Playing Dress Up

Last weekend I trekked down to Brighton to help out a friend with her photo shoot.  The friend, I have mentioned on this blog before, was my knitting buddy Ellen.  Ellen is in fact a milliner (or hat maker for those of you not in the know).  She was photographing some of her fabulous creations so that she can put them up on her Etsy store and website, and I agreed to model some for her.

Now when you look at Ellen's creations, you are looking at the real deal.  Not those cheap DIY stick a feather on an already made hat.  Ellen makes everything from scratch.  That means it starts as a flat piece of material and is shaped and crafted into a bespoke creation.  I find the whole process fascinating and she has promised to do a blog post on just how much skill and hard work (not to mention time) goes into each individual hat.

Anyway, I packed up all my vintage dresses, a sack full of make up and my hair bits and bobs.  My whole life was in my suitcase which made me rather twitchy on the train in case someone nicked it (not that they would want my skanky old suitcase).  We met at the train station in Brighton, along with the photographer, Diana, and the other model for the day Lady May Den - Voyage.

I was doing my own hair and make up so the re construction of my face began.

As Dolly Parton said once "it takes a lot to look this cheap" ;) teehee.  A couple of hours later, and for me a couple of cupcakes later, we were ready to go!

Luckily for us, Ellen's housemate works at a cake shop!  Diana mentioned as I duly tucked in to cake and chips and dips that it was nice to work with models that actually eat.  1.  Are you crazy?  Those are the best cupcakes I've ever eaten and 2.  I'm not a real model ;).  Anyway, Lady May was up first.

We were due to shoot in a crumbly old house that had a sweeping staircase, but unfortunately the builders moved in, so we made do with Ellen's house.  Luckily she has a very stylish house so it wasn't too much of a disaster.

A few hat and outfit changes later and it was Ellen's turn to pose as a glamorous hat wearer.  By this time it had stopped raining so we took the opportunity to get a few outside shots.

Of course the hat Ellen is wearing a completely handmade hat (which has hand crafted felt feathers on it, AMAZING!), but her 30's style suit was also made by her.  I have such talented friends!

I also had a whirl outside in an amazing straw creation with a flash of pink that went perfectly with my vintage dress.

You will just have to wait to see the results of the shoot, but we had a lovely day playing dress up and (me) eating yummy things.  I shall leave you with a sneaky pic I took of Ellen's vintagey looking living room :)...............except I'm really rubbish at taking pictures.

Anyway I shall post details when the proper pictures of Ellen's wonderful creations are made public. Until then, have a great week!

Lots of Love
Betty xxx