...The Bullett Magazine Shoot

Betsey did an amazing project with Bullett Magazine that I got to model in! I can't tell you the whole story yet but check out the first look posted by Refinery 29 and stay tuned for the full story coming soon!

Till then!

Stef

... The Tulips and Pansies Headress Affair 2011

Last Thursday was the 10th annual Tulips and Pansies Headdress Affair benefiting Village Care. Betsey collaborated with In Bloom New York to create a Marie Antoinette inspired look with a punk rock twist. Participating in this event is by far one of my favorite things that Betsey does each year. Last year we attended the event and ended the night dancing on the runway with Patricia Fields at the after party. How could this year get better then that? Well... this year I was in the show!

Me all decked out on the Runway!

At about four o'clock Petra, our PR extraordinaire's devoted assistant and I walked over to Gotham Hall where the affair would take place that evening. We arrived and met the headdress designers Roshy and Parker from In Bloom NYC. Their headdress creation was gorgeous! Peonies and baby's breath with wispy neon feathers, how much more fabulous could something be? Roshy and Parker were anxious to try the headdress on me to make sure that I could carry the weight and balance it by holding the stick attached to the base. After some teeter totter I had it down and felt confident that I would not drop it on the runway.

After figuring out how to balance a floral arrangement on my head, walk the runway, hold my dress out from under my heels, act like a punk rock Marie Antoinette all while chewing gum (just kidding), I sat down in make-up. The make-up team from Illamasqua white powdered my face, added a rosy circle cheek, a touch of mascara and a heart shape lip. I looked like a porcelain doll or a hybrid clown/geisha, but it worked perfectly with the whole look.

Next task was to accessorize! Petra and I lugged two huge bags of Betsey accessories from the showroom to the event so that Roshy and Parker could have their pick. I put on the dress they chose from Betsey's Spring 2011 runway show Le Tour de Betsey which they based the design of the headdress around. This dress is amazing because Betsey puffy paint/air brushed it herself! Betsey slinging paint all over the showroom to create this dress was quite the spectacle and pee-your-pants hilarious! From chaos, Betsey makes the most amazing things. To the one of a kind gown, Roshy and Parker pinned a cluster of neon plastic flowers. They added a black lace necklace and gold sequin boots. The final touch and my favorite accessory was a pair of hand cuffs, which they attached to the stick that I held to balance my headdress! Using the handcuffs was pretty clever and tied the whole outfit together.

When the show began, I finally got to see every headdress creation in full glory. Each collaboration was a success! 

When it was my turn to parade out on the runway, MC for the night James Aguiar, who was decked out from head to toe in a suit made of googly eyes, provided witty commentary. "Marie Antoinette isn't she like 12?" quipped Aguiar as I vogued at the end of the runway.

  

Roshy and Parker were waiting back stage with big smiles on their faces! They thought my embodiment of punk rocker Marie was fantastic! We did a toast and cheered. All the models did a finale walk to show off the amazing creations once more.

Did I mention it was a contest as well? Unfortunately, I have to report that we did not win a prize. Don't be sad though, doing the show was an amazing experience and everyone was happy to contribute to Village Care. I took off the headdress and transformed from punk rock Marie Antoinette back into Stef because luckily there was an after Party!!! I love a good after party don't you? At the party I met up with Katelyn (PR extraordinaire), Petra (Katelyn's DA) and Ashley (Mistress of print design), all devoted Betsey employees, who had come to cheer me on. Katelyn texted Betsey pictures from the show and she loved them! We ended the night with some bubbly and dancing to the mixing of DJ Lady Bunny.

L-R Petra, Stef, Katelyn, Ashley

A couple of days after the show I received the most beautiful bouquet of peonies from Roshy and Parker as a thank you for modeling. It was such a pleasure to work with In Bloom NYC to support Village Care. Check out their blog about the event and how they created the amazing headdress.

Till next time!

Stef

...The New York City Ballet Gala + Anger Management

At the New York City Ballet Gala Premier of Lynne Taylor-Corbett's "The Seven Deadly Sins" Betsey and I walked the red carpet as the sin "anger." Well, walk is maybe an understatement because Betsey literally dragged me down the red carpet on the end of a leash.

You might be wondering, how did we get ourselves into this? Well... Betsey's public relations extraordinaire, Katelyn, sent me an email two weeks before the gala inviting Betsey to create a look based on one of the sins and present it on a model on the red carpet. Betsey chose anger and I agreed to put on my pointe shoes from my dancing days and ignight the red carpet with some performance art.  

When Betsey first started to brainstorm for the look she wanted to do a take on Black Swan. It made perfect sense to dress me in a one of her new tutu dresses and pointe shoes and flutter around like an angry caged bird. After some thought, we decide that was too literal and predictable. Wanting to shock, awe and do something new, we dug around the showroom vintage and pulled out a large hoop dress shown in Betsey's Spring 2011 runway show. It was the perfect amount of avant-garde for the gala. 

We had the killer dress, now we needed to find our handle. How could we tie it to a story so that on the red carpet we could be characters and really put on a performance? A good rule of thumb for Betsey in these situations is, when in doubt grab a sharpie! Hence the sharpie tattoos. She wrote "scram!" "Back off!" "Don't Bother Me Boy!" and my favorite "Piss Off!" all over my skin. She completed the art by writing "ANGER" boldly across my chest just above a sharpie cleavage shadow. (hubba hubba) Now that we had my roll as anger we had to make up a roll for Betsey to play. On the morning of the gala Betsey went to have her hair done and through salon chat her hair dresser suggested that she play "anger management." We sent one of our devoted interns to XXX shop to pick up a dominatrix collar and leash, making her in control of anger, aka me. 

With the look and back story complete we prep-ed for the night! Betsey and I did our own vampy make-up with her signature red Betsey's lips. I reached out to my friends the amazing Peter Gray (Hairstylist savant and fellow jack of all trades) and Kelsey Osterman (brilliant from Cutler salon) to create my hairstyle using long-choppy extensions, a lot of product and a lot of back combing! After we were all gussied up we practiced our choreography which included hiking my skirt over my head to show off red bloomers and sharpie pantie hoes seams. End result...

After parading around the showroom tethered to Betsey we hopped in the car and headed to Lincoln Center for the gala.



Arriving on the red carpet we started our show

Light bulbs were going off everywhere as we put on our grand performance. There are plenty of pictures on the web of my red bloomer butt!  Following closely behind us on the red carpet was Sarah Jessica Parker. After the event the NY Post wrote that we. "almost knocked her off her heels." As we reached the end of the red carpet we broke character in a fit of giggles. Betsey began doing interviews and a reporter asked me if wearing the leash hurt. Betsey, the sharp tac that she is, answered "Do dogs complain!" We did not stay for the ballet because Betsey had another engagement and I could not imagine sitting through all the acts in that hoop skirt. Plus, we had a bottle of champagne at the bar that was calling our names.

The next day I woke up with a cold and couldn't make it into work and Betsey called me to see if I felt better and thank me for putting on a show with her. She is just that nice of a person!