herve's angels

This is Rachel, trying on Jourdan Dunn's Herve Leger asymmetrical dress that she donated to Topshop's recent Dress Me Up charity event. She had stopped in with her lovely friend Amanda (Rachel works 'in the air' - air travel - which is fitting, given her wings in this shot, from a feather cape on a coat stand.)

One shoulder dresses are all the rage on & off the catwalk, it seems. I'm not excited about them all - to me, it depends on the dress - but something about these colours.. I'm just such a Herve girl!



We had been talking about body image, and the recent thing with the Kate Moss quote. While I know I'm not fat, still, had to tell them the story of how the first time I came to the Dress Me Up thing to shoot, the Topshop girls had said why don't I try something on? I chose the teeniest tiniest frock of them all (i.e. this dress). I mean, what was I thinking, trying to squeeze myself into a dress worn by the 2008 model of the year?



I was in the dressing room with Denise outside offering to help, while I was inside trying to zip the thing up, scared I'd rip it. As I zipped up, the dress was somehow squeezing my flesh up. So basically, under my arm pit was hanging this Alien like creature that had previously been my torso. It scared the shit out of me and I just did this quick self portrait, semi zipped. Besides, I was swearing with fear & afraid I was going to stink up the dress. Not that I've got a bad self image, but my arms look huge to me, what was once my B cup breasts are gone, and my stomach is now sticking out more than my butt. Now, in hindsight, I regret not zipping it all the way up, as apparently, once it's on, all those problems magically go away. But I was too freaked out at the time.



HOWEVER, I do love how this fits Rachel. It's funny how at first, she was all self critical, too, about the parts she thinks are all wrong, but after a while, she started to have fun. That's the thing about wearing a real Herve Leger: at first, it's a shock, it's scary, but then, you start to think: hey, I'm not all that bad, after all.