Modelling and Fashion Blog Malta

At risk of sounding ostentatious-I would say, I am not just another blogger because my love affair with fashion started long before any of this blogging existed.

And having an affair I am; loving the way things change, being inspired by designers' creativity and most of all purchasing the season's must haves. But this leads me to the ugly part of my relationship-the addiction, the greed and the insatiable appetite of wanting THE coveted item.

This week this happened to be a pair of loafers by Rochas. Having had the 'ge’em!' go-ahead from my dear friend and shoe connoisseur Joe Fountain, that's exactly what I did. The well-made hand crafted shoes arrived in a beautiful box just in time for my trip to Gozo.

Going to Gozo is challenging for me as I am not fond of crossing and I am not fond of boats. But a sleep-over at Kempinski and a launch of yet another clothing line called Pimkie, won me over and off I went accompanied by Dale, my son. Boat trip out of the way, the drive to the hotel was unpleasant. The roads or rather lack of decent roads changed what should have been a 10minute drive to a 30minute bumpy and winding journey. I was elated to see the arrow indicating to Kempinski. But the journey was not to end. Allocated room 617 by the extremely polite and lovely receptionist Ramona, we set off, up +down corridors and changed 2 elevators. I was seriously perplexed by why we were given a room in a huge, fairly empty hotel which was a substantial walk away from reception. Maybe the distance bothered me because I hadn't had dinner? So off we went to eat. I will not go into detail about this. Dinner was fine as was the service albeit stiff! Hiking back to our room (thank God I wore my trainers) I welcomed the comfortable bed +pillows and fell into dreamland quite rapidly!

Being an early riser, I went for a jog in the surrounding beautiful area of San Lawrenz, enjoyed a wonderful Jacuzzi back at the room and went to a scrumptious breakfast thanks to Kempsinki, clad in my Prada cashmere cardie, my Miu Miu skirt, my faux-leather Stella McCartney slingbacks and Trussardi clutch. It was a pleasant surprise to see my fashion friends at breakfast and after a substantial amount of fashion gossip, we set off to Arkadia for the Pimkie shop opening.

I had briefly looked at the information package that was left for me and my first thoughts were –another label having more of the same. Although their catalogue was well-styled I was rather skeptical about the whole thing. I had never been to Arkadia in Gozo – this mall is the place to be in, for what it’s worth. Shop in shop it offers everything little hearts (not mine) may desire- food, clothing amongst other things.

The shop window at Pimkie was very encouraging – Chanelesque jacket over a t-shirt and denim shorts with classic courts set the bar quite high. Setting foot inside the shop, I discovered some trend-immune items that 1 could keep brigning out of the wardrobe season after season; lurex sweatshirts( to be worn over long skirts or A-line skirts), coloured skinny jeans(a trend-immune item), a range of funky t-shirts(life savers in summer), a variety of coloured court shoes(can we ever have enough of these?) and a good selection of "never die" faux leather biker jackets(a compulsary item to sharpen up any look).

Pimkie certainly lived up to their declaration by the people who brought the brand in – a fashion haven for 20 somethings which was great value for money!

So it's probably time to talk about models. The year is starting with the introduction of 3 fresh faces; Alexandra, Stefan and Sergio.  All three worked in 2010 and finally their images are up on the website. Alexandra had a cool shoot with Ben Camille and modelled for Rebelli, Stefan modelled for Tommy Hillfiger and for Rebelli Jeans plus was the face for the Rebelli Jeans campaign and Sergio has been on commercials for MSV and for Intercontinental International. 
Watch this space for the new models to be introduced shortly. 

Models.com.mt happily welcomes another group of models.  No new comer to the modelling industry Rachel Mifsud, who is back on the rock;  Romana Sramkova, a professional model from Czech Republic,  upcoming Nicole Vella and Laura Besancon together with Sofia (aka Sofy) Wikstrom and Irin (aka Ira) Melkonyan. Moving onto the male section, we have upcoming Charles Merciecia and Stephen Cordina. Models.com.mt look forward to seeing these models put their talent into practice.

Tiffany is living the life of a true model; after finishing off her campaign in the Uk for Schwarzkopf she flew into Malta and started her shoot for the  Diet Kinnie campaign for 2011. For the shoot in the Uk, Tiffany had her hair dyed red which went down perfectly, locally as it fitted with the DK colour scheme. 
After getting her hair done at Pierre Camille, Graziella DeGiorgio from Revlon applied Tiffany's make-up with Carina taking care of styling.  Photographed by fashion photographer Pierre Camille this campaign for Diet Kinnie promises to be fun and alternative.
Watch this space for the campaign's final image with Tiffany and Diet Kinnie

As beautiful as she is, sadly it was Amelia's turn to leave Malaysia leaving Charlotte, Alicia, Joy and Tiffany competing for the final spot. Performing a themed local dance routine helped the models use their inner grace, a vital component as a fashion model. Tiffany aced the challenge and performed like a true professional. Last but not least, the girls had to work it during a night shoot, advertising a watch. Once again Tiffany came out tops and her final shot was 1of the strongest.

When Elle announced that both Joy and Charlotte were going to be sent home, the shock was tangible! Lucky for them it was a joke and instead the models at BNTM are all going to Malaysia.
An original shoot gave Tiffany and all the other girls to spend some time behind the camera rather than in front of it as usual. Tiff did extremely well and directed her model plus did great styling and hair andmake-up direction to the extent of winning the challenge!
The other two shoots, one a glamorous shoot with a team of rugby players as a prop and a simple cover for Company magazine had judges saying that more was expected from Tiffany from the first shoot BUT also saying that her shot for Company was rated her best shot ever. Amazing stuff!

The girls had a surprise visit this week from none other than Elle McPherson. How amazing is that? To have one of the world’s most famous super models right there in the same room and sitting on the same couch as you….Tiffany  showed a softer side to her when she became emotional upon meeting up with Elle.

This week’s first shoot was a beauty shot where Revlon made the girls up using an amazing palette of colours. Tiffany’s shot portrayed an almost ethereal being but Elle commented that she needed a haircut after she saw the portrait.

A trip to Pinewood studios soon revealed that the girls were up for a challenge which was not for the faint-hearted. A leap from a 20 metre scaffolding onto a mat for Galaxy chocolate while keeping poised. Not easy! Tiffany looked beautiful in the black wig and managed to pull off a good shot but not good enough to keep her from being in the final two during elimination together with Olivia. Lucky for us and for Tiffany, Olivia was sent home.

EMERGING MALTESE FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER

TAKES SWIPE AT INDUSTRY IN

DEBUT SOLO EXHIBITION

As the Maltese fashion industry begins to garner momentum, so must the critical debate of fashion

photography itself. This means creating a dialogue with a type of image we are so accustomed to seeing, and

exploring more candid realities about how we consume fashion images. The work of Maltese artist

Girgorcisku (born Gregory Hili) is still relatively unknown. But Scarab – the debut solo exhibition of Imperu

Girgorcisku – will mark the advent of a local artist who has taken on board the challenge of initiating this

dialogue with fashion photography.

“Imperu Girgorcisku is my own world which acted as my escape from troubled periods of my life. These

periods controlled me in the way I feel the fashion image controls those who gaze at it”. The Central Saint

Martins graduate also feels strongly about the pressure fashion images put on today’s young boys and girls,

conforming to what he feels are out-dated conceptions of the ‘right’ way to be: “In the past, these structures

harnessed a spirit of acceptance; everyone knew their place within a grand order of society. But in a new

world where those structures have disintegrated, where we can be whoever we want to be, we have become

more competitive. Our world has changed, but our mindset hasn’t. We end up subjecting ourselves to our

own self-made structures – influenced by the conceptions of the past – in the spirit of inner anxiety and

hatred. We have become like scarabs, feeding and reproducing in our own dung spheres of ‘perfection’.”

Just as his ‘empire’ empowered the artist over his turbulent past, Girgorcisku wants to provide that same

conviction for teens and young adults struggling to cope with social pressures fashion is at least partly

responsible for enforcing. “As an image-maker, I am in a position of control over the imaginary worlds of

consumers. Therefore, I have a moral obligation to question the truth (or allusion) of that control. This is in

the spirit of a new world where no one is untouchable, where everyone – regardless of their objective status –

comes closer together, united as we reach yet another milestone in the evolution of humanity.”

This week the girls had a challenge at the flagship store of the fashionable  New Look in London.  They all had 5 minutes to run around and find a capsule outfit. Once the girls selected their clothes they were told that they would have to pick one from the group each to model their chosen outfit and present it on camera for the new look website.  Charlotte won as she had good presenting skills.
After the challenge the girls where whisked off to Norway in the freezing cold. They rode on a helicopter to a  glacier on the top of a mountain, a first for most of the girls. There they had to do a shoot for a brand of  water wearing outfits made out of the plastic bottles of water and wearing nothing else underneath in a  temperature of -5.
Everyone struggled as it was freezing cold.  The last 2 girls to shoot where caught in a blizzard of temperatures of - 20.
Tiffany  found it difficult to breathe as the ice cold air froze onto her skin.  The photographer wasn`t amused or  impressed with her as he thought she was trying  to hurry the shoot up. In actual fact  she was focusing on getting the shot before she collapsed!
The very next morning the girls flew back to England without getting any sleep and went  straight into another challenge. They had to walk and pose in front of the famous hat designer Stephen Jones who has even designed  for the princess Diana herself. Tiffany impressed Stephen Jones along with Grace Woodward  and won  the challange.  She was given a designer hat  and made it on to the next round being called up 4th.
On with the show......

The chocolate shoot

Tiffany has been praised consistently by the panel of judges and photographers so far and was also told by presenter and world-class supermodel Elle Macpherson she looks beautiful in her latest photograph but is “tired of seeing the same expression."

Tiffany was always reluctant to do nude shots, claiming “I wouldn’t usually do any sort of nudity at all.” So when the time came to pose nude for BNTM, save for a barely-there garment covering the lower part of the body, it was a challenge indeed!  Ladles of chocolate were poured over her from head to toe and while Tiffany looked apprehensive of posing nude, she still did it, knowing that this is part of the modeling industry. Plus there was no way Tiffany was going to allow anything to get in her way and stop her from winning.

The judges decided that the photograph was not up to her standards and Tiffany was called up for elimination being 1 of the final 2. When her name was called up to stay in the house over Delita’s, her elation was tangible. “I never want to be the bottom two again”, Tiffany proclaims.

Tiffany steps it up

Week 6 started with the girls given a challenge to go on TV live and sell jewellrey. Tiffany did  well and showed flair and enthusiasm. The second challenge presented to the girls was to buy as many things as they possibly could from an airport with 500stg, easy but not when you have a time limit.  What the girls didn’t know was that the things purchased were going to be the only things they would take with them on their first photo shoot abroad where they had to model swimwear against an amazing panoramic backdrop. Tiffany totally stepped up and produced an alternative shot. The judges were all pleased to see her taking up on the advice they had given to produce a picture with a different expression. You go girl!

Models.com.mt welcomes Andrea, Nikki and Nina to the team of young models. After meeting Andrea and Nina during a Pantene hair serach, I knew that sooner rather than later they  would soon be on our books.  The same goes for Nikki who was discovered during the search for the Shout model.  All three girls are eager to express what they love doing best - modelling.

Kurt  Arrigo shot Sofia and Leo both from models.com.mt for a commercial for 8.97 Bay –Live life the Bay way! The entire shoot was shot under water and models were asked to create different body postures.

“We always come up with new and alternative ideas for our  campaigns, “ says Kate DeCesare, Group marketing manager of The Eden leisure group, “and this time our creative team came up with an underwater concept. We are very excited!”

Castings were held and several models from models.com.mt  attended amongst which where Dyan, and Rowen, Sandrina, Raissa and Cristina.  “How can I choose from these gorgeous models? lamented Kate. At the end the team selected Sofia and Leo for their more ‘alternative’ looks and their confidence underwater.

Look out for the results on publications shortly.

One of the nicest things in the fashion industry is that I get to work with various people amongst which are models, stylists, make-up artists, hairdressers and photographers.

I would like to thank photographers Alexandra Pace, Pierre Camille, Ben Camille, Matthew Attard Navarro, Martin Scerri, Ryan Jensen, Tonio Lombardi, Kurt Paris, Greg Hili, Kris Micallef  and  Luke Engerer for collaborating with us.

Thank you to the stylists Andrew Alexander, Pavli Medvedova, Sam Cocoran and Luke Engerer and to publications amongst which are Milkshake, FM, Platinum Love, First, Money, Pjazza, Circle and last but definitely not least Style on Sunday who showcase our models and support models.com.mt.

Special thanks also go to all the models for their loyalty and dedication.

Going out after a day's work is never an easy task.
Models.com.mt wanted to recruit new female models so we held a shoot and worked on the new models' portfolio; Five girls, Bettina, Nina, Emzi, Justine and Nikki were styled and then shot by Pierre Camille. We created three different looks for them and finished off the day with Nikki wearing my new-arrival; a beautiful dress by J. Crew.( Thanks due here to Joseph Fountain and Annelie from Manolo Blahnik in New York). At the end I was shattered! The last thing I felt like was to get dressed and ready, to go out to the launch of Pippa Toledo's handmade bags.
I was so close to collapsing on the sofa but I'm glad I didn't. I picked up my very dear sister-in-law and we went to Pippa's studio. Walking into her minimally designed place, I was instantly greeted by loud voices of a100+women; it seemed like everyone was talking at the same time and at the top of their voices! I immediately went to check out the wares. Bags and jewellrey were displayed extremely well. The bags are very well made out of high quality fabric and adorned with beads, bows, tulle etc; there was a very pretty black one on the bottom shelf with grey tulle+a silver chain! I fell in love with some gold and silver sculptured bangles which I have set my eyes on!
A very noisy but very pleasant evening with women who were my age for a change. We were well fed(Zest-simply delicious)and wine kept flowing readily. The evening finished off with a super Irish coffee and a limoncello, by then my Giuseppe Zanotti shoes had made my feet so numb, I was ready to leave. Well done to Pippa and to all her team!