The dream is over but the baby is real...

Having completed an English degree and now teaching English as a career, I have often been interested in dissecting the lyrics of my favourite bands. I totally get the saying that being a Linguist can completely spoil your enjoyment of books - you end up spending more time analysing the writer's style than taking the plot in!

Perhaps this is why I like The Smiths so much...their lyrics are a virtual orchard of juicy cultural references and musings on Morrissey's key influences, ripe and just ready to be devoured by a geek just like myself - who loves an inside joke. One of these references is a love of kitchen sink dramas, particularly Shelagh DeLaney's A Taste of Honey. So it was with excitement that I headed off to Stockport where much of the critically acclaimed screen adaptation of the play was filmed, to pay homage in my own photo shoot. I teamed up with huge Smiths fan Helen Hughes of Rocking Weddings to create the look.

Right from the planning stages, Helen and I knew that we wanted to create a set of gritty pictures which fully encapsulated what the North and Salford in particular, was really like. Consequently, I abandoned my usual glamorous pin up look for a more subdued and realistic portrayal of what the average young 50s woman would wear. I think it's important to remember that this was a period of post war austerity and petticoats and polka dots are not what most women wore.

I'm really lucky to model for over 200 designers, so the brilliant Dresses by Julia made me a really authentic looking brown tweed style circle skirt and stunning cap sleeved blouse. I paired it with a beautiful swing jacket in pinks and green pastel check from La Riveria/ Morello's. It is rare that I do my own hair and make up but I thought I could handle this one as it was so similar to my normal look!

We went to many of the places that the film was originally made - including knocking on the door of the house where Helen and Jo escaped from the cellar hole, bird cage and all! Hope you like the results. You can see many more of these images around September in Vintage Life magazine.

This was where Jo was walking home. The skyline has changed dramatically but I was so pleased to see the same railings!

The location of this still is really overgrown nowadays and would have not made as good an image so we improvised and found somewhere really similar in Stockport. It even had traditional lamp posts.









I love the way Helen has created this really grainy, Saturday afternoon film look.












I love to ham it up so was really chuffed to recreate the scene where Jimmy (the "boy") and Jo part company. I love this scene particularly a it is referenced in a Smiths song, Reel around the Fountain:
" I dreamt about you last night and I fell out of bed twice." 
In this scene Jo waves and shouts "ta ra!"

One of the most moving scenes in the film is where Geoff and Jo go to a churchyard and Jo bursts into tears. "The dream is over but the baby is real" - which is also referenced in the Smiths song 'This Night has Opened my Eyes.'

The quest for the perfect brow from a mediocre make up Don

I'm not going to lie...I'm pretty pants at make up. I was a total Tom boy as a kid and it's only now that I'm in my 30s that I wish I'd spent more time experimenting with make up as a teen, rather than climbing trees and watching rugby league. But I have a confession to make. *whisper it* I am obsessed with eyebrows. I don't just mean that I like them looking neat. I full on will not leave the house without them en pointe. But a quest to find the perfect eyebrow cosmetics has turned into my own Holy Grail crusade; I've had lots of powders and pencils that I think may be the real thing but then just don't cut the mustard. Until now. After all the cash I've spent on expensive products over the years such as Clarins brow box (appalling quality powder) and Benefit (horrible waxy feeling) I've found the answer in Superdrug for less than a fiver with the brilliant MUA brow box. I can't believe how good the powder is. The brush isn't amazing, I use my own slanted brush to do the shape, but the brush you get in the box is perfect for using the wax to create that ombre look to the edges of your brows - which I personally love.

I am however still lusting after the Anastasia Beverley Hills Brow wizz and Brow Pomade. Would be interested to know what other people's opinions are on it. Is anyone else also obsessed with their brows too? I hate how awful I look without my browser but felt the contrast was needed!

Come up and see me sometime...

While those who know me will be rather surprised that I've just got a blog, it seems like this has been a long time in coming! I write columns for six magazines and am lucky enough to get sent a massive amount of amazing things from designers every week, in my guise as a pin up model. So this blog will be a mixture of reviews, posts on things that come to mind and general musings.

The title of this post and the blog's URL highlights my obsession with Mae West, so it's fair to say that I won't pull any punches...fasten your seat belts and hope to have you along for the ride!