2014
I did one of these yearly style posts last year, so thought I'd do it again!
It's interesting to see how I've developed my makeup and hair skills over time - this year I spent more time experimenting and testing makeup, finding new products and brands.
I think this year can be summed up with: GOLD.
Looking back at the year, and even the past few years, I feel like I'm at my happiest. I've traveled so much (considering in 2013 we only went to Dublin), worked hard, have found myself living in a nicer place and spent time with people I care about.
For the first part of the year it was sounding a lot like the Year Of The Eyeroll, with my relationship suffering from the incessant irritation of another person who seems completely devoid of social boundaries. We were also living in a flat that was noisy, dark and dank, from which I commuted to work every day for an hour.
Towards the middle and end of this year, all of the above just worked itself out. Now, I'm living a mere 2 minute walk to work, in a flat that is FAR more pleasant to spend time in (it's funny how you don't really notice how bad something is until it's changed/gone). I enjoy my job immensely, and work with a great team of badass women. I'm closer than ever to my boyfriend (being there for him and supporting him through a tough time in his life), and now have the spare time to devote to our relationship, and to friendships with kind and intelligent people.
Roll on, 2015 (but preferably not eyerolls)!
Travel
I've travelled a lot for work this year, including Paris twice (once in winter, once in summer - and boy was it summer...) and Copenhagen.
The top two photos are from Copenhagen, where I've NEVER BEEN SO BLOODY COLD (-5C!). We were there for a tradeshow, which was unfortunately not right for our brand, but it was certainly an experience. Mainly the experience of it being ridiculously expensive but with good food. Although it was so pretty in the snow, I could see it being so much more pleasant in the Summer. The top left photo I took on a walk to see Rosenborg Castle, shortly before getting caught in a blizzard and thinking "fuck this" a lot.
Paris holds one of the most important lingerie tradeshows in Europe, hence why we visited in January and July (although in July we showed at the clothing show next door). In January it was my first time at the show, and I'd only been to Paris previously when I was little, so I didn't do much walking around (also, pretty chilly). I did, however, find out that Parisians get pissed off about badly spoken French. In July it was HOT. So hot, I definitely did not have the right clothes packed. Nevertheless, I had a spare afternoon to do some exploring, so I took the metro and walked for miles around Montmartre, visiting the Sacre Coeur (bottom left) and the Automaton museum! The food in Paris is, obviously, amazing, and one particularly beautiful restaurant to eat amazing food was La Fermette Marbeuf (bottom right).
For the first time ever I could afford to take myself and my boyfriend on holiday this year! It was our 5 year anniversary in August, which seemed like a perfect excuse to go somewhere we'd both been wanting to go for some time, Prague!
We spent a wonderful 4 days in the city, which I would highly recommend to anyone, especially if you love good (but cheap) food, history and baroque-as-fuck churches (top left). This basically began the tour of elaborate religious things (see below). Prague is such a beautiful city, and August was just right weather-wise (a few weeks later and it would have gotten too cold for wandering). It was still quite busy with tourists, but that's a necessary evil if you want the nice weather. Unfortunately the selfie-taking tourists were more of a pain at the Sedlec Ossuary (top right)(those skulls are real, have some respect when visiting!), but I'd definitely go back.
In September Mark and I were booked to perform at a party in Istanbul, and as neither of us had been before, we arrived a few days early to take in the city. After a bit of a kerfuffle with visas which resulted in us missing our taxi and spending a good few hours trying to get to the hotel ourselves, we made it to a wonderful boutique hotel called Peradays, run by some lovely gents. We managed to cram in a lot of sight seeing into one day, including the Hagia Sophia (bottom left), The Blue Mosque (bottom right), The Grand Bazaar and lots more. It also turned out that Santi, who runs a night in London called Rumpus, was also there for the same event with a bunch of talented performers, so it was awesome hanging around with those guys!
People
Good times of 2014 were also spent with good people! From gurning with Miranda (top left) to gurning with Lydia and my work chums (bottom right), so quite a lot of gurning happened. I don't have a photo with my boss, Emma, but I should mention her for being awesome!
The times that I did go clubbing (normally we are only in clubs for DJing!) was super fun; in the top right photo I'm with Amelia Arsenic and Le Pustra in Room Service.
I also worked on the Sugarpill stand for one day of IMATs (bottom left), and met Shrinkle and Irene (who I've known online for a long time). Those guys are so inspiring and sweet!
And how could I forget the one person who's really made my year special! <3 <3
I did this last year, so I'm doing it again this year!
As I've mentioned before, I don't have a lot of spare time (or the budget) to organise creative shoots, but I've managed to squeeze a few in here and there. I feel like although I've not shot all that much, the quality of my work is getting better! You can view my entire 2014 portfolio (and previous years) here, and let me know what you think.
These are my favourite picks from the "non-work" creative shoots I've done this year.
Very early in the year, I shot the beautiful Suri Sumatra (top left), who I've known as part of the cabaret scene for a while. There was a *little* difference between this shoot and the rest of my work; she was very pregnant! She's since had an adorable baby girl, but it was wonderful to shoot some different pregnancy photos. Suri has an amazing wardrobe full of costumes, and I love the old gold theme she worked with for this styling - she looks like a mythical goddess.
I worked with Miss Betsy Rose (top right) a few years ago, and she's just so wonderfully photogenic! She told me she had some corsets to shoot for Ava Corsetry, and wondered if I'd like to join in. We shot so many different styles, I still have more shots to edit! I particularly love this one :)
I finally teamed up with aerialist and contortionist badass, Jackie Le (bottom left), for a circus-esque shoot at The Aeronaut in Acton (if you haven't been yet, make sure you do!). This was the first time I've shot anyone on an aerial hoop, which was a lot more difficult than I first imagined... but I love the results!
Betsy Rose was back in my studio with fellow burlesque stars Jolie Papillon and Missy Fatale (the 3 of them being Gin House Burlesque). We did some triple shots as well as singles, but it's this shot (bottom right) of Missy Fatale that I love because of her awesome snake!
I think my Playful Promises lookbook total this year has been 6.. not including the lookbooks for Wolf & Whistle! Some shoots took multiple days! I'm so pleased with the results, both photography-wise and for our brand.
Top left was the AW'14 campaign, where we swapped out elaboate locations for a minimalist '60s inspired look. Top right was for our 10th Anniversary circus collection, so I could be a bit more creative with lighting, and I loved the results (probably my favourite shoot!). Bottom left is our SS'15 campaign, and bottom right was our quirky, creepy Halloween lookbook, inspired by victorian spiritualism!
I've just shot the AW'15 campaign, which I absolutely love! Three of my favourite models, Miss Miranda, Miss Deadly Red and Veanne, in one of my favourite locations (we actually used this for AW'12, my first lookbook for the brand).
Here's a cheeky preview of two of the shots
Here's to 2015!