Friday 12 February 2010

Ginger Torvill and Fred Dean

So here's something you mayn't know about me... when I was a wee lass, I was OBSESSED with figure skating, I wanted to skate so badly. But the nearest rink was far far away and the whole thing was expensive. SO my mother sent me dancing instead as this was cheaper ( she also sent me to improve my spatial awareness... I was the clumsiest child ever, but thats a story for another day!). Anyway, I still like to watch figure skating, even though I've since forgiven my mother for this early travesty. SO Iwas youtubing some of the teams for the WInter Olympics (woop!!) and came upon this link.

I'm guessing some of you may have heard of Torvill and Dean, one of the most famous Ice Dance pairs ever, and pretty much the only famous British skaters! They won gold in the 1984 WInter Olympics with the first and only perfect score, 12 6.0s! (Their routine Bolero is worth a recce if you've a few minutes to spare, stunning!). But the point of this increasingly longwinded post is as follows.

After the '84 Olympics, Torvill and Dean went pro, and choreographed numerous fantastic ice dance shows. In one they paid tribute to our very own Fred and Ginger, which is the video I came across.

The quality is pretty awful, but I love the music combo they use (Change Partners eeee!) It lovely to see a tribute to the wonderful pair in a different genre, even if they don't entirely capture the essence, any exposure and worship of the classics is good in my book. They manage some on ice tapping which is pretty difficult, Also they do rather a simiilar thing to the lifts at the end of the Yam, towards the end, which I thought was nice! Amusingly, Torvill's feather dress can be seen to shed rather excessively during the Cheek to Cheek section

So here's the video...



Hope this was of interest to some of you! They also tried a second time with a "Putting on the Ritz number, in which I think they're actually more in the style of Fred and Ginger though it's up tempo and shorter.



I enjoyed writing this post, looking forward o the olympics!
Keep it Gingery

Beth XX

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Photoshooting, vintage stylee (well partly!)








Last week I got the opportunity to go and have some professional photos shot for free (lucky me!). I got to shoot three outfits and wanted to show various sides of myself, so here's what's what!

Of course Ginger was gonna impact on my look, had a nice chat with the makeup lady about managing my curls, in to more of a thirties style, but keeping it me-ish. She said she was just relieved I didn't want Cheryl Cole hair, as she's already done that 5 times that morning!! Make-upwise I originally thought, I'll go all forties glamour, but then when I chose my outfits, it didnt seem right to wear such heavy make-up. In the end, I asked for, forties movie star on a day off, just to highlight my eyes rather than really make them up, and for a bolder than natural lip colour, but not a bright red, as being a pale skinned creature, this makes me look vampiric. Here's a resulting headshot.


Outfit wise, I went for one vintage look, with a dress I found in a charity shop, seamed stockings, red midheels which are modern but vintage in style and this cutesy necklace I got for christmas.




Then I went for a more eveningy look with a dress my mamma got me for Christmas, which I love, and some killer heels I found in the sales, I have a major shoe lust going on at the moment, and needed an excuse to break these babies out. In the end, I didn't like a lot of these pictures as the photographer made me pose in ways that weren't commfortable, and it showed in my face.

Lastly I wanted to do a more casual look, so I wore a chose a huge sweater from Topshop, Black tights, and some '40s kid style flats I picked up in a vintage shop in London, these are probably some of my favourite shots!
All of course topped with my signature hair ribbon! If anyone stuck with this rather epic post, then thanks for reading!
Hopefully shall be back soon with something exciting and Gingery to say...
Beth XX