everybody counts

It's another beautiful, perfect day outside my window in London town, but I'm home in bed with a cold that is getting worse by the minute. So it cheered me up no end to get a nice letter from the all walks beyond the catwalk people, letting me know I'm in the everybody counts facebook photo album.

And it's so nicely in keeping with my current black and white theme! How serendipitous.



Saw a lot of people I've spotted, dotted, and in some cases, like Rhiannon and Leila, have become friends with (what would that be then, frotted?). They've become everyone's favourite muses. (star brights, for example, or leila, or here.



Erin O'Connor, who is behind this wonderful initiative and is a co-founder. (For further reading, see erin o'connor waved @ me, or before jaeger).

Perhaps it's because I'm feeling ill, but I can't get the song 'everybody hurts' out of my head. I've just played R.E.M.'s original video, and if you have five minutes to spare, click here. I just need to know: am I crazy? Or is that like the best video ever?

Please click in the links at the top, become a fan on facebook, and spread the good word.

unique pixie head pics (no one puts baby in the corner)

The Topshop Unique catwalk show in London was held in the basement of this fabulous white-painted space - a flower hall in Covent Garden. Fabulous space and wonderful crowd. The 'catwalk' snaked thru the crowd - which was vast - and was marked by these kind of wood chips. The models were styled as jungle animals (I can't stop singing 'If I were King of the Jungle' as I post this) and it was all just perfect, except this one head kept getting in the way of me getting good shots. After a while I just figured, screw it: I'll leave the good shots to the professionals, you'll forgive me if I don't post clear shots, and I just relaxed & enjoyed the show.



It wasn't til later - til the show ended and the REAL circus began - the media frenzy - that I realised that it was little Pixie Geldorf's head, blocking my view.



And tho I didn't notice it at the time, Olivia Palermo was just in front of me, on the left.. and I spotted some familiar faces across the catwalk aisle.. Kate Lamphor, who I'd just met & shot, at Somerset House..



and of course, the Sart, aka Scott, who I shot last summer: no one puts baby in the corner.

seeing red

As I might have mentioned, I noticed a lot of redheads @ LFW: bright, bold shades from orange orange to really deep, ruby reds. Bottle redheads as blatantly bottled as the classic 'bottle blonde' platinum Marilyn Monroe type blonde. It's a striking contrast to all the black clothing, and quite an interesting trick: if your body is all in black, and you have very very tall, attention seeking shoes (usually in black, often peep-toe platform booties) and your hair is red... well, it visually stretches you out, doesn't it? It's like: look at my head. Look at my feet. Ignore what's between, it's slim fitting & black. It's a fabulous look, frankly.



But Filippa, from Stockholm, is a natural redhead, and as someone pointed out recently, that's rare these days. I don't know why that is. Perhaps as we all continue to interbreed, the redhead gene becomes recessive.. anyway, I think she looks fabulous. I love the way she tucked her sweatshirt top into her jeans in a way that echoes the shape of the shorts detailing, and accentuates her tiny waist. I took only three shots, and each one was great. She's done a bit of modeling, but told me she can't full time, because she's too short.

Which makes me crazy!



Come the revolution, this won't happen. I feel so passionately about what designers like Mark Fast are doing. It's courageous to have three of his catwalk models with 'curves'. But that's just a start: we need some models who aren't teenagers - wouldn't a silver haired model or two look wonderful? - and we need small but perfectly formed young women like Filippa. Alice, aka LIttle Miss London, did a brilliant post on this recently ('catwalk controversy'), and I left a long rant comment. There's a brilliant movement recently started called all walks beyond the catwalk (also on my nice things list) with some of the biggest (no pun intended) players in the industry involved.

Come the revolution, Filippa, I want to see you walking down that catwalk, with your head held high. As Shakespeare wrote of Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, 'though she be but little, she is fierce.'