New York Fashion Week SS 2013...Mackenzie

American model Mackenzie Drazan (Marilyn), after A Show, NYC, September 2012.

Love the unexpected combination of Mackenzie's boucle fringed dress with the Isabel Marant high-top sneakers: kind of very grown-up + very street all at once.

Recreate Mackenzie's look (kind of) in a pair of high-top sneakers:

Isabel Marant Bekett high-top sneakers, Isabel Marant Bird metallic leather, Adidas x Opening Ceremony Samba cycling high-tops, Maison Martin Margiela high-top sneakers or ASOS Deny wedge high-top sneakers

New York Fashion Week SS 2013...Backstage at Tory Burch

Backstage at Tory Burch Spring/Summer 2013, NYC, Tuesday 11th September 2012.

On a sunny Autumn morning in NYC, Tory Burch presented her SS2013 collection....and it was breathtakingly beautiful. Anyone who has read my blog for awhile will know I love photographing girls with a slight hippie/boho vibe....give me undone hair, a stack of ethnic jewellery collected on far-flung travels, colours which would make a courting bowerbird happy, pretty make-up and I am in photographic heaven. So when I saw the new collection and wonderful hair (thick, messy fishtail braids by the genius Eugene Souleiman) and barely-there make-up ("brows filled in and brushed; Runway Rose {pinkish cream from MAC palette} across eyelid and inner corners of eye; curl lashes; must have brown {greyish cream from MAC palette) through crease and brushed under lower lashes.blend; tiny bit of talking tan on lips if needed, lip balm otherwise" ) I was so happy that the lovely Tory Burch team had invited me to photograph backstage again. Wheat-prints, high, block-heeled tasselled loafers, a turquoise, coral and gold embellished blouse, a tasselled-hooded kaftan (lazy beach days anyone?), tie-dye shorts, skirt and dress, stacks of rings on each of the model's hands (handmade by women in Ghana), an ombre jacket, stripes paired with prints, evening dresses worn with easy-to-wear Moroccan slippers.... I loved it all.

Paris Fashion Week AW 2012/13...After Rochas

Autumn hair and make-up inspiration after Rochas, Paris, March 2012.

It has been raining all day in London and feeling decidedly chilly, so I thought I would post some rich (almost goth inspired?) make-up and hair looks (via Josefien Rodermans, Mackenzie Drazan and Alana Zimmer) from the Rochas show in March. Embrace your inner dark side by smooshing on some rich mulberry, wine, black-red lipstick while keeping everything else clean and bare. 

New York Fashion Week AW 2012....Backstage at Tory Burch

Backstage at Tory Burch Fall-Winter 2012 show, NYC, Tuesday 14th February 2012.

Things that were firmly on my wish list after the Tory Burch show: a gold bow headband (so sweet and it even had a tiny Tory Burch logo embedded on the bow); a personal hairdresser* on call at all times to coiffure my hair into a french pleat (studded with pretty flower hairpins) - with a healthy dash of messiness to ensure that it doesn't look too prim; a beautiful full length evening dress (as worn by Joan Smalls) complete with seamstress to sew it closed!. How they do this without pricking a finger (or the model!) in the frenetic atmosphere backstage is beyond me; a ladylike chain handbag - I loved the snakeskin and tortoiseshell detailing (okay, so probably my camera isn't going to fit in one of these but they were so gorgeous I would make an exception ;); an oxblood red crinkly-leather (not the technical name but I am not sure how else to describe it) trench coat (sexy and elegant all at once); rolls of Gracie handpainted wallpaper. I adored the backdrop to the runway which was covered in wallpaper depicting Chinese scenes; a pair of Spectator pumps and elbow-length leather gloves; a leather plaid dress, skirt and trousers (for me, stand-out pieces); a simple peplum top (I loved the quote from Alber Elbaz on Fashionista last week "I created the peplum so you can eat in it,” Elbaz said. “You can have a dessert, you can have another sandwich".); a stack of Chiavari chairs (which worked so well with the Gracie wallpaper and printed runway carpet reminiscent of a five star hotel) and a beautiful ivory coat with exaggerated peter-pan collar and bow nestled at the waist.

p.s. The colours are a bit squiffy (the lighting is rather tricky for the way I shoot) but sometimes that's just the way I roll :)

* Eugene Souleiman if possible please ;)