All posts filed under: Admire

A hoopskirt photoshoot – a few of my favourite shots

Every time my friend Theresa visits Wellington we dress up and do a photoshoot together. She was in town this weekend, and one of the top things on her to-do wish-list was to take photos with me. I know that one of her lifelong dreams has been to wear a hoopskirt, and I’ve never actually worn my Greek Key ensemble, so massive crinolines was the theme for the day. I wore my new engageantes and 1860s bonnet, and put Theresa in the 1850s Raspberry swirl dress, which she fit beautifully. We went first to the park where Madame O & I photographed the pet-en-l’aire ensemble, and then to the Massey Memorial, which is a much better photoshoot location at sunset than it is at high noon! Here are a few of my favourite images from the shoot: I particularly love these two because Theresa and I each took almost precisely the same image of each other: The light was just amazing as the sun set. Sadly, we didn’t have an artsy fashion student to photograph …

A souvenir fan

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I collect is antique fans. I like that they are small and easy to store, and that they are so evocative of the events they might have been carried at. I wonder where they came from. Were they a gift from a beau? A commemoration of being grown-up enough to go out from a parent? What secrets were told behind them? What faces did they cool after a spirited dance? What frocks were they worn with, and what flirtations did they signal? So many stories in a fan! This particular fan from my collection is particularly gorgeous, and particularly evocative of a fascinating back-story. Whose face was reflected in the mirror. Did she use it to spy on other partigoers? Or to check that every hair was in place? The other side of the fan tells the rest of the story. The fan was a souvenir, brought back from somewhere exotic. Did the owner buy it herself, as a memento from a special trip? Or …

Let there be light

Published by The Dreamstress

During our photoshoot at the old Dominion Museum building Theresa noticed the huge stained glass windows. I’ve posed in these windows before, with limited success (tricky, tricky lighting), but I think this series turned out much better – if only because it makes me laugh. Theresa gave very detailed directions about my face and hands. She kept telling me to look up toward the light, and then to point “no, don’t just gesture, point!” I stood. I looked towards the light. I gestured. I pointed. I tried very, very hard to keep a straight face. Theresa said “let their be light!” and there was.