RECAP: Artomatic's 'Art In Fashion' Runway Show

(left to right) Chris, Bo Himself, Me, and Dr. Danny

Warren and I

Ali and I after the show
Viceral Photography's Pic of Chris BORED ahahah (don't worry that's not me on the runway :)

Crazy picture of me in Emore' J Coture

It's events like this that make me realize how fortunate I am. Fortunate to be asked to be involved in events like this, and fortunate not only to get to work with some of the most talented people in the industry, but to get to call some of them my friends :)

That being said, I had a fucking blast last night! The day started early at Ginger's (Booshie Design) helping get things together for the show. Once at Artomatic, if you haven't been to there, it's awesome, nine floors of diverse art, all free to the community! Make up artist extraordinaire, Warren was sweet enough to agree to do come and do my makeup, and hair but ended up a.) getting mobbed, and b.) putting on a clinic for everyone. He is so flipping talented, we worked together in my 2nd photo shoot ever (blog post here) and I've been dying to work with him again. For some fluke he agreed to come, but he was such a big hit, and after models saw my make up, they started to crowd him, and stand around watching. He's a master. Not only does he do make up, he's a hair artist, and was so sweet to check in with me after each pass and touch up my hair! Can't wait to work with him again, before he gets swooped up by someone like Beyonce :)

The show's designers kinda felt like a Washington White Party reunion, all my favorite's were there: Heydari, Emore' J Couture, and Mr. William's collection, Corjor. I was privileged enough to be asked to be in all of their passes again and Booshie Design!!(you can see me walk in Emore's collection from the white party here) Danny, who has seen me walk in every runway show I've done, said it was my best runway show yet! Not to mention I received 5 snaps from people after the show (ex "you were fiieerrrce girl" snap* snap*) There was a great turnout, Viceral Photography taking pics, a beautiful runway, and Bo, Chris and Ali were all there to watch :)
Stay posted for Danny's pics!

Bo & Danny's Polaroid Pics

Danny's:

Bo's:

At my house party on Saturday, I bought some Polaroids and was hoping amazing photographers, Danny and Bo would want to take a few snaps... My senior year in college I chose my final project to be with Polaroids (since they have ended production of them), and ever since I've had a love affair with their rawness, nostalgic quality and the fact they are one of a kind! Since I got into modeling, I've always thought it would be fun to do a Polaroid photo shoot. No one has taken me up on the offer so I thought I would pop it to my two favs @ my house party. Thankfully they humored me, and the outcome was these amazing shots! Read Bo's reaction to shooting Polaroids, very insightful! Hopefuly they will want to do some more sometime! :)

Housewarming Party

Me and my lil sis:

The man, DJ Pete

Me and Faye

The hosts:

The boys playing beer pong

3am, That's how you end a party! :)

Oh how fortunate we are to have such great friends, and what an awesome party! So many talented and wonderful people came out, like my two favorite photographers: Danny (Visceral Photography), and Bo (Boandbro.com), runner up best local DC designer, Ginger (Booshie Designs), model (and pictured above) Faye, and tons of other friends! (If you came and have a website, e-mail me, and I will add you as well :) We had people out back playing games in the huge lawn, people downstairs playing pool and beer pong, and listening to the one of the best local DJ's, DJ Pete (pictured above) and upstairs we had Call of Duty on the PS3. All the while BBQing, and hitting the keg. One hell of a good time! If you couldn't make it, don't worry, there will be more to come! Danny and Bo also took some Polaroids of me, so stay posted for those, and the next big party! :)

Danny's Pics From The Sebation Runway Show

As promised, above are the first set of Danny's photo's from last weekend's Sebastian Runway show. Photo's in less than a week, fast huh?! And the picks of Marylle and I are soo fun! ") Stay posted for pictures from the photo shoot (hint: I get a sweeettt mohawk!)

Sebastian Runway Show And Photo Shoot

Myself and one of the other models after the runway show, great hair right? :)

Me with "two of the industry's leading hairdressers," Chris and Sonya Dove

The Sebastian models (me on the far right), after the photo shoot

THE "amazing creative genius,” [Salon Daily], Marylle Koken styling my hair

So my homey Danny, aka Visceral Photography (you can see some of my earlier work with him here) hooked me up with an audition for a Sebastian (hair product company) runway show and photo shoot. And, luckily, I was chosen to be of the 5 models for this sweet, well paying gig! It was a complete blast getting paid to hang out with my good friend, and get a free cut and color by the best in the industry! Score. :) It started Sunday morning at 9am. The event was at the posh Westin in Alexandria. We got catered 3 meals a day, the rooms were beautiful, it was a real treat to be involved in! The runway show was at 7pm on Sunday, but I kid you not when I say they worked on our hair from 9am-6pm. Honestly. Highlights, wash, low lights, wash, hair mask, wash etc. But these hair stylists (rather, hair artists) were flown in from around the world to showcase their talent. Each had at least 4 assistants, you would have thought they were doing an operation! Example- "comb" (assistant would hand over comb) "bobby pin" (different assistant) "foil" (seriously, 3rd assistant) It was a trip! But as you can see from the above pics, these professionals weren't messing around the hair looked great! I was fortunate to get to work with the most stylish stylist I've ever met, Marylle Koken (in above shot, seriously check out her profile) She lives in LA and her clients have included some no name people you may have heard of, such as I don't know, Paris Hilton, Jack Nicholson, Claudia Schiffer, Jack Osbourne, Nine Inch Nails and America’s Next Top Model. Just to name a few :) Nice. Well, the runway show went really smooth, with a huge turnout, and even my best friend since I was 14, Ali, was there!! After the show we did some mingling and I got my pic with hair style guru's, The Doves. You would have thought they were the Obama's with the line of people waiting to get a pic with them! Then we wrapped for the night around 9pm, but we were back there for an early 8am call time this morning! Today was the photo shoot. The Sebastian stylists did our hair in front of a high paying group of local hair stylist, then they got to watch us do a photo shoot. Today was my favorite day, I pretty much got paid to hang out with Danny :) It was surprisingly really laid back for shooting in front of about 100 people. The Sebastian stylists were all real laid back, the attendees seemed stoked about being there, it was great. Danny and I have mostly just done runway shows together, so this was our first real studio shoot together. But Danny's a pro, giving great, and really helpful direction to the other models who hadn't ever done a photo shoot before. When it was my turn we just fucked off making jokes and having a good time. Then we wrapped at noon. Easy peezy. All and all, the Sebastian people were all complete dolls, and I love their products, and I got to kick it with Danny, so it was a great experience! Be sure to stay posted for Danny's pics, coming soon!

Sly Horse Head Shots

In this earlier post I recapped the Sly Horse Studio photo shoot were I was lucky enough to work with the above picture Sarah Beth Faison, and the below picture taken by Danny. I just got the shot from Sarah and wanted to post it with Danny's just to show how totally different two people see the same thing. I really love both with all my heart, but are my eyes really that crazy? :)

Washington White Party Recap

It was hot! No, literally though....

The model call was at 2pm. We had 4 hours of hair and makeup with the 'glam squad.' They hooked us models up with amazing ratted hair do's and white eyeshadow, I absolutely loved the look! These models that were cast for the show were/are legit!! 5'8 and up, beaauuutiful girls. It was such an honor to be involved with such talented people!

The super sweet and talented Ginger with Booshie Designs was kind enough to custom design me a dress for the opening pass. All the models were suppose to supply their own outfit for this opening, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase Booshie Designs. And since the event was ran by the director of DC Fashion Week, Ean Williams, I thought it would be a good opportunity to for her to meet Mr. Williams and hopefuly get into September's DC Fashion Week. Well that being said she made this wonderful flowing dream of a dress, that all the models (including myself) loved!

After that opening number, I wasn't in another pass until after the intermission. Which was cool because I got to watch the first half backstage on a tv they had setup streaming the show. One model stood out, and it was the super fierce, Model Tee. This girl! I would be watching the show backstage, and every time I time she came out I was like "who in the hell is that, she has the most fierce walk!" and I would turn around and it was her cute little self coming off the runway. Every time! This girl's walk is so fierce, Tyra watch out!

The next pass I was in was with my other favorite local designer, Emore' J Coutour. (Note to photographers: work with this designer ASAP, because this kid is going to blow up!) I just looovee his designs and I want to wear them everywhere. I should be wearing one right now. And as soon as I find out where to buy his stuff, I will be blogging in his couture pieces. Cause I can. And will :) Well, the next pass was the contrasting ready to wear Heydari line by the cutest 5'1 women, perhaps on earth. The store is filled with comfortable, light weight pieces, but so many! This show was proof of Ms. Heydari's artistic eye, it was so well curated (I'm not sure the fashion speak for that), but the pieces she selected were so perfect for the runway, and to showcase the diversity of her line. Just try her line on, and you'll fall in love with how comfortable it is. Then I was fortunate enough to sneak into the man himself's (Mr. Williams) pass. Sometimes it's about being in the right place. He was rushing around before the show and I could tell he was looking for models, and I said "Do you need another model?" He said, sorry hun you're too short :) (side note: this isn't my first runway show, so I've learned tricks around this minor detail. Designers make their clothes for 5'8-'6'0 girls. But if it's a long dress, you can wear hhiiighh heels be 5'9 and no one will know i.e. stripper heels) Well I quickly quiped back to Mr Williams before he could dismiss me, "I have 6 inch heels, I can be tall!" He stopped, gave me the once over, then said "lemme see them" I ran slapped them on then showed him my runway walk in them. I think he was surprised in the ease I could walk in them, but told his assistant-fit her :) Score. I got this elegant piece of art to wear with a 4 ft train and feather face mask! Ridiculously glamorous. But I'm not going to lie, I was nervous on this on. It was the last pass, the director of DC Fashion Week's line, and I'm wearing a face mask I can barely see out of, 6 inch heels and a train. Could have been bad, but thankfully went seamlessly! We all slapped our white outfits on, flooded, and that was a wrap on the Washington White Party! Fabulous.

But I had tickets to Atmosphere, I had them way before I knew about the runway show. But since the runway show started at 7pm, I thought it would be done just in time for the headliners to come on. But the event was a true production and didn't end until 10pm. So right after the flood, I slapped some street clothes on and took off to the metro. Which was sad because my BF and photographer Danny was there, and I really wanted to hang out and chat with him, but I had to see them play!! Thankfully, I just made it there in time to see them play their last 4 songs. Not much, but better than nothing! :) I even got a t-shirt! (you too can buy Atmosphere swag here).

So all in all, busy but wonderful night, wish you were there! Stay posted, pics to come!