Land, Sea and Hair

I've been very busy since my last blog, but thought I would give myself a moment to settle down on the settee in my vintage satin robe and share a little of the last few days with you :)

I popped up to Scotland over the weekend for a shoot at Pavilion Studio in West Lothian, which is owned and run by photographer Barrie Spence. I've shot with Barrie before but this was the first time that I'd seen the studio and I was very impressed with it! It was warm, clean, well laid-out and well-equipped. I had three photo shoots in one day there (8 hours altogether) in great company, so it really was a very pleasant getaway! I will be able to share some of the photos, including Lady Lucie latex and Playful Promises lingerie, very soon, so subscribe to my blog now if you don't want to miss it (top right of this page)!

I watched about half of the Olympic opening ceremony with Barrie, his partner Fiona and shy Labrador Molly, and enjoyed it more than I expected! I even found the bit at the beginning with the suffragettes and soldiers very moving! It's easy for me to be cynical and forget just how much this country has evolved and contributed, considering how small it is. We became a non-slave-owning, atheist, openly gay, scientific, anti-fascist, artistically progressive culture with votes for women relatively early on and I like to think we are still progressing now!

It's a shame that they didn't make reference to important British scientists like Charles Darwin, or the UK's (relatively) thriving LGBT/ queer culture, but I suppose you can't have it all. You know that if I had been organising the event there would have been plenty more latex, 6" stiletto heels and fully fashioned seamed nylons! If you like those things too, then you'll love what I have in my Shop right now!!

Here is a brand new picture, as a reward for you if you actually read all that waffle up there ^

It was taken on the hot, sunny streets of Singapore last December by Singapore's leading photographic team, CaKe! We always shoot together at least twice when I visit Singapore and are already discussing our upcoming shoot this December!

Photographer and wardrobe stylist: Callan Tham @ CaKe! | Hair and makeup: Kenny Tan

On the theme of street fashion, I also have an outtake from a more recent shoot in Camden with my cat, Dexter! It was the first shoot where we've been officially booked to model together and my little boy did me proud! Can't you just tell that this photo was taken in England and not in Singapore?! In fairness though, it was taken at night!

 This has got to be my most successful Mohawk to date! I got this new hairspray and it's like spray-superglue. It kicks the arse of both Elnette and Schwarzkopf, my preferred brands up to now!
Photographer: Donald Ogg | Styling: me! | Male model: Dexter ;) | Assistant: Jo

Little bit of nerdage: the alley we were shooting in is the very same one that Edgar Wright used to shoot the famous "fake gun fight" scene in Spaced. Conveniently, it also happens to be outside my favourite Camden pub, The Black Heart *nods*

Also this week was another first: my first underwater shoot! I was really lucky to get to do it with my model friend Ivory Flame (Holly), who is not only amazing at modelling in general but experienced in underwater modelling specifically, so she actually coached me through the whole thing, from emails before we even got there, to wrapping me up in towels at opportune moments and recommending breathing and relaxation techniques, to texting me after the shoot with further advice and encouragement ♥

It was a very exciting day for me as the learning curve was so steep! Although I don't panic in water at all, the first few photos looked more like I was drowning or had just fallen into the pool and was having a laugh, rather than graceful and ethereal, but by the end of the day I was promptly counting myself in and dropping to the bottom of the pool to pull poses with Holly that would have been impossible on dry land!

I will share the photos when I have them, but for now, here is a little behind the scenes snap I took of Holly and the photographer testing the lights- underwater!

Underwater modelling is so addictive because of the physical challenge and your sudden ability to float! I hope I get to do more! I have tons of ideas, including being a mermaid and floating around in a long silk dress!

Let me know if there is anything that you would like to see me do underwater..!

Love and kisses,

Anita xxx



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Anita De Bauch vs Kate Moss

My agency sent me off on a rather exciting casting at the Groucho Club today for a job with a popular artist whose work explores and plays with the idea of "sleb" culture and how easily we can be misled by media representation of the "real" world, using only lookalikes of celebrities rather than the celebrities themselves.

This particular project involves making a super-realistic sculpture of Kate Moss and then photographing her with it. The artist saw my photos and measurements and wanted to see if I could be used to cast Kate's torso :)

  L - R: me, Kate Moss

All very flattering for me, of course, but gosh, the last 18 hours have been a bit of a nightmare!

It all began with me idly Googling "kate moss measurements" to see if I was an exact match or merely a very close match, only to discover that she was about an inch smaller all over than I thought she was. I then measured myself in front of the bathroom mirror and discovered that I was an inch bigger all over than I thought I was. Whether or not it was down to it being that time of the month was irrelevant. The casting was in 12 hours and I had 2" to lose on my bust, waist and hips!

I immediately took a probiotic, a milk thistle and a magnesium supplement with a glass of lemon water sprinkled with cayenne pepper. At my boyfriend's suggestion, I slept in a thermal vest with a blanket on top of the duvet to sweat out some water retention overnight. It worked- by morning I had lost an inch all over.

I then did some pilates to flatten my stomach with a cup of hot lemon water then had my breakfast smoothie sans banana and in a very hot Dead Sea salt bath to try and extract some more toxins. This was followed by organic coffee, whitened with coconut water, sprinkled with cinnamon and cocoa powder and served with lots of organic carrot sticks. After all this, I'd lost another inch on my bust and hips but still had one more to go round my waist- I was at 25" instead of the "correct" measurement of 24". I stayed in a tightlaced corset until I left for the casting and hoped that would at least mitigate it!

When I arrived at the Groucho Club I took some topless shots with the artist so she could record what I looked like. She said she'd been having real trouble finding someone both very slim yet not too muscular. I promptly sucked my stomach in to hide my extra inch, but apparently that made my ribs stick out too much, so I don't think I got the job :(

Life is surreal, isn't it? I never thought I'd be writing, "Dear Diary, Today I was turned down for the Kate Moss body double job at the Groucho Club because I'm too boney", but there you are. I feel silly whinging about it, even, but then, this is my blog, and I really wanted this job, it looks so cool :(

Anyway, onto positive things! I'm off to Scotland tomorrow to shoot at Barrie Spence's place and then on Monday I'm shooting a fantastic Klimt-inspired underwater art project with Ivory Flame. I've been wanting to shoot with her for literally years, so having her teach me how to model underwater will be a real treat! I've ordered some floaty skirts to wear as I think they'll look cool; hope they arrive in time!

Anyway, must dash! Sorry for the moaning, I hope you don't mind! My next blog will be much happier, I promise :)

Lots of love,

Anita xxx

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Peaches and cream :)

Plans for my first European Tour this summer are going well so far (yeah, I like to plan things 4 - 5 months in advance, what of it?). I'm especially looking forward to shooting for Buffies in an eighteenth century French chateau in June, woo! :)

I'll be shooting fashion and glamour assignments in Portugal for the last week of April then heading back to the continent again in June after my Scottish and Irish Tours are over and visiting various cities in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. I also want to visit Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Madrid, if I have time!

In the meantime, here are some more glamorous portraits by Barrie Spence, taken in completely natural light :)

Tomorrow's photographer had to postpone so I have train tickets to get me to Sheffield but nothing to do when I get there! I may do some Googling and see if there's any touristy things to do there so I can have a little day out :) If not, I might just stay home and prep for Tuesday's shoot in Kent :)

*yawn* Good morning :)

I have some new shots of my shekshee new haircut! More to follow soon :D

Check out the Agent Provocateur pants I bought myself for my birthday! Hee hee

Photographer: Barrie Spence

Hair and makeup: me

Liam took me to see The King's Speech at The Phoenix last night. It was well good! Better than I was expecting, actually. It's nice to see a film about the Royals that doesn't try to make some sort of statement on whether having a monarchy is a good thing or not, either being all misty-eyed and vomit-inducing if it's a mainstream film or self-consciously republican if it's an indie film. The only statement this film made was "being royal would be quite shit," which seems likely, on the face of it. Other than that it was just about a guy getting over a speech impediment and it's worth seeing just for the beautiful sets, costumes and photography :) I'll definitely be getting it on DVD when it comes out :)

Buffies Catalogue

I LOVE this dress! It's like something Nicky Wire (one of my personal style icons) would wear and you can buy your own here exclusively at bargainous high street prices! These photos have also been featured on the Buffies homepage as well as their online catalogue :)

 Photographer: Barrie Spence

Hair and makeup: me

I think I need to shoot this dress again with my ballet heels and give it a Black Swan theme :D

In other news, I just got a phone call booking me to shoot a hair fashion video with Stacey Broughton on Thursday for American company ScissorBoy, which has a readership of 30 000! I'll post the video here when it's done. Should be fun! :D

The Adventures of Latex Stargirl & her new hairdo!

Woo, I now have a photo of my new Jane Doe star bikini from my shoot in Scotland with Barrie Spence! Apologies if you've already seen it on my Facebook fanpage!

Hair and makeup courtesy of moi

Had a fun hair job yesterday with Stacey Broughton, one of the best hairdressers in the world, at Wella World Studio, and not just because it's always fun to get paid to have your done ;) I still have the cute jet black boycut but with a really geometric asymmetric fringe (as opposed to the smooth curving asymmetric fringe I got at my last Mahogany Hair job). I like it because I can either leave it as a sharp, crazy step for more edgy fashion and beauty shoots or give myself a ruffled little side parting for art nude, commercial and other work that requires a softer, more "natural" sort of a look. It's very versatile. Go Stacey!

<-- Ruffled vs. geometric fringe! -->

 Click on the individual pics to see larger versions!

And here's a full-length one, for no other reason than that I only posted one other shot of the right side of my new 'do and also because I want to show off my new Kurt Geiger shoes ;)

Randomly, I was offered a potential modelling job in Kiev while I was at Wella (which would be cool if it goes ahead as I've never been to the Ukraine) and also got spotted by a Brazilian fashion blogger on the way home, so an iPhone snapshot of me looking confused on the tube will probably be popping up on some Brazilian blog at some point, lol.

That's my news! Now I'm off to have a facial to help repair weeks-on-end-of-heavy-makeup damage!

Figure Studies from Livingston

I had a wonderful shoot in Scotland recently with Barrie "Entropic Tendencies" Spence. Those who follow my Twitter will know I had my first experience of the sleeper train as I had to leave Euston at midnight in order to be at Livingston at 8 am for a 9 am -  5 pm shoot. The train I needed to use had no berths or First Class section, which kind of sucked as I had to sleep in 30 minute bursts sitting up in a cold carriage with a group of lads who sat up drinking Stella until at least 2 am (the last time I checked the time) >.< I felt surprisingly awake after washing my face and brushing my teeth in the onboard toilet (!) just before pulling into Livingston, though. I didn't really crash until we stopped shooting. Then my body suddenly realised how tired it was and I fell asleep in the car both to and from the networking party in Glasgow that evening!

Anyway, we started out shooting some single light source nudes in Barrie's home studio. It was a lovely way to start the day, sort of like doing photographic yoga :)

Speaking of art nude, I've now been officially confirmed to model for Bryon Paul McCartney's Tuscany Fine Art Photography Workshop in July, alongside my friend Ulorin Vex (Chris) and another model called Ruby Slate Balthazar, who I look forward to meeting :) I like that we all have contrasting hair colours- Chris: neon orange, Ruby: white-blonde and me: jet black. It would be cool to get some colour shots of the three of us together with the contrasting hairz, methinks :)