Hip hip hooray, it’s Saturday!! Yipeeeeee. I have NO WORK to do! - no castings, shoots or fittings! - It’s 8:45am….I think i’ll lounge around in my pajamas until about 11am, then I need to go out and get a few last bits for the surprise birthday party I’ve organised for my boyfriend tonight. He’s turning 26 tomorrow! Happy Birthday Deedee! mwah.x(hopefully he won’t read this before the party…

Anyway, I’m not going to write about what I’m up to today, as I doubt you’ll be particularly interested in me watching ‘my super sweet sixteen’ and buying balloons..

I thought I’d write about an issue that has been bothering me a little… It’s the issue of celebrities replacing the models.
It’s becoming more and more apparent that the beautiful actresses, singers and even lame reality show stars of today, are slowly replacing models in magazines, on bill boards and on product packaging.
Louis Vuitton has opted to use Scarlet Johanssen for some of their lastest ad campaigns… I mean, you can see why…she’s undeniably beautiful but something seems a little unfair about it. She’s an actress. A successful one. Her job is to get picked for the blockbuster films and wow the audiences with her presence on screen. Meanwhile, it’s the models’ job to get picked for the big designer campaigns like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Balenciaga etc. But it seems more and more frequent that the model doesn’t even get that opportunity anymore - even though it’s his/her job and he/she devotes her/his life to being the best at it!

Versace chose Christina Aguilera….

Louis Vuitton chose Scarlet Johanssen

…and Armani chose David Beckham…

Will it just keep getting worse? - will models eventually only be needed for catalogue work? Dear god, say it isn’t so!!!

xx

Tracked by Histats.com

Woke up at 6am to wash my hair before making my way to an all day magazine shoot in Finsbury Park. Yes, LITERALLY in the park. Once again, I was half naked in the freezing cold, trying to look hot… Why do all location shoots ALWAYS seem to happen in the winter??!! ggrrrr
Anyway, enough moaning - the truth is, I really enjoyed the day. The photographer, Pavla Kopecna, who has the most lovely work - and the rest of the team, were a real pleasure to work with.
The other model was called Sadie - she was the spitting image of Agyness Deyn!! - seriously…uncanny resemblance! She was gorgeous and so incredibly lovely, which made it a lot easier to pretend we were girlfriends ~ (it was for a lesbian magazine)
Here’s a shot taken while we were being shot for the second look.

Anyway, we finished at about 5:30pm and I was totally exhausted and 4 of my fingers had turned blue from the cold.
I then managed to take the tube in wrong direction…TWICE… as I made my way home. So frustrating but I got there in the end and had a nice big bag of cod & chips for dinner. comfort food…yum.

Sundays suck - as far as public transport goes - so because of the engineering works taking place EVERYWHERE, it took me 2 and a half hours to get to my shootin East London!
It was a shoot for Diva magazine, with the highly creative photographer and editor; Emma Innocenti.

Once there,I met the lovely team - plus Lola - the camera shy parakeet that could do an amazing impression of a telephone ringing!!
Bea (the hair & make-up artiste) got started on looks for Agni (other model) and me. It took a few hours but the end result was sooo amazing!!
Here’s Bea, painting on Agni’s face….

The shoot was based on Frida Khalo and her painting of ‘The Two Fridas’. We had beautiful outfits, put together by the loveliest stylist; Jenny Svantesson and from the sneak preview I saw, the pics are looking fantastic!!
Here I am with Agni in between shots…

I missed out on my usual Sunday roast for this shoot but it was well worth it and we even got fed by the in-house chef (Emma’s boyfriend :).
It was a lovely day….looking forward to seeing the pics!
x

INTENSE DAY! ggrrrrr
I had been dreading today - a higfh fashion shoot,outdoors in Kew,wearing next to nothing. Not fun.
There were 10 models on the shoot,which meant I got to meet lots of new peeps like Amandine, Camilla and Lauren,which is always fun but it was a loooong day. We were in hair and make up for 6hours!! Mainly sitting around, waiting while the others got prepped.
Here I am with Amandine, doing an impression of a birdsnest…

Once we we were all suited and booted in our fabulous (but skimpy) outfits,it was time to get on with the shoot. We were in a park, somewhere in Kew,with no shoes or socks, the skimpiest outfits ever and i’m sure it was about minus 1 degrees. Chattering teeth and rock solid nipples could be seen everywhere. It was agony.

But hey….someone has to do it…

x

What a fantastic day!!! It was an early start for me, at a shoot for The Modern Courtesan

…a gorgeous lingerie label.
It was fantastic to see Kelly and Daisy again…

I actually worked with them on a show in Switzerland in December - so it was good to catch up and it’s so much easier and more enjoyable to shoot with people you’re already relaxed around.
The studio was in a fantastic old mews,in the centre of London and Tom the photographer was very lovely indeed - A sexier and much less camp version of Will Young but I got the impression he heard that a lot
I was working with another model (Sarah) at the shoot. She was lovely too. Here she is, having her make-up done by Shakira; our superstar make-up artist from Middlesborough….

We shot their entire new collection and also got to try out the new FTV model uniform! Here’s a sneaky preview!…

‘ay ay captain!’

After a very enjoyable few hours of work,Kelly took us all for some cocktails at the Sanderson Hotel. It was only 4o’clock in the afternoon but I decided to mix a caipirinha with a whisky sour and felt a little bit tipsy as I totted back to the tube station a couple of hours later :0

Then it was back home for an early night, as I knew I had a looooooong day ahead on Wednesday!

x

Ok, the beginning of another week….time is seriuosly flying by and I know I was a little crappy with updating last week - sorry, was super busy towards the end of the week but will make up for it this week - don’t fear. lol

I’m off to castings now but here’s a little joke to keep you occupied for now-

‘why did the giraffe get lost in the Jungle? - because the jungle was massive’

haha - the rubbish ones make me laugh the most!

Monday came around and it was time for my big shoot with Ernst & Young. I was at their studio in London Bridge for 8am (sigh) and it was a great team of professionals, who knew exactly what they needed/wanted from me. I delivered (of course - haha) and the shoot was done by 1pm. I left the studio, lugging my 20 tonne suitcase (i was all packed for a trip to a job in Liverpool) behind me and headed Central for some food. I bumped into my friend and fellow model, Rosie on Charing Cross Road - she’s ill - feel better honey!!

I grabbed an onion soup from EAT and popped into the Carhartt store to say howdy to some old friends.

My next stop was Euston Station, to meet the crew for the job in Liverpool with a certain magazine. I was looking forward to seeing my friend Sophia (who was also modelling for the magazine) and it was actually going to be my first trip to Liverpool! Sophia and I said our hello’s and had a quick chat to catch up - then it was on to the train and we were off!

On the train with Sophia and singer Corinne (who was performing at the show)….

The journey lasted for about 2 and a half hours but luckily Sophia’s an absolute chatterbox, so she made it go pretty fast for me..haha Once we arrived at what was supposed to be our hotel for the next two nights (the extremely glamorous Holiday Inn Express haha), there was lots of waiting around and we soon learned that the rooms for everyone (a team of about 25) hadn’t even been booked in advance!! The organiser and chief editor of the mag, ‘Willy’, kept telling us he was sure he had booked everything properly but when I said, “so, why don’t you just show them your confirmation letter then..?”, his face was blank and he responded “well, she said ‘yes’ when i asked if it was sorted - and i thought that was confirmation enough”……???…. By this point we were a little more than worried about the lack of organisation and common sense but thought - hey, give them a chance.

We finally got given our room key and went to settle in before returning to the lobby for a group chat.We slowly noticed that itineraries had been changed and they hadn’t informed us before leaving London…. We were suddenly expected to be working full days (as opposed to the 4 hrs we originally agreed to), doing 4 shows for them, and guess what - they expected to pay us the same fee!!! Obviously, this was NOT going to happen. We approached silly ‘Willy’, asking him to discuss the matter with us, as obviously something needed to be done. Instead of being professional about the situation, he decided to behave like a 14 year old boy, whose mummy wouldn’t let him have a toy car. It was pretty astonishing. We were shocked and appalled, while his colleagues were embarrassed and tried to apologise on his behalf. We were definitely not willing to associate ourselves with that any longer! - We told them we were not happy about participating any longer, at which point Mr ‘Willy’ says “I don’t even want you in the show anymore - you’re messing with my happy vibe. Go home” - and they organised our tickets to return home the next day

BUT - before we got back on the train, Sophia and I decided to make the most of our free trip up north! The next afternoon we went into town and saw some sights, like Primark and a few old drunk men. …. We tried to get to Petticoat Lane but soon remembered that that was actually in London and the cab driver told us that we probably wanted Penny Lane - the road the Beatles sang about. oops….typical model behaviour!

We did manage to get ourselves some lunch at the least Liverpudlian place we could find….Ed’s Diner…where we ate ‘beef patties’ and watched our chef (a blatant Patrick Swayze lookalike), doing kung fu moves while he grilled the buns and cooked chilli dogs… Unfortunately, we had to leave The Pool at some point and once on the train, we befriended Mark, a lawyer from Chester, who thought we were totally crazy but still chatted to us for the whole journey….Here he is, with Sophia and the faulty I-phone……

Thanks for putting up with us Mark!

Finally I arrived back at home sweet home.

See you all soon!x

The Weekend
Well, I woke on Saturday feeling excited, as I knew I didn’t have anything to do - you know, that ‘it’s the weekend’ feeling! My boyfriend (Dee) and I spent a lovely leisurely Saturday together. Then as the evening drew nearer, we got ready to party. One of our best friends’ (Marsha) had a birthday earlier in the week and we were all celebrating on Saturday. Being the slightly childish group of friends that we are, we headed to the bowling alley for the 1st segment of the evening. We had some 10-pin fun, alongside the spotty groups of teens, arcade machines and hot-dog stands. It was brilliant. Obviously, we were frequenting the bar throughout the game, so that probably helped make it even more fun….

There’s something special about hanging out at the bowling alley on a Saturday night. I actually felt 14 again and I was probably acting it too, after a few shots of rum! haha Our next stop was one of our favourite local pubs and when that closed, it was back to her flat for a PARTY. Our friend and superstar Dazed&Confused photographer, Neil took some fantastic polaroids as always but he hasn’t scanned them in yet - i’ll post a couple, as soon as he does… HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARSH!!xxx

Friday 22nd Feb
Today was my first day at Abercrombie & Fitch. I was there for 6 hours, having ‘orientation and training’ which consisted of videos about how to say “hi, how are you” and how to project the image of the label. It was all very over the top and American but I guess I should have expected that!
I actually knew one of the other models who was training - so it was good to see a friendly face and I think he found it all a bit ridiculous too! I got him to pose in his new uniform, so I could put it on here….

Thank you Jason!x
I went for lunch with my lovely friend, Celia on my break but it was a bit rushed as I had to get back to the crombie
I think I decided that Abercrombie isn’t really my cup of tea but it’s so convenient as they’re super flexible and let us leave if we have to go to castings or shoots - perfect really. I just hope I’ll be able to put up with the blaring music, americanisms and general superficiality of it all! :-/

Anyway, I finished there at 5pm and made my way home to spend the evening drinking rum and watching ‘Lost’ (i love that show too much!) with my lovely boyfriend. Beautiful.x

*****
ps. i got booked for a pretty big shoot today! yipee - shooting on Monday.x

Thursday 21st Feb
Hey! It’s 14:30 and I just got back to my flat after a morning of castings in Central London.
As I jumped off the tube on my way to the second casting of the day, I bumped into fellow model (and ex Britains Next Top Model contestant), beautiful Jasmia. We chatted and walked along Great Portland Street together until she went off to her showroom job and I continued walking up to the casting studio. Once I was there, I tried to put my best acting skills into practice, as they were looking for models for a TV commercial. I hope I did well enough….fingers crossed…

Later, I took a stroll down Regents Street and into the new flagship H&M store that opened up during fashion week. (I wish I hadn’t missed that launch party!! It looked like A LOT of fun!)
I managed to stop myself from buying anything but I saw some gorgeous little tops - might have to pop back in tomorrow…

Anyhoo, I just came home to have some lunch (i can’t decide whether to have a sandwich or a jacket potato…hmm…)and write this blog. Got to go back to central London in an hour and will be meeting some friends later, so i’ll probably finish this off much later tonight.

Here’s a pic of me RIGHT NOW, sitting at my computer… hehe…

Laters.xx

PS. Loving the fashion gossip about Armani and Wintour!!! - pick up a copy of The Times newspaper today (pg29)! - funny stuff.x

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It’s 23:30 and i’m knackered!! Had a nice afternoon with chums and then went to dinner with my sister at a lovely Italian restaurant - they make the most delicious seafood risotto…..here’s a picture of it before I devoured it all!!…..

I cleaned the plate!

Anyway, I can’t write much because I’m exhausted and my bed is calling.
First day of training at Abercrombie tomorrow - will let you know how I get on.
Sleep tight.x