Purple Lipped Fashion Faux Pas

I got lucky in Taipei in that most of my jobs there were shot in-studio and therefore were climate controlled. My location jobs were usually shot at a coastal spot, so I never got to really "suffer" for my art while there. See, catalogs & magazine editorials are shot in opposite seasons. For example, fall & winter clothes are shot in the summer and spring & summer collections are shot in the winter. If you are working somewhere where the weather is mild then lucky you....otherwise get ready to sweat to the point of dehydration or freeze your ass off.

My most memorable, or perhaps traumatizing, job in my modeling history took place in Osaka. Ok, I can't say memorable, because I have had awesome jobs that I will always look back on fondly....so let's stick to traumatizing.....The job was a catalog shoot for Daimaru Deptartment Stores and was for their Spring & Summer collections. I was driven to location which was several hours out of town at a theme park by the sea that had been shut down for the winter. Red flag. It had an uber-Disney-like Venetian theme to it. Cute, if it hadn't been graced by sub zero weather conditions.

After the long ride there, during which time I got to watch the original version of "The Ring" which scared the crap out of me even in Japanese without English subtitles, I was promptly sent to hair & make-up and then shown my wardrobe. I had upwards of 20 outfits for the day, all of which consisted of flimsy, flowery, spaghetti strapped dresses, shorts and tank tops. I knew I was in for some trouble seeing as it was gray, blustery and yes, very freaking cold outside.

Shooting commenced and I was in my summer's best trying to keep my teeth from chattering and the rest of me from shivering uncontrollably, All the while I was getting wind whipped by frigid air as the rest of the crew huddled around cups of hot tea wearing their goose down jackets, hats & scarves. The light kept shifting as well, so I can't even tell you how long I had to stand in these conditions while the photographer took polaroid after polaroid after polaroid with all of the different meter readings that his assitants were getting. You may ask why no one offered me a coat while I was waiting for the polaroids to show whether the shot was a go or not.....well, their reasoning was that the clothes would wrinkle and thus not look good in the shots. Ha! What about the model dying of hypothermia? A corpse in a summer dress. Hmmm.......Necrophilia-chic?

I remember at one point the make-up artist came up to me and handed me two palm sized packets that contained a gravel like substance in them that heated up on contact. I must admit it was very sweet of her, but while half of my palms were luke warmed, the rest of my body was going into shock. But I grinned and bore it. After all, I was getting paid an chunky amount of money to "just stand there and look pretty" and I was a professional right? So, a little snow shouldn't be a problem, right? And I joke not about the snow. Halfway through the shoot it started to snow.....which I guess was a blessing in disguise since it made the rest of the day progress much more quickly. There was only so much photoshopping they were gonna be willing to do to get rid of the flakes on my summer attire. By that time my goosebumps were so big & painful I thought surely they would have to be surgically removed. But what took the cake was near the end of the shoot when the client had the photographer tell me that I needed to "control" my lips because they were turning purple and that was "not professional". WTF?!?! Whoah. Let me show you "not professional"!!!!

This had to have been one of my worst and most meteorologically challenging bookings ever, and definitely least forgettable. I swear one of my toes is still numb from the experience. It beat out a booking from my second trip to Taipei when I was asked to stop sweating by the client while I was shooting at the top of a parking garage in winter coats & sweaters in 100 degree weather.

Yeah....modeling is a piece of cake.