AmsterDAMN

I really should blog about my trip to Amsterdam as it was so much fun... but as well as being kind of blurry on the details, I am really busy renovating this new house of house of mine... so just pictures by Studio VC shot in my suite in Amsterdam for now :)

I'll post the rest in my next blog. I'm also planning on writing a blog with some little tips on buying your first house, as it was a long drawn-out nightmare for us and it would be great to just drop a little list of tips and contact numbers that others could use to get the ball rolling and hopefully not be put off trying to buy at all. It is much harder now than it was for our parents' generation, but still just about possible for some. It would have been handy for me to have had a blog with practical info for UK people all in one place, that's for sure.

Back to the photos- forgot to say I did all the styling myself- I'm just wearing my own clothes and jewellery, with Bareskin Beauty skincare and Mya Minerals makeup :)

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

General waffle/ procrastination + butt (NSFW)

I seem to be in a permanent state of excitement/ over-stimulation with so many upcoming trips and projects atm, that I constantly feel that I hardly know what to do with myself! Part of it is nerves. e.g. "Will this damn house come through?" We are tantalisingly close to exchanging now and I can't bear the thought of it all falling through again- but I just have to be patient and wait and see! Patience is not my strong point. If something needs doing, I like to go ahead and get it done! Having something drag on for months with endless email tennis does not come naturally to me :(

I'm going to be finishing 2016 by travelling round Ireland and continental Europe, starting on 1 September and finishing in December! :) Although I've technically been to a couple of the places before, there will still be new experiences waiting for me there- e.g. I have visited Milan a couple of times, both for shooting and on holiday, but never during Fashion Week, so that will be a first (although I have walked at London Fashion Week and been invited to sit in the second row with SHOWstudio at Singapore Fashion Week, which was great). Other places I'll be going to, like Amsterdam, are completely new to me :) I'm taking care to reserve a couple of days here and there at the more interesting places to be a tourist and visit the sights I might never have got to see if it weren't for modelling.

Speaking of modelling... here are some new photos shot in natural light by Tim Bircher :) Many thanks to Bareskin Beauty for the organic skincare and Mya Minerals for the vegan cosmetics used for this shoot.

Jobs for today: dye hair, call estate agent, make a last-minute mani-pedi appointment, various online check-ins, give Dexter a bath and figure out what I need to bring with me to Ireland for a two-week trip... probably not all that much as I think everyone wants to shoot nudes.

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

So... what have I been doing?

I've had a strange sort of August... waiting to see if house #3 pans out is starting to get to me. I've felt homeless for the last two years. However, I have enjoyed the luxury of a summer in Somerset with no real ties... the weather and the little towns are beautiful. There are some great restaurants, pubs and days out to be had here. But I would like my own place to return to at the end of each day.

Something I have learned through trying to buy a house here and (so far) having had two fall through, through no fault of my own, is how dumb and self-entitled rich people can be. I was sort of raised to think that if you're rich, you probably got there by being smart and working hard. Well, I'm now dealing with my second millionaire in a row, and he appears to be just as dense and lazy as the first one. I feel like if I had that kind of money, I would use it better ;) For example, we had to break off with buying the last house we were interested in (the really big one!) because at the last minute, the (millionaire) seller asked us to pay his £5000 back-taxes for him. Uh.......................... no?

So having thrown literally thousands of pounds around this summer already and still being no closer to having our own home than we were a year ago, things have felt tough. I finally have a really excellent/ scary London lawyer on my side now, who is a partner in her own law firm, so hopefully that will help move things along. I really want to be in the new place by October, in time for my favourite holiday!

I've ended up getting a lot of little bookings in a lot of different places next month, which is unexpected and exciting. I love travelling :) Here is my current list... if you'd like to book me for a shoot in any of these places, email me! contact@anitadebauch.com. I've rented a car for Ireland, which should make getting around a lot easier and more efficient!

The Milan Fashion Week booking came in just last night. It's not what you think ;) Stay tuned and keep an eye on the news.

I'm planning on giving myself a big makeover over Christmas this year, while I'm off work... let's see how that turns out. Today I'm starting small by experimenting with some wigs and the many, many Mya Minerals eyeshadows I seem to have acquired (thank you!) :) She also sent me something called Fairy Dust, which is supposed to be for highlighting your face, but I'm thinking of dusting my body with it for fashion nudes and bodyscapes. Hmm...

I'm supposed to be saving money atm, but it's hard when you have a shoe fetish... I was bad and bought these:

I plan on having a wall of floor-to-ceiling shelves in the new place, dedicated only to shoes... *dreams* One day, I want to have a whole room dedicated to nothing but shoes, hats, corsets, sunglasses, latex, lingerie, jewellery, dresses and playsuits! I will eventually need one, that's for sure.

I really feel like I should post some modelling pictures now! Here are a couple of new natural-light portraits shot this summer, if you haven't already seen them on Instagram. I did my own hair and makeup as usual, and the skincare is all from Bareskin Beauty :)

Photographer: Tim Bircher

Photographer: Shawn Spencer-Smith

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

Paris in the Spring

The Opera House, Paris: so beautiful, I almost wept. I get very emotional when I see something really transporting and ornate. My slight champagne hangover from Dita's Crazy Show vaporised in an instant! This room didn't so much take my breath away, as knock it right out of my body!

After the opera house, we had a quick coffee opposite at the Grand Hotel, then grabbed a cab for a glass of pink champagne and some caviar at Prunier, a funky art deco seafood restaurant frequented by Dita Von Teese and Jean Paul Gaultier. I don't think about what I'm "allowed" or "not allowed" to eat too much when I'm abroad; I think it's important to enjoy the local specialities to really submerge oneself in the culture.

Anyway, to stick to a strict diet in Paris, one would have to lack a pulse!

Prunier.

A last boutique I had to visit before we left was Caron, where I bought two of these gorgeous swan's down powder puffs. I am collecting beautiful objects for my dressing table at Peng Towers :) I don't have the actual dressing table itself yet, but whatever... for now I have a dreamy peach powder puff for my future dressing table, and a miniature baby pink one for my present makeup case. They are the softest things I have ever ever touched!

I also took away some French perfume samples, including one that smells just like fresh pink roses, my favourite flower.

Our last stop before picking up our cases from the concierge and leaving for the airport was the Musée de l'érotisme, which had two whole floors dedicated to late C19th and early C20th erotica, including lots of vintage photographs of the the ladies of the night of Pigalle, and real 1920s pornography playing on a loop on TV screens!

"Gigolettes" of the 1890s- the lack of makeup was compensated for by every kind of lace, silk, velvet, ribbon, pearls, corsetry and other intricate lingerie, and any other glamorous trimming you can think of!

One thing I learned at the Musée de l'érotisme is that the moment cameras were invented, the first thing people did was use them to record sex, and pictures of beautiful naked women. At the time, brothels were perfectly legal in Paris and many had stunningly beautiful ornate interiors with the ladies who worked there sometimes wearing ballgowns in sumptuous fabrics as well as the more expected lingerie (or nothing but shoes!). It seems that high heels, stockings, garters, lace, corsets, gloves, waved hair, smoky eyes and round bums have been sexy since at least the 1890s!

Parisian prostitutes in an opulent brothel in Pigalle in the 1910s.

Now to catch up with emails! Au revoir for now x

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

Dita Von Teese at The Crazy Horse, Paris

After champagne, oysters and ile flottante at Bofinger, Boyfy and I spent a rainy afternoon shopping in Paris. I love to visit the original Dior flagship store, est. 1949. I also don't mind being offered complementary champagne while I try on dresses, that's for sure.

I wanted to go to the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz, but when we got there, the whole place was closed for refurbishments. Disaster! I've added a book called The Cocktails of The Ritz to my Amazon Wish List so I can make them at home, but I think it will be a while before I order myself any more gifts- living it up in Paris comes with a price tag!

The evening was the highlight of our trip, Dita's Crazy Show at the legendary Crazy Horse, which has been a burlesque house since the 50s. We saw Dita perform her new acts, which made clever use of lighting technology and the small space. The Crazy Horse has a small stage with the audience almost touching distance from the action and no room for feather fans, giant Martini glasses, or the like- but there was room for the Lili St Cyr-inspired bathtub :)

I'm happy to say that photography of the show was strictly prohibited, so the audience wasn't constantly alight with people trying to record everything on their phones, blocking each other's view, checking in on Facebook, etc etc. In fact, I didn't even take my phone with me on this trip! I really wanted to just live in the moment of being in Paris, thinking only of the now, and not of how best to record it for when I'm back home. It was a good experience. I'm sure I will still take photos on my phone from now on, but probably fewer pointless selfies. I'm getting a bit bored with this "pics or it didn't happen" social media culture we have.

So, here is a photo I lifted from Dita's Instagram (I also reposted it on my Instagram) of her first of the five acts she appears in (maybe call it four and a half as her final appearance is really at the end of the finale, where she just comes out and waves goodbye). I have to say, this show is genuinely very sexy, and definitely not a family show or something toned down for tourists! It is a proper strip show- just an extremely imaginative and high calibre one!

The founder of the Crazy Horse said of the world-famous nude-dancing Crazy Girls,

"...what we do with the girls is magic, too, because they aren't as beautiful as you see them onstage. It's the magic of lights and costumes. These are my dreams and fascinations..."

There are even strict guidelines on how the dancers may appear offstage, on their way to and from work. A man after my own heart! Modelling is all about lighting, costumes and fantasy, too, or at least, it is for me. I go into this subject in depth in my book, The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, which is £12.99 from various online retailers and should be of interest to all self-made glamour goddesses.

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

Le weekend

Let me tell you all about my Easter weekend in gay Parree!

I finally made time to go on a long-overdue holiday to one of my favourite cities, Paris. All I can think about when I'm here is La Belle Epoque, the Roaring Twenties, artists and courtesans drinking absinthe in art nouveau bars, the "leg shows" at the Opera House, the New Look, Jean Paul Gaultier...

Photographer: GSC4X | Skincare: Bareskin Beauty | Cosmetics: Mya Minerals

Pink hotel room! :D One thing I love about Paris is that decor- no neutrals, plain carpets or magnolia paint in sight! No-one is afraid to try and make a room special in Paris.

After a well-deserved lie-in at a little Baroque hotel I found online, where the rooms are named after glamour icons from Parisian history like Mistinguett and Coco Chanel, Boyfy and I went for brunch at Mariage Frères, an exotic tea salon from the C19th. We shared "Le Classique", but were so full, we still had to take the sakura blossom dessert away to share at the hotel later!

I love floral scents, so I purchased a box of rose and violette tea called Swan Lake, which will look really pretty brewing in my French press at home when I have the girls round ;)

We managed to sneak into Laperouse when it was closed at midday, for a little unofficial guided tour:

I also visited Notre Dame for the first time, which was as spooky and impressive as I'd imagined from Victor Hugo's book. I wanted to learn more about the history of Paris, so we visited the museum in the crypt.

One of the highlights of the trip so far has been dinner at Maxim's, an art nouveau restaurant and my favourite in Paris. The owner who made Maxim's so wildly popular at the turn of the century did so by ensuring the restaurant was always full of well-dressed women in all manner of lace, diamonds, velvets and ribbons, tactically seated in the windows facing the street. Jean Cocteau wrote that

"To undress one of these women is like an outing that calls for three weeks' advance notice, it's like moving house."

Hilarious!

We ordered absinthe and champagne with our meal, the drinks of choice during La Belle Epoque, and it gave me a happy little buzz to listen to the pianist play and imagine how many grand dames and dandies had enjoyed the same drinks in the very same room since the late C19th...

The Bar at Maxim's

On Sunday, we went for tea and a single Marie Antoinette macaroon to share at Ladurée (I just wanted to taste). I like the Ladurée at Harrod's, but you can't beat the real thing in Paris.

The good weather lasted just long enough for a pretty boat ride along the river, where we got our first really clear view of the Eiffel Tower. Wow! Everywhere you look in Paris, there's beauty all around.

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

#WardrobeWednesday with Damian McGillicuddy, Olympus & Bareskin Beauty!

Hi everyone!

I'm writing this on my sofa, in a peach robe, with Lilith purring in it, and drinking almond cappuccino with cinnamon sprinkles from a big china mug. Apparently people like to know these things.

Anyway!

Check out this new photo shot in Finland last month with Damian McGillicuddy using Olympus! I borrowed my boyfriend's tie for this shoot.

I'm quite impressed by just how much you can see my nipple through that blouse. I don't know if it actually looked like that at the time or was enhanced in Photoshop. I did the hair and makeup, skincare is by Bareskin Beauty :) The hair was super easy, I just used coconut oil to slick it down.

Bought some new makeup online today, in fact; I'm gradually converting from MAC to organic pure mineral products. Less talc = less spots. I recently got a bunch of new BsB natural products and my skin looked better immediately after using the Clay Mask and Antioxidant Toner, which inspired me to think, "what else can I do? Improve my makeup case!"

Yesterday's lips =

BsB lip balm + Rimmel Dynamite pencil + MAC Girl About Town applied with MAC lip brush

Here's a little video of me visiting the BsB kitchen in London last weekend, in case you didn't already see it on Vine:

Full day shoot yesterday, spa mineral bath with Thornton's Champagne truffles courtesy of boyfy last night, and full day's domestic goddess activities today. I've already done last night's washing up, three loads of laundry, scratch-made two kinds of soup (Kim Snyder's detox vegan Thai soup, and my own vegan Italian tomato & Chanteray carrot), baked preservative-free vegan wholemeal with coconut oil and BsB Himalayan pink salt, and assembled a huge pile of clothes for mending. I feel super-efficient. Now to see if I can remember how to thread up my digital sewing machine!

 Oh and guess what?

I've officially been modelling for EIGHT YEARS this month.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! Cheers everyone!

PS, does anyone know where I can buy a pair of these in the UK??? They are actually my perfect pair of sunglasses. I think I could handle paying 250 bucks for them if I had prescription lenses put in and wore them forever.

Hangin' in Helsinki with the Big Dog (oh, and @OlympusUK) #WardrobeWednesday @McGillicuddy1

So last month I got a last-minute call from Damian McGillicuddy inviting me to fly out to Helsinki with him to help promote Olympus cameras at an event by Indie Days!

It was a "Bloggers' Inspiration Day"- blogging is HUGE over there- and Damian was demonstrating with me how to take simple portraits, as of course a lot of these fashion bloggers take their own photos! Instead of the usual crowd of middle-aged male photographers, this camera demo audience was 99% beautiful young Scandinavian women + 1% gay hipsters. I have never seen a better-looking group of photographers, seriously!! They all should have been in front of the camera!

One of Damian's photos from the class:

Afterwards we went for dinner and I had a traditional Finnish soup called lohikeitto, which is like leek and potato, garnished with fresh dill, mmmmmmm! It said vegetarian and lactose-free on the menu, but when it arrived it was full of butter, cream and poached salmon and promptly sent me into a food-coma!

The next day, Damian and I shot some of my Lady Allura's Latex and Fabulously Fetish boots at the hotel with lovely Lesley assisting :) I'll post more of the results when I have them, they are awesome, so please subscribe to my blog (top right) and I'll mail them to you! in the meantime, I have an email mountain to tackle and international tours to organise ;)

Anita x

Booty call with the Big Dog

A photo at our very Scandinavian hotel in Helsinki, featuring my bespoke leather Fabulously Fetish boots :)

Photographer: Damian McGillicuddy

Skincare: Bareskin Beauty
Hair and makeup: me

Apparently one of our photos from our trip to Finland is going to be published in the next Olympus Magazine, although I don't know which one yet! I'll see if I can post a scan here when it's out, so do subscribe to my blog if you want to see it (right hand column of this page) :)

Parisian dreams with Amy Colwell

So the other week Amy Colwell and I were flown to Paris in a private jet to shoot some "casual" black and white portraits at one of the many chic little cafes near Le Louvre and Musée D’Orsay.

Okay... so you might have guessed from the writing on the blackboard that we didn't go all the way to Paris to shoot these, but don't they just have that certain je ne sais quois??

 Hair and makeup: me. Vintage faux fur coat courtesy of my favourite local charity shop!

We were actually in Muswell Hill, North London, about 15 minutes from my house. It's a nice spot, but it's not Paris- I was just trying to "think Paris" and project it into the camera lens ;) I'm *hoping* to visit Paris this year to see Nine Inch Nails, and next year to "do" Paris properly, when I will hopefully have the time, the money and the language skills. I'm so excited!

I backpacked across France when I was 17 and could still speak French, but being a penniless teenager, wasn't able to appreciate Paris to its full extent. I am drawing up a dream list for next year. It's always better to start by brainstorming your wildest dreams, and then figuring out the practicalities of making them happen, than it is to just try and think of something practical in the first place. Aim high!

♥ Anita’s Paris list ♥

• Victor Noire- try jumping the fence to kiss him!!
• See a ballet at the Paris Opera House
• Jean Paul Gaultier boutique 
• Caron (next door to the flagship Dior store) for swan’s down powder puffs 
• Saint Ouen flea market- Nuits de Satin is all vintage lingerie
• Go for a cocktail in the Hemmingway Bar at The Ritz 
• See a show at The Crazy Horse
• Palace of Versailles- museum and gardens and a boat on the lake
•  Restaurants: La Perouse (“most romantic in Paris”), Mariages Freres (exotic tea salon), Le Voltaire (classic Parisian brasserie), Prunier (art deco seafood restaurant), Bofinger Brasserie (for oysters and ile flottante)
• Stay at Hotel Chalgrin (about £80 per room per night, so £40 each)  
• Carnavalet Museum- history of Paris 
• Bateaux mouches (boat ride down the river) 
• Cirque d'hiver (location for Lola Montès) 
• Corset fitting with Mr Pearl (ho ho)

Here's to dreaming!

Anita xxxx



Tweet

Naked and Silent in Malta

So, this is me, posing nude in of one of the many centuries-old houses packed into the tiny, winding streets of Malta's ancient capital city of Mdina, aka the Silent City, inhabited by the Archbishop, monks, nuns and other devoted Catholics, where nudity is strictly proscribed and even making too much noise is punishable- cars are not allowed to be driven through the Silent City and the horses that draw the carriages have to wear rubber shoes.

 Photographer: Clint Scerri Harkins

The second I laid eyes on Mdina during my first modelling trip to Malta in 2009, I desperately wanted to shoot there, but it was explained that this was impossible to get a permit due to the religious traditions of the area. It just goes to show that there is a way around everything if you can just find the right person, because this photographer just so happened to have a liberal aunt living in Medina, who was delighted to let us use her place for an art nude shoot. I posed in her beautiful home, so rich in history, nude amongst the many ornate crucifixes, heirlooms, Maltese antiques and religious paintings and pieces while she helped us with lighting and suggestions for locations, finally culminating in climbing a tiny, winding stone spiral staircase up to her sun-baked roof.

 

 Photographer: Clint Scerri Harkins

After the shoot, the aunt and I had a good chat over coffee and cake about the importance of learning to be comfortable with one's own body as an essential part of psychological and spiritual wellbeing. It taught me that you really and truly can't pre-judge someone's beliefs and behaviour based on their religion. Even her mother, the photographer's grandmother, was there for the whole shoot, perfectly happy and relaxed and very pleasant to us all :) I'm not even sure how my own, fairly secular English grandmother would react to an art nude shoot taking place in her house!

This was my third trip to Malta and I had a wonderful time, as usual. The hospitality, the people, the food, the weather, the sea, the culture and history, everything is so unique and fascinating. I'll leave you with my "holiday snaps" from this latest shoot in Mdina!

 All the streets were like this! So exciting to explore. We shot in one of these very houses.

 Me outside St Paul's Cathedral in one of my "art nude dresses" (an old, soft one that doesn't leave marks on the skin and can be stepped out of so I don't mess up my hair and makeup)

 Me and Clint, the photographer. This is where the Parisian masked ball scene in The Count of Monte Christo was shot, in case anyone's interested!

 St Paul's Cathedral and the Archbishop's house (I think)

 A convent monastery- the bars on the windows are to stop the nuns monks partying too hard (thanks, Clint!)

 There were so many cool door-knockers in Mdina that made me think of Labyrinth :D

 Inside a Medieval house that had been done up in its original style for tourists to check out. More Medieval joy...

... and more. If it weren't utterly impossible I would love to do a Medieval themed bondage shoot in this house!

Ciao for now! Just looking at these photos from Malta is making me crave seafood and white wine!

Anita xxx

Tweet