released!

 The cover! I did the styling and the latex is by Naucler Design :)

It is a 72 page full colour hardback book full of photos, photos, photos that we've shot together in Ireland over the years, including lots and lots of latex and nudes! You can order your copy from my Shop, and it will come to you personally signed and sealed with a lipstick kiss print! I hope to be signing and kissing a lot of books! I know that some people may find £55 a little pricey, but it is really the cheapest I could do them- really top quality coffee table books like this are expensive! I hope that you'll think it's worth it to have all the photos in one place, printed and beautifully bound :)

Well, my home is rather more chaotic than usual today! Last night some old friends took me out to see Beardyman and Doc Brown perform at Rich Mix in Shoreditch, was a lot of fun! My friend Claire and I were raving more or less solidly throughout Beardyman (Darren's) set and met both him and Doc Brown (Ben) after the show. They were both very charming- real gentlemen.

Anyway, the reason I'm in a little chaos today is because three friends stayed at my place after the show, and then my Russian interior decorator arrived this morning to re-floor and re-paint half my apartment, so the house is rather busier than usual! I'm so excited to see the finished results- I should end up with a beautiful new hallway and 1950s styled kitchen and powder room!

I just looked out the window and the weather is so good, I think I will grab my gloves and sunglasses and go for a walk in the sunshine. I guess that this will be the first of many days of sun lotion application of the year to maintain my milky white skin! I think that's another job that I need to hire someone for: following me around with a bottle of SPF 100 all summer long!




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Am Statik Latex at The Erotic Awards 2012

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I think these are my favourite show photos ever! I did an avant-garde fashion show for Am Statik at the Erotic Awards last week, which was very "organic" and "freeflowing" (i.e. not really choreographed at all!) and involved Petal, Kitty and me being naughty latex clad fairies who gang up on the designer, Luna Eve (also a model!) and strip off her latex dress and gloves, tie her to a pole with her own corset strings, zap her with an antique violet wand, force her into a huge, tight latex collar, smear her lipstick, spank her little butt and generally menace her for a few minutes! It was all her idea, of course ;) But I hear through the grapevine that our performance was so erotic that it actually converted one of the female photographers shooting the show to trying out latex at home! Now, that's a mark of success!

L - R: Petal, Kitty, Luna, me

That is actually Petal's real hair! She has long light blonde and baby pink organic dreadlocks. They're so pretty, they look good enough to eat!

Photographer: Jon Edge | Hair and makeup: all models' own

I am particularly proud to support the Erotic Awards once again as it is more than just a fetish event/ sex party- its mission statement is to "promote excellence, respect, inclusivity, and positivity in sex and erotic expression and raise funds for the Outsiders Trust, where disabled people are supported to find partners." Isn't that great?

Absolutely everyone I met there was kind, sweet, respectful and with a heart of gold. There was not a hint of the elitism or seediness that one can sometimes encounter at these events. If our performance at the semi-finals was not sufficient to put Am Statik through to the finals, I will probably go anyway, as a paying guest, just to watch the show and hang out with all the lovely, fun, pleasant and genuinely open-minded people :)

On a more rubbery note, Luna kindly gifted me what I was wearing as sort of "bonus pay", so it will probably be popping up in my shoots once it's been cleaned! I love the colour and all the pretty latex flower details!




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Happy Mother's Day!

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My grandmother raised me just as much as my mother did, really, so I think of them more as my first and second mothers than as my mother and grandmother!

My grandmother is a fascinating woman who lived and modelled in London during the blitz and has been practising yoga every single day since the 60s! She has an organic pescetarian diet, is still a size 8 and completely healthy and independent in her late 80s! We eat, shop and gossip together as though we were both still 17!

Anyway, today I whisked both my mothers out of the sticks and into Knightsbridge for soy lattes followed by shopping at Harrods. I haven't been since I was a child and had forgotten how grand the building is inside as well as out!

The Egyptian Room

Marzipan fruits for sale in the Food Hall

I took my mummies for lunch at Ladurée, which I swear is like being magically transported to Paris!

We had a wonderful table in the red velvet covered mezzanine, overlooking the sugar coloured shop floor :)

I reserved the best table in the place and was sorely tempted to drag three generations of De Bauch women into a black cab to the Eurostar by the time we were halfway through our entrées! Mon dieu, c'etait tres délicieux et tres chic et jolie! Et les serveurs Français etait très charmant <3 That reminds me, one of my new year's resolutions 2011 was to sign up for a French class. I didn't find time, of course!

Perhaps I will find a "teach yourself French" app for my new iPad and then fly to Paris to see the sights- the last time I visited was as a 17 year-old traveller on a shoestring budget- pennies I saved from my weekend job as a chambermaid! But at least I could speak the language a little better then- I got an A in French at GCSE, which my French friends refuse to believe as my abilities have atrophied so badly since I was 16!

I hope you all had a great time with your female relations today! Even a simple phone call can mean the world to a woman, on any day of the year, believe me!




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The lunatics have taken over the asylum

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If you came to the Torture Garden March Ball on Saturday night, you probably saw me walking for One Eyed Designs at the 1 am fashion show, although you wouldn't have recognised me in my bubonic latex Georgian asylum inmate costume!

 

Me and Mamzelle Maz backstage

The theme of the show was nighttime in an early 18th century madhouse, when the "screws" have left and the inmates take over, enjoying the only time they have to let loose and revel in their uniqueness, their hideous deformities and weeping sores, which they proudly parade in their own beauty show! Said sores were beautifully handcrafted as part of the clothing from coloured latex, of course!

The inmates- us models- had a whale of a time! I just knew I was going to laugh at some point so I incorporated a hissing, gibbering giggle into my character so I could let it out in bursts! I think Ruby stole the show as an inmate who thought she was a doll, though!

L-R: Cervena Fox, Alex, Maz, Ruby, me, Leah Debrincat, Lady Lucie

It was certainly novel and really quite liberating for the designer, Brett, to ask us to be as freaky, malformed and pestilent as possible on the catwalk!! Right after the show, Brett asked me to walk for her again at London Alternative Fashion Week. I said yes, of course! I'd better remember to snap out of "inmate" mode in time!!

L-R: me, Bron and Lucie (being a model instead of a designer, for a change!) after the show. I found it worryingly easy to stay in drooling maniac mode. Luckily, it wore off on the way home ;)

See you at London Alternative Fashion Week! I'm walking for One Eyed Designs on the Thursday! The show starts at 1.15 pm and it's free entry, so get there early to get a good view of the runway! I'll be posing for photos for a little while after the show, so feel free to come and have a picture taken with me :) It'll be fun!

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"Darling, the legs aren't so beautiful, I just know what to do with them."

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This is one of my favourite quotes from my ultimate glamour heroine, Marlene Dietrich!

I have a huge framed picture of Marlene hanging in my lounge and many of my fashion choices are influenced by her style. She was everything a fashion icon should be, in my opinion: elegant, rule-breaking, playful and entirely her own creation.

Every time I learn a new fact about Marlene, it's one that makes me respect her even more, e.g.

1. She was the first woman to wear trousers on American television.
2. She had affairs with Marilyn Monroe and Anita Berber (my namesake!)
3. She was a German who publicly spoke out against Nazism throughout WWII

If these facts alone do not a cool bitch make, what does?! And there are plenty more, believe me. I have many books about Marlene lined up on my bedroom shelf, with photographs charting her life from cradle to grave. I can assure you that she was just as glamorous in her 90s as in her 20s! As she said herself, "Glamour is my stock in trade, it's what I sell." Isn't that one of the most fabulous things you've ever heard?! Well, I think so! After all, what is "glamour" but another word for MAGIC?

 The incomparable Marlene Dietrich!

Anyway, although I am often told that I come across in quite a Marlene-like way under certain lighting (I even used to shave 'n' draw my eyebrows!), I have never done a full, proper Marlene-themed photo shoot, not least because I would need to invest a lot of time and money into getting each detail absolutely perfect! I know that it was in her contract that photographers had to use a certain filter when photographing her, for instance, and that she used a kind of wax under her foundation as as base, and... oh gosh, I could go on and on with the minutae from this era that I am obsessed with! I won't bore you with it all!

Having said all that, these photos from a recent shoot with Aneil Sharma have a surprisingly Marlene-like feel to them, especially the first one. I was so pleased when I saw them that I actually welled up a little bit! Silly, I know!

Top: Red or Dead | Knickers: Coco de Mer | Shoes: Fabulously Fetish | Styling: me!

I'll leave you with another quote from Marlene- a particularly relevant one, considering how often I quote quotes!!

"I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognised as being wiser than oneself."

It's so true!

Speak soon, and if you liked this blog, please share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook using the buttons below! :)




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Alice and the Wicked Queen

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If you haven't already seen them on anitadebauch.com, here are the photos from last month's bridal fashion shoot for celebrity couturier Beyond Burlesque and ethical fur, feather and bone accessory designer Roadkill Couture.

Beyond Burlesque have dressed many of my modern day style icons, like Helena Bonham Carter and Dita Von Teese, and now they have dressed me twice!

There are a few extra pictures here that you won't have seen on my site!

 Second model: Jeli

Oh, and here's a photo I stole from Beyond Burlesque's website of Dita wearing one of their corsetted couture creations :)

You can see a slideshow of Beyond Burlesque's celebrity clients wearing their couture dresses here, including Helena, Gillian Anderson and more of Dita :)

Today is a day for staying home and not even getting dressed, I think, and maybe doing a little naked yoga. I am going to lounge in my new (to me) 1940s satin housecoat ALL DAY and I'm having dinner cooked for me :) I didn't get home from last night's avant-garde fashion show at the Torture Garden March Ball until 3.30 this morning, and while the other girls were drinking wine and partying backstage before the 1 am show, I was napping!

I have so many irons in the fire atm- shoots, shows, rewrites on my book, other upcoming projects and additions to anitadebauch.com that there just doesn't seem enough hours in the day to get everything done! I've been getting very tired, not least because I like to do or at least heavily oversee everything myself, so I can't really delegate jobs at all. I like everything to be not just perfect, but my kind of perfect, not an "I hired a slick commercial team to perfect this for me for maximum consumer consumption" sort of "perfect"! I think that it's what makes us unique that makes us interesting! :) I know that I prefer to take in the shows, photos and books of people who I think are really doing it in their own style, anyway.

In aid of my own beauty and energy levels, I recently read this book, on Dita's recommendation, funnily enough.

I'm easing into the detox plan slowly by implementing a few of the basic principles at a time, but I'm hoping it will still help to improve my energy levels and the quality of my skin and muscle tone. I'll let you know!! xo




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Beyond Burlesque & Roadkill Couture Photo Shoot Teaser!

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I did a beautiful couture fashion shoot for designer to the stars Beyond Burlesque in an enchanted snowy wood last month <3 The designer, Belinda, used to design for Vivienne Westwood until she created her own label :) The clothing and location were just magical, as were the ethical fur, feather and bone accessories by Roadkill Couture! It was a wonderful shoot with wonderful people who really knew their craft.

I will be posting the photos properly soon, but for now I'm here to tease, tease, tease with a snap I took of one of the prints!

Photographer: David Angel | Hair and makeup: me!

Btw, does each blog I post come up with a location of where I am? I've been adding a location every time I post for months but if no-one can see it, it's a bit pointless!

Anyway, my location tonight will be the Torture Garden March Ball, where I will be walking in a big latex fashion show for One Eyed Designs at 1 am! Come along and enjoy the shininess and De Bauchery with us! xoxo

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What Katie Did Spring/ Summer 2012 Launch, and a brush with Vivienne Westwood!

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Am I the only one who was secretly a little pleased when the unseasonably mild weather broke and the temperature dropped again? I was feeling a little sad to have to pack away my leather gloves, high heel boots and fur collection already! Now I get to wear them for a little longer, until it's time to figure out what I'm going to wear this summer!

Atm I'm thinking a 1940s/ 50s Hawaiian theme, with fitted print tie halter tops, pedal pushers, and Art Nouveau print A-line skirts with ballet pumps for everyday and some cute, retro playsuits with pretty headscarves! :) I may also get a high waisted two piece swimsuit for the Singapore beaches this winter, like the one I wore at the What Katie Did Spring/ Summer 2012 Launch show on Sunday, paired with a parasol!

Thanks to everyone who came to see the show, it was so lovely to see you there!

The show went really well. I also got to model some beautiful sheer black lingerie with a proper bullet bra and 6" heels that I will definitely share photos of, if I spot any anywhere!

The What Katie Did boutique is so pretty. It is in a powder blue and baby pink colour scheme (I adore pastels paired together like that!), in velvet and ostrich feathers and papered with the brand's many appearances in magazines like Vogue as well as snippets from vintage fetish cartoon magazines!

I could have spent all day in there, but after the show I was treated to a new bullet bra, satin six strap suspender belt and matching knickers, which I tucked into my bag and made a dash to Bond Street to meet the director and stylists of a short international art/ fashion film with Vivienne Westwood I was to star in that very evening! I will tell you more about it when I'm allowed!

I will leave you with a little snap of the shoes for the movie that I took on my phone!

The black patent ones by Fabulously Fetish will be turning up in my photo shoots, so look out for them ;)




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Lingerie Catwalk Model slash Arthouse Actress!

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I have some very exciting news about a movie project I'm shooting all night in London tonight, but I'm not allowed to spill the beans about it yet, argh!

I'll be running to the filming location the moment I've finished walking at the What Katie Did Spring/ Summer 2012 Launch runway show this afternoon! I'd love it if you could join me in the audience for that! The show starts at 3 pm but if you arrive early I think you can claim free Hendrick's cocktails and Vintage Patisserie cakes! ;)

What I can say is that it is a short artistic film that will be screened at the London Gay Fringe Film Fest 12th - 15th April 2012 (put it in your diary!) and worldwide after that, and that it is being made by one of my very favourite cinematographers of all time- one of those people who I would never have dreamed of attempting to approach as I would have just felt silly! You can imagine how I felt when she contacted me out of the blue to invite me to star in her latest release! I was stunned that she'd even heard of me! I was bouncing up and down in my seat!

I did ask if I could invite a De Bauchee or two along to be extras in the production. That didn't get very far, but I did try!

I really am dreadful at keeping secrets! But I must keep this one, even if it feels like I'm about to pop! I'm sorry to go on about it so much but it's VERY exciting for a girl who grew up in a rural village in Cornwall to be doing all this! When I was a little girl, we had to light a fire in the wood burner every morning in winter to heat the house and the water for baths because we didn't even have gas central heating. Now I'm shooting an international movie release with Nick Knight and Raquel Zimmerman's cinematographer in one of the world's top fashion capitals! Did you know that I'm a country girl? Well, I am. I haven't forgotten.

I think I will decorate this blog with a couple of photos from my shoot in my room at The Savoy with Aneil Sharma. They have a bit of cinematic feel, I think! We did another shoot yesterday that was really cool too, in a studio this time- I'll post the photos here and on anitadebauch.com when I have them!

Satin bullet bra: What Katie Did. Cocktail ring: Playful Promises | Photographer: Aneil Sharma | Styling: me!

I think the first is my favourite. It seems to have a slightly Helmut Newton-like quality to it, if that's not too insanely self-aggrandising! Now, there's a photographer I can truly only ever dream of modelling for!

Now I must run to make it to the What Katie Did show so I can strut down the runway in beautiful, authentic 1940s and 50s lingerie designs (yum, yum!) before making a dash to the filming location for the next BIG short film!!!

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Interview with Bella Morte magazine

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Just relaxing after a long photo shoot in London today with a little blogging before I go and unpack my suitcase, clean my makeup brushes and re-pack ready for no less than FOUR photo shoots in London tomorrow!

I had a new interview out in the USA's Bella Morte magazine (issue 10) yesterday, which is the only magazine I've ever seen that revolves around features and interviews with "celebrity" alternative models. I'm on page 18! As of today you can order a copy online here (hence I didn't post about it until today)- they ship internationally :) I've already ordered my copy!

If you haven't already spotted it on anitadebauch.com, here's the digital tearsheet! You can read the full interview on anitadebauch.com!

Click here for a larger version so you can read the interview!

Be sure to email the editor on sonjalux@bellamortemagazine.com and tell her how much you like it- I'd love a cover next time and you can help me get it! If I do end up shooting a cover, I'll be stocking hand signed and kissed copies for you De Bauchees in my Shop, of course!

Love and kisses,

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