Too rude for Playboy

I was considering going normcore for Halloween and wearing a streaky blonde wig with lots of bronzer, sticky beige lip gloss and one of those weird peaked berets, but then I thought, even that sort of look relates to me in a way, as it is still carefully controlled, groomed and styled. Huh.

More unusual for me still is this dishevelled swimwear shot by Mark Fiddian, shot at his studio in Cambridge earlier this year, with Bareskin Beauty skincare. I really like how it came out, and what a contrast to the Orchid Corsetry campaign photos! What do you think- is this a look I should do more? ;)

PS Happy birthday for yesterday Ivory Flame! :)


What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

Bath night!

I'm on tour round Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottingham and Bristol atm, so Friday was spent prepping for 8-9 days of shooting:

• Full body wax (ow, but worth it!)
• Mani/ pedi (my favourite part)
• Dyeing hair
• Shaping eyebrows
• Working out hard all this week! Lots of yoga, Pilates and tai chi :)
• Laundry
• Cleaning makeup brushes
• Getting the car valeted (I'm in it a LOT)
• Booking hotel rooms
• Packing
• Buying bunny slippers (most important)
• Going on a date :)

This photo was taken by lovely Glenn Cockerill at a beautiful C13th stately manor here in Somerset last month :) I did the hair and makeup using Bareskin Beauty skincare and Mya Minerals makeup.

My slippers and I are currently staying with my good friend Ivory Flame in Leicester. We watched The Conjuring last night after a nice little Lunar Samhain dinner and both ended up hiding under the duvet, screaming. The soup was great, though.

Boudoir-y nudes and an opportunity for photographers to shoot Ivory Flame & me together!

Hope you've got something glamorous planned for the weekend! :)

Photographer: Paul Mason
Skincare: Bareskin Beauty | Shoes: Kurt Geiger

I'm off on tour round Central England for eight days, and visiting Ivory Flame :) We're available to shoot nudes and classy vintage glamour together in Leicester if any photographers reading this are interested! Email contact@anitadebauch.com.

#EzRepost @ivoryflamemodel with @ezrepostapp Working with the gorgeous & glamorous @AnitaDeBauch around the grounds of Maunsel House! We also posed as silver screen sirens in the decadent boudoir interiors #maunselhouse #somerset #photography #photoshoot #modelfriends #redheads #selfie #behindscenes #me #redhead #modellingduo

A photo posted by Anita De Bauch 🍒 (@anitadebauch) on Sep 30, 2015 at 2:45am PDT

Vintage glamour lingerie with What Katie Did, Fabulously Fetish & Bareskin Beauty

Lazy Sunday morning... actually, it's 1pm already... goes to show how lazy my morning has been...

Looking forward to modelling with my good friend Ivory Flame (go check out her new website!) at a stunning old mansion here in Somerset tomorrow. We've been booked together as a duo for fashion and art nude work before, but this is the first time we'll have shot vintage glamour together, one of my favourite styles :) Girly sleepover at mine tonight!

Photographer: Paul@WestFive

Lingerie: What Katie Did | Shoes: Fabulously Fetish | Skincare: Bareskin Beauty

BUY THE VERY STOCKINGS I'M WEARING IN THIS PHOTO HERE!

Beyond Burlesque bridalwear by Dave Kai-Piper

Fun day today! I've been feeling a bit tired/ unmotivated for a little while now but an amazingly inspiring email from Ivory Flame has cheered me right up :) I'm pottering around my flat in London doing my own thing for a couple of days while Liam is visiting family in Somerset and feeling my energy levels slowly going back up.

I've been up at 7am or so the last couple of mornings getting back into Pilates, which always seems to get me back in shape within a week, as long as I stick at it! It's satisfying when you can feel yourself getting stronger :) Then I had my darling green smoothie and went to meet Simon Pinto to get my hair cut professionally for the first time in at least a year! After a couple of bad experiences with hairdressers doing unpredictable things to my hair I went back to just chopping the ends of myself in the bathroom when they felt like they needed it, haha. But then I got the itch to have a real, proper style again, rather than just an uninspiring longish mop.

The venue for the haircut was really cool- a barber's in Carnaby Street called Pankhurst, which seriously looks like somewhere James Bond would go to get his hair cut! if I was a bachelor, my whole flat would be decorated like their barbershop! I'm thinking of booking an appointment for a cut and shave for Liam for Christmas or something, with the proper cutthroat razor and hot towels and stuff. Totally what I would do if I was a dude!!

Simon and I came up with a haircut between us that I can make simple adjustments to to look either a) natural/ girl next door-like, b) vintage or c) punky, which is going to make my life so much easier and hairstyling so much quicker at shoots :D

After my appointment I inhaled a superfood salad from Pret as thanks to all my fussing and Simon's professional perfectionism, despite meeting at 11am we didn't finish cutting until 2pm, lol. I'm always starving for lunch by 1pm. Then I got the tube to Camden to buy hair dye from the market and other little treats for myself: three bunches of flowers and six bars of dark chocolate, totalling £7.77 from Lidl :p The house feels happier now that there are flowers and chocolates everywhere!

I'm also brightening up my colour a little, at least temporarily, to a kind of strawberry blonde/ apricot colour. My hair's actually blonde as I type this as I had to pre-lighten it! At least now I know that I can be blonde within 24 hours if anyone needs me to be for work! I just need to keep a box of the bleach in stock.

I'm doing a cool little conceptual shoot at home with Dan Hubbert tomorrow to capture the blonde-ness, then having a hair dye break, blow drying it and shooting some more with the new apricot colour! You'll have to wait til then to see me blonde as I don't seem to be able to get a good picture of it on my phone!

Here's a photo with my old hair, taken last month at a shoot for Beyond Burlesque bridalwear. The photographer was Dave Kai-Piper, who I'd met before but not actually shot with, so it was good to finally work together :)

I think this is my favourite shot of the day. It feels more editorial and like a modernised version of a pre-Raphaelite lady reclining in some sort of enchanted woodland (actually, a garden in Crouch End :p). If I remember correctly, Belinda said that this dress was inspired by/ a homage to Dita's wedding dress, which was made by Vivienne Westwood, the company Belinda designs for when she's not doing her own thing with Beyond Burlesque :)

But I also like this catalogue shot... I felt like such a Disney princess in this dress, it was amazing!

I must go and make my detox tea and go to bed now as it's 10.30 pm!! Gotta be fresh for 7am Pilates ;)

Anita xx

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#NakedSundays with Perou

This is the second blood shot from my shoot with Perou ♥ Red and white is such a lush colour combination; bright, clinical and terrifying. I am the bloodstained ice queen.

Styling (except the blood!) by moi mwah mwah

So I'm back from my Lady Allura's Latex shoot in Ireland and just shot for Fabulously Fetish bespoke shoes in London; quite a bit of commercial rather than pure art-for-art's-sake work (like the pic above) atm (other things are top secret right now; will tell you here the second I can).

I like the challenge of commercial work, because it's good to mentally change gears to keep my brain running smoothly, but AFAS is the bestest.

This photo is my desktop wallpaper atm ♥

Holly (Ivory Flame) was staying with me earlier this week while she's touring the southeast.

We had a coinciding day off in the V&A, where we went on a tour of the Tudors. Randomly, my favourite things were the beds. This was my favourite. I love 1930s Chinoiserie; the common Western perception at the time of China as this incredibly exotic, sensual, mysterious place makes for great decor and is kind of the way I'm going with my lounge. I'd never seen Tudor Chinoiserie before though!

After the museum, Holly and I went to Dirty Martini in Soho. I usually go there with Hannah Ashlea after shopping on Oxford Street; we love the decor and cheap cocktails. This time I had an actual dirty martini followed by a French martini (I forget what made it French). Holly had something with a chilli in it and we talked about just about everything going on in our worlds.

We're having a sleepover with Fredau tomorrow night, after watching a comedy panel TV show being recorded. I think I'm going to cook Kim Snyder's latest recipe for us and open a bottle of vintage bubbly. Phone photos of three drunk art nude models no doubt to follow.

Anita xxxx

PS: I hope you like my new blog design! Shout if you see any blips x




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Happy Halloween!

As promised, some pics for those of us not out partying tonight ;) I had a look through the cache of photos on my hard drive and couldn't find any obviously Halloween-related ones, like me dressed up as a witch or a devil or something, so my theme for this photo blog is "slightly spooky-looking photos I have shot with other models." If only I could think of a catchier title :p

This first one's an oldie from February 2010 by Adam Robertson, featuring Madame Bink. I think this was the first time Binky and I shot together... I believe we also shot the promo material for a fetish party called Festival of Sins at the same time.

This one is from my first shoot with Ivory Flame, which was also my first shoot underwater! There were two lights, one on each side, that were both supposed to fire to get an evenly lit picture, but in this particular shot, only the one on the left went off. I actually really like the dramatic effect this had :)

This is another old one, from so long ago that I don't even know what year it was! Maybe 2008? It was shot with Ulorin Vex by Gregory Brown in a crumbling insane asylum called Hellingly, which has since been demolished.

I was shooting in Spain this year with photographer Chris Zietek and his wife, Anetta. We love costumes, so I think a couple of our shots can be included in a Halloween blog :)

And a slightly more recent one of Binky and me by RHM Photographic to finish, from summer 2011 when I had short hair after a run of hair modelling jobs where it got cut/ shaved progressively shorter! Everyone calls this the "giddy up" shot!

Great shoot today! We got some great latex shots and I baked these Halloween cupcakes for the photographer and me to have with our teas :) I used brown sugar, sunflower marge, wholemeal flour and a lot of organic apricots to sweeten them, so not tooo unhealthy, I suppose... they certainly were yummy, anyway, which is the important thing!

My only other nod in the direction of Halloween this year (except writing this blog) is that I'm going to see Suspiria at The Phoenix tonight :D

It's a 70s film about a ballet school run by witches and the cinema is the oldest in Britain with original 1930s interiors, so it should be really atmospheric and cool :) Time to break out the big eyeshadow and lipstick, if ever there was one!

 Well, okay, this isn't what I'm going to wear to the cinema, it's one of the latex outfits I wore at today's shoot (thanks for the Westward Bound top, Roswell!). I'm not sure how the general public would react if I went about my daily business encased head-to-toe in skintight latex. Perhaps that's a theme for another photo shoot! But anyway, this is the makeup I'm wearing tonight.

Happy Halloween!

Dark love and vampire kisses,

Anita xxxxxxxxx



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Ivory Flame & Anita De Bauch: underwater art nude nymphs

If you haven't seen the NEW Underwater Gallery over at anitadebauch.com yet, here are the photos!

Earlier this month, I did my very first underwater photo shoot with photographer Vanessa Mills and veteran underwater model and good friend Ivory Flame (Holly), who coached me throughout and helped me achieve some great images, both with her and by myself! Underwater modelling is so addictive- maybe it's the intense physical challenge coupled with the gift of being able float like a fairy and pull poses that would be impossible on dry land- that I am already planning my next underwater project with Vanessa for October!

L-R: me and Holly adorned in gold jewellery. I imagine this as some sort of beautiful Sky Sylph floating down to visit her deep dark Water Sprite sister in the depths of her kingdom!

 Starting small with a simple pose and practising exhaling in order to drop through the water instead of bobbing around the top like a cork!

 I love the dramatic lighting in this one... it looks like we're floating up to Heaven :)


Racing towards the other me on the surface... there is such a sense of freedom in being underwater :)

L-R: me and Holly. I love that the white fabric has drifted into the shape of wings. It's like I've fallen in love with an angel and am trying to be taken with her.

It was very interesting for me to see the results of the shoot and notice that even underwater, Holly and I have our own distinctive "default" approaches to art nudes. Hers tend to be more classical, ethereal and soft; mine tend to be more hard, abstract, generally a mass of shadowy ribs and joints bent at right angles with a nipple here and there. Obviously we can each do the other style as well, but it's maybe an interesting reflection of our personalities, which style we instantly slip into :)

Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised at how similar our figures look in the photos- it's like we instinctively knew when to be different and when to gel. This was our first time shooting together, but I hope we get to do it again one day, perhaps even on land!




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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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Rebecca

Congratulations to Dublin's Lorraine Gilligan, whose IPF Fellowship Panel features not only me but some of my best modelling friends, like Madame Bink, Iveta and Ivory Flame :)

"My" photo in the panel was inspired by Rebecca :)

Corset: Heavenly Corsets | Hair and wardrobe styling: Lorraine Gilligan | Makeup: me

This beautiful Irish manor location was absolutely stunning. I actually welled up a little when I saw how lovingly, painstakingly it had been restored, with every detail carried out according to how it would have been done when it was originally built, and every piece of furniture, painting and even hairbrush period and antique. It was so strange to think that at one time it was completely abandoned, without a roof and with cows and sheep wandering around inside!

Now it is restored to its former glory and I wanted to move in! ;)

Valkyrie Corsets and 'Lighting the Nude' 2010

I seem to have been doing an incredible number of latex shoots recently, which is always fun but it's nice to be able to post something a little different today :)

I recently went to Birmingham to shoot for two different designers with Julian M Kilsby, whose work I've been admiring for a while :) We got through both assignments at a frighteningly efficient pace so I ended up wrapped up and back at the station well early, reading A Christmas Carol and eating mushroom soup in the Camden Food Co while waiting for my train home :)

Here is the set we shot for Valkyrie Corsets, who I actually walked for at a show last year, I think! It's hard for me to pick favourites but I think maybe the first one :) It makes me think of an ad for cars or perfume or something!

Hair and makeup courtesy of yours truly, again, although I think my efforts have been somewhat neatened up in Photoshop ;)

My art nude work seems to have been really overshadowed by all the fashion work I've been doing recently, so I was especially pleased to discover that I'm on the back cover of the latest Lighting the Nude book (Top Photography Professionals Share Their Secrets, 2010 revised edition)!

Lighting the Nude is such a well-known text that even I've heard of it, so it's very cool to think I'm a part of the series now! Presumably there's a bit inside with diagrams explaining how to get the lighting on this shot of me by Gregory Brown :) I think this is at least the third time this photo has been published somewhere now!

You can buy a copy on Amazon here if you're interested

My friend Ivory Flame is on the cover, (shot by a photographer I've worked with many times myself, including for a week in Spain earlier this year, John Evans) which is extra cool as she is simply made of naked awesome!

I'm off to bed for some much-needed beauty sleep!! More shooting tomorrow! :D