I'm dreaming of a punk rock Christmas

I only found out this year that the Sex Pistols did a Christmas song with Phil from Thin Lizzy. So weird.

I was massively into punk and riot grrl when I was about 14 and wanted to be in a band. I can't sing, so I tried to learn to play a Fender Squire with a shoebox-sized practice amp. I was well into it for about a week and practised for a few hours after school each day. I had a clear idea of how the band were going to look, the stage shows, the album art, the music videos and so on, but no actual songs. By the end of the week I could just about play Never Mind the Bollocks from start to finish, very badly, and just kind of skipping the solos. I was so fed up that I packed it in, nursed my bleeding fingertips, and went back to just listening and going to shows.

In retrospect, it's pretty obvious than I'm a visual person- I can quickly create images in my head, come up with ideas for short art films, styling for photo shoots etc, and that's why the idea of being in a punk band attracted me, because I thought I could do all those things with a large degree of freedom from worrying about anything being socially acceptable or commercially viable.

Photographer and stylist: Jimmy Deas | Hair and makeup: me | Skincare: Bareskin Beauty
Shot at Scarlet Door Studio

I'm so glad I found my calling as a model and can now express myself in that way as often as I like. I can't sit down with a guitar and write a song or sit down with a blank canvas and paint a picture, but I can help create photos and videos with styling, posing, expression and understanding of lighting, just kind of directly using my body instead of an essential intermediary tool like a musical instrument or a paintbrush.

Here's that Sex Pistols/ Thin Lizzy Christmas song, for anyone who was wondering. Merry Christmas to all my blog readers and subscribers! :)

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

New art nude, the lovely bones

I love thoughtful, slightly abstract art nude work that encourages you to see the human body with a different perspective than you might normally. Case in point: this beautiful exhibition image by Ian Farrell. I really enjoyed working with Ian and hope to do more with him soon.

Skincare by Bareskin Beauty

Today is a "beauty day" in preparation for near-constant touring between now and Christmas. For any photographer who might read my blog and would like to work with me, these are the only dates I have left available this year. Next year is looking pretty rammed right up until April, too, so I'd advise grabbing one of these dates if you possibly can:

1. Wednesday 9 December- Cambridgeshire- full day available
2. Saturday 12 December, 3.20 - 6.20pm @ Art Asylum Studio, Weymouth, Dorset, £150 all-inclusive
3. Sunday 13 December, morning only- anywhere between Plymouth and Perranporth, Devon/ Cornwall

That's it! 

Now it's time to get a full body wax, a vintage half-moon manicure for the Hollywood Glamour workshop I'm modelling for tomorrow, dye my hair, and put on a lovely green Bareskin Beauty face mask while I pack my new hot pink Diane Von Furstenberg suitcase with extra props and goodies ^_^

I might also make some of this stuff today, if I have time; it looks divine, and I'm sure the photographers at the workshop wouldn't mind testing it for me :)

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

Obscurae magazine beauty editorial

'Black Water' beauty editorial shot by Phine Ka in high fashion magazine Obscurae, November '15 issue. Skincare by Bareskin Beauty, makeup by Mya Minerals :)

This shoot was right at the end of a tour and I was so tired I nearly drowned in the tub :p

#Outtake from last night's #beauty #editorial shoot with @phineka in London 🌸🌸🌸 This was after also modelling for four workshops in London over the weekend, so I was starting to enter that "tired silly" phase 👽 Really really REALLY love the proper shots I saw on the back of the camera, though- can't wait until I'm allowed to share them 😍 #me #redhead #beautymodel #editorialmodel #BTS #flowers #prettyinpink

A photo posted by 🌟 Anita De Bauch 🌟 (@anitadebauch) on Jun 15, 2015 at 3:44am PDT

Lovely Mr & Mrs Phine Ka took me out for a huge huge mushroom burger and French fries afterwards (sorry, Juliette) at one of those Gourmet Burger Kitchen-type places.

I love making art with my friends.

And eating fries.


What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

Happy Easter weekend, everyone!

I thought these beautiful artistic nudes shot by the talented Tim Pile last month could vaguely be connected with Easter eggs/ chicks...

Click the images ^ to see larger versions :D

I'm so so happy with the above image ^_^ It's just the sort of thing I aspired to do when I started wanting to shoot classical art nude work, maybe a year or so after I started modelling. I think I was 21 when I did my first nude shoots.

Here is another from the same shoot, shot indoors, where it was a bit warmer. Bareskin Beauty took care of all my skincare for this shoot, btw.

I hope you all get to do plenty of this ^ this weekend :D The house is somehow awash with hot cross buns, milk chocolate and Easter biscuits. I'm going to try baking this cake at some point :) If it goes well, I might make it again with a shot of spiced rum or some alternative that's fermented rather than brewed for my boyfriend's birthday next month. Sherry, maybe?

3 Goals for 2015

1.   More art nude shoots

Here's to an Art Nude 2015!

I've been desperate to focus more on this side of my work for months, and really want to make it happen more in 2015. I think that I am more known for my stylised fetish and retro looks than for shooting natural, dreamy, classic art nudes and figure studies, so this is something I need to address. People tend to only know you for the last photo they saw of you.

Some of my previous art nude work:

Photographer: 25th Century Quaker in New York

Photographer: John Murray in Dublin

Photographer: Dirk Glassly

I'm going to spend more time studying important art nude photographers' work and planning how I can bring something special to my shoots, including finding great locations and props to work with, but also working on myself and my posing. I'll also see if I can find an appropriate course to do on the history of nude art.


2.   Appreciating British and Irish heritage

I want to try and see as many ancient/ mystical sites as possible in the UK and Ireland this year, which I will hopefully be able to tie in with modelling tours, and quite possibly art nude shoots, for the more remote ones! I have to travel more anyway now that I'm not living in London, so I'm going to turn that into a positive and make the most of it :)


3.    My own hobbit hole

I want to buy the cutest dwelling on the planet this year, and live in it!

A cottage would be okay, but I also like the idea of a more alternative way of life, for example on a boat or in a caravan, generating my own energy, growing my own food and living amongst nature rather than in a concrete box. It was fun while it lasted, but now I want something different! :)

*goes to set up a Pinterest board*

What are your goals, hopes, dreams or ambitions for this year? Tell me all about them!

2014 in Pictures

2014 is nearly over and we're past the Solstice, which I now learn is considered the New Year from a yogic perspective, so maybe I was onto something when I was waffling on about it the other day ;)

I bring you my 2014 in pictures:


JANUARY

January was a lovely month, with all my shoots bursting with love and romance: bridal fashion and couple's portraiture.

I spent five days shooting bridal and couple's portraiture with my boyfriend, which I styled:

I don't think I mentioned it in my blog at the time, but we danced our asses off for hours to The Bug and Fuckbuttons at Brixton Academy for our anniversary.

We were still living in London and I don't recall doing anything for my birthday, probably because I was shooting a bridal catalogue in York outdoors that day and nearly freezing to death :) But you can't tell from the photos, right?

I did a fairly full-on strict detox for the first week or so of January to give me a little boost into having a generally detoxifying diet in 2014. It seemed to help my skin, muscle tone and energy levels quite a lot. I found I didn't need to work out every day to maintain my ideal weight and muscle tone anymore, which was good!

My photos also started appearing on Vogue Italia's website, including this one, by Marcus Jake:

And somehow, I also found time to shoot a shoe campaign for Fabulously Fetish with Phine Ka, and do the hair and makeup for it, too.

Bareskin Beauty looked after my skincare for the whole year, so a big and heartfelt thank you to them!


FEBRUARY

February was more of a high fashion month. It was London Fashion Week, and I walked for several international eco-friendly designers at the EcoLuxe show. The after party was really fun, and I still have and use some of the goodies from the environmentally friendly goodie bag :)

I had an androgynous fashion shoot with MrGlen in London, one of my very favourite photographers to work with. It was challenging to pose in a completely new way and NOT be girly in the positioning of my hands, and so on! Being a guy is tough!

Despite this, I was named one of the sexiest bloggers on the net.

MARCH

Shot one of my favourite figure nudes I've ever done at a workshop in London:

I also love this shoot I did with my sponsors, Playful Promises lingerie and Fabulously Fetish shoes:

The photographer was David Morley. We had two awesome shoots together, and then he seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. I hope he's all right and still shooting.

I toured Norfolk and did this hair shoot for Robert Owen Salon, which was shot by Andrew McMeekin. I did the makeup and wardrobe styling:

I was on the cover of Spain's BeDeSeMe magazine, with a 14 page interview and pictorial shot by Luci Alice! I was wearing Lady Allura's Latex and Fabulously Fetish shoes.

I also met Dita Von Teese in New York and shot a music video in London with SHOWstudio.

Photo by Jennifer Mitchell

I rather overworked myself in March by trying to shoot more or less every day, including ten days in New York and New Jersey, without a break, except for falling asleep on planes and trains, and ended up in bed with a cold and a lot of souvenirs for a few days when I got back home.

APRIL

I had a much-needed holiday in Somerset in April, which was a wonderful time to visit. The countryside was such a contrast to London, and I loved seeing all the trees in full bloom with pink blossoms, the lambs springing around in the fields, and the weather warm enough to visit Glastonbury Abbey. I felt so happy and relaxed that I think this is when I started to subconsciously get the idea to move here sooner rather than later, and get out of the rat-race a little.

I also had a couple of shoots in Helsinki for Damian McGillicuddy and Olympus Cameras, which was especially fun as I'd never been to Finland before.

My boots were custom made for me by Fabulously Fetish to match my hair :)

MAY

Got my butt out in Bo Ningen's music video for Slider, which was directed by Marie Schuller of SHOWstudio. I learned the whole song in Japanese short-notice, then on the day, didn't need to lip-sync any of it after all as none of the other actors had learned it so the idea was scrapped. Ha! Went for drinks with the band and the crew in Shoreditch afterwards and they were totally lovely. Cue drunkenly waffling about creative expression with the guitarist for aaaages.

JUNE

I met the legendary supermodel Twiggy at a photo shoot in June. I was almost speechless with starstruck-ness and she was very kind to me, including pulling me in for this shot and approving it on the spot so I could post it here. She approves ALL her photos before they appear anywhere. Imagine that!

Afterwards, I shot some bright sunny commercial stuff with Stephen Perry:

My most exciting news in June was that my book, The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, got picked up by a publisher, meaning I no longer had to worry about self-publishing on Amazon or whatever. As far as I know, this is the first book on freelance modelling that has ever been deemed good enough to sell by an actual publishing house, and I was (and am) absolutely thrilled.


JULY

I had a jam-packed sold-out tour of Ireland for two weeks in July, which was very productive. I dyed some clip-in human hair extensions to match my real hair before I left, and had a go with them at shoots, both loose and tied up into a big up-do:

Photographer: John  Murray

AUGUST

My lower half made an appearance in a fashion film called The Masters for Selfridges by SHOWstudio, which involved many different "masters" of fashion like Jean Paul Gaultier and Oscar De La Renta. I was in the Stella McCartney segment. It was playing on the big screen in the window of Selfridges on Oxford Street on a permanent loop, along with a shop window dedicated to my scene with a mannequin leg to represent me, lol! I don't know if it's still playing or not.

By this this point, we had done some sums and realised that we could almost afford to buy our own place, rather than keep renting the flat in London, and also, that we never wanted to have a flatmate again, so much of August was spent packing, ready to move, at least temporarily, to Somerset, while we figured out what to do next.

SEPTEMBER

I had this fun Star Wars themed editorial in Rebelicious magazine, wearing Shh! Couture latex, shot by Magpie Tommy.

Trying to extricate ourselves from our flat in London was stressful, to say the least, which I guess is why I didn't blog much that month. I think I was just trying to take in my newly peaceful surroundings in Somerset and let go of all the nonsense.

OCTOBER

I did a couple of shoots in London in October, including for Hair Colour Clinic, but most of my shoots were in beautiful Southeast Asia :) I also had a makeup lesson with MAC at Harrod's to brush up on my skills.

Shot in a Malaysian jungle on a mountain by Raoul Alfamuz. I could see wild monkeys and gibbons playing in the trees right above my head! ^_^

NOVEMBER

I did my "Everywhere but the Southeast" Tour of England and Wales in November. The trip included a day at The Pit in Nottingham, which I'd never been to before, but will definitely be going back to. What a fab location!

Photographer: Caught in Action

I also particularly like this retro boudoir shot by LanesRo1 in Wales. I did the hair, makeup and wardrobe styling; the lingerie is from Playful Promises and the heels were custom made for me by Fabulously Fetish.

DECEMBER

The highlight of my December was taking Nan to the Winter Solstice ceremony at Chalice Well in Glastonbury. I thought she would probably enjoy it, but she LOVED it and was still talking about it on Christmas Day! It certainly was very interesting and uplifting to see such a nice group of gentle people coming together to celebrate their religious diversity- Christians, Dianic Wiccans, Brighid worshippers, Unitarians, Buddhists, Sufi Muslims and Pagan Gnostics were all represented in the lighting of the fire ceremony. The Chalice Well's motto is "One Source, Many Paths." I also got some great Christmas cards from the gift shop.

On the modelling front, I scored a great interview and pictorial in Sinical magazine, which you can read here.

I saw the Manic Street Preachers on the last night of their Holy Bible Tour, and was at Stonehenge at 7am the day after Chalice Well for the Druids' Winter Solstice/ free entry into the actual stone circle. I'm really trying to make the most of my time in Somerset because I have no idea how long I'll be here :)

Yesterday I was disappointed to learn that a traditional gypsy caravan is basically just a bed on wheels, and therefore not something I could live in for more than 24 hours (i.e. until I wanted to have a shower or plug the blender in), and that basically takes you up to where I am now.

I've definitely changed a lot this year. I've achieved a lot of my career-related goals- well, all of my goals were career-related, really- and as a result, my priorities have changed.

I no longer see money as a measure of how much I'm worth.

I no longer rate my personal success according to my professional success.

I'm not interested in box-checking anymore, as in: husband? Check! Kids? Check! Mortgage on an overpriced house in the suburbs? Check! Am I happy yet? Maybe I'd better check a few more boxes!

I was never deeply into any of that but I feel that I've managed to let go of it completely the last month or two, and truly not worry about it.

I'm 29 next month and I think it might be my most interesting year yet.

Lots of love,

Anita xxx

Selfridges' The Masters fashion film

I make a little appearance (nude, of course) in the incredible Selfridges fashion film The Masters, directed by Marie Schuller (the same director who did Oyster and the Bo Ningen video I was in)! It's currently being shown on the big screen in the window of Selfridges flagship store on Oxford Street. Whenever I've walked down Oxford Street I've always thought, wouldn't it be cool if my face was up alongside all these other models somewhere? And now my naked, oiled up ass is instead, and in video form too, which is infinitely better!

I'm at 1:35- 1:51 but you should definitely watch the whole thing because it's awesome ;)

Each designer's capsule collection has its own window at Selfridges with their name and "Master of ..." written next to it. The Stella McCartney window has "Stella McCartney: Master of Modernity" and an artist's impression of my bare leg peeping through the curtain (sorry if you already saw this on Facebook) :)

The exodus from London to Somerset has now been scheduled for 1st September.

I put most of my stuff into boxes, and now I have to keep remembering which box I put what stuff in, when it turns out I DO need them before we move, e.g. opaque tights and woolly socks. In August. Fuck you, God.

We were supposed to be going to the Notting Hill Carnival today but I am being slightly put off by

a) my mate's over an hour late getting here, I'm guessing he must have drowned on the way
b) yes, it is pissing it down
c) all the sound systems are being shut off at 7pm, so no block party! I know! Way to kill off the carnival spirit and reclaim it in the name of pure commercialism *vom*

It's kind of sad because I had an outfit picked out and everything.

Looking forward to living in the middle of nowhere, where the police haven't been instructed to herd people into expensive nightclubs after 7pm.

Was asked to audition as the lead villain in a horror movie, only to discover upon closer reading of the treatment the considerable amount of hardcore porn in it. I agreed with the director that our society is crazy for thinking it's okay to show graphic violence and murder onscreen as entertainment but not graphic sex, but as I explained to him, "you're not asking me to ACTUALLY assault or kill any of the other actors. But you ARE asking me to..." Well, yeah.

Asian Tour flights booked. Really excited to go back to a beautiful, sunny corner of the world and do nothing but make photos for two weeks.

The Writer

Amazing news! My book, The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, will be published by New Haven this year!!!

No dismal self-publishing for me! I have an assigned editor and book designer and marketing person and we're all so excited we could pop!! Tuesday was one of the happiest days of my life. I mostly spent it jumping up and down, calling my mum and my best friend, crying, running laps round the house and drinking champage! I'M GOING TO BE A WRITER!

I will keep you updated of when it's out, of course! It will be available globally, so no matter where you are in the world, you can pick up a copy from somewhere. Please subscribe to my blog for free (top of the right column on this page) to be the first to know when it's available to buy. I think it's the first of its kind.

Appropriately, I thought I would share this classical figure nude I shot with 25th Century Quaker in New York earlier this year. I love the rich colours and painterly feel :) I'd love to shoot more classic nudes like this.

^ Click the image for a larger version.

Skincare by +Bareskin Beauty, hair and makeup by me.

I stole the orchids from my afternoon tea at The 21 the day before :p

In other news, I visited Roswell Ivory on her boat this week. It is the cutest thing I ever saw, like something out of The Wind in the Willows! I love the idea of reverting to a simpler, scaled-down way of life closer to nature, believe it or not. I always think I love everything extra decadent but then when I go somewhere more natural and simple I feel so relaxed. I guess there is a lot of material stuff that we think we need to be happy, but really, what do we own that is still making us feel fantastic six months after we bought it?

On that note, go and bid on some of my stuff on eBay. Ha.

Anita xo

Bo Ningen: 'Slider' music video directed by Marie Schuller for NOWNESS!

This may be one of the coolest projects I've been involved with to date:

a combined fashion film/ music video with Bo Ningen, directed by THE Marie Schuller (Head of Fashion Film at Nick Knight's SHOWstudio) for NOWNESS.

There are a few actors in this video, but I'm the only naked one. No change there, then.

Bo Ningen: Slider on Nowness.com

My laptop is too crap to play the video smoothly, so I can't take screengrabs for my portfolio, le sigh.

I did manage to steal a couple of stills from Marie's Instagram and NOWNESS' Twitter though, mwah hahahaha.

Many thanks to +Bareskin Beauty for the life-saving skincare.

I love this ^ last still. I look like I'm flying naked on the back of a giant psychedelic butterfly :)

Other news:

• Met Twiggy at a photo shoot
• Still working my ass off on le book
• Back into Pilates and green smoothies after too long drinking coffee over a hot laptop
• Shooting in London nearly every day
• Got comped into the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards and had an even better time than expected (Behemoth were particularly good)
• I miss New York and Singapore
• Hopefully having a bit of a staycation next week so will be able to catch up on blogging and updating website :)

xoxo