As many of you know, a fashion-y photo shoot recently came out in Regard Magazine (it begins on page 110). I’ve never done a shoot like this before and, who knows, I may never do one like this again. In all seriousness, my shoot with Regard Magazine was very efficient (we did about 15 looks in under three hours).
For many reasons which I won’t go into, this is not the kind of shoot I’m normally asked to do, and I would definitely file this one under “outside of my comfort zone.” The stylist did a great job finding fairly modest dresses, and with the exception of a few hemlines and a few adjustments of slits, I’m pretty pleased with the amount of skin covered up. Here are the things that every model knows, which I didn’t know, but learned during my shoot.
1. Suck in your gut at all times.
Without exception, the photographer reminded me every two clicks of the camera to suck in my stomach. Apparently the goal is to make people think you’re skinnier than you even are.
2. Accentuate the positive.
I am actually a curvy person by most Hollywood definitions, meaning I have fat deposits on my body in what I think are appropriate places, and the photographer positioned most of these poses to exaggerate and accentuate my curves. I’ve joked here on Kveller that I’m the fattest actress in Hollywood, which I know sounds ridiculous, but believe me: almost every actress you know of would be swimming in the dresses that I wear in this shoot!
3. Collarbone.
If you hunch your shoulders forward and make your chest concave, it makes your collarbone pop out. I think it’s weird, but the photographer liked it, and in the purplish dress (the third photo in the shoot), you can see what it looks like to pop out your collarbone for effect.
4. Sultry gaze.
I don’t know that I’ve ever worked a sultry gaze in a photo shoot before. This is achieved through the photographer making you comfortable enough with him so that he can murmur weird things like, “Oh yeah, that’s great…” as you pose. It’s weird, but I guess it achieves the desired effect.
5. Don’t stare too long.
I don’t really think these pictures look like me. I’ll have my therapist take a look and see if it’s my perception or something else, but I know my publicist is happy with them, and I hope most everyone enjoyed seeing what a fairly modest sexy fashion shoot can look like.
And in case you’re wondering, my sons also didn’t think these pictures look like me. I’m pretty sure my older son heard me complaining about the airbrushing to my BFF, but I don’t think my younger son did. When prompted what part didn’t look like me, my wise 5-year-old replied, “Your face.”
I chose not to ask him to go into detail.
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