The Alchemy Series: Concept and Photography by Jez Tozer. Styling by Kim Howells.

Another collaboration with the wonderful Kim Howells :)

Jez Tozer launched his new project (part one of four) of the Alchemy series called Negredo: a fusion of art and fashion, if you ask me, of the highest levels.

The independently produced project will be hard to find and sent only to a very selected part of the industry... so keep an eye out ;-)
And also check Jez's other collaboration with Showstudio.com called Raven starring Billie Piper and styled by Karen Binns.

What a great way to end the year :)))

The Alchemy Series: 1.1 Negredo - concept and photography by Jez Tozer. Styling by Kim Howells.

Model Kasia Wrobel @ Select
Hair Adrian Clark @ CLM
Make up Martina Luisetti using Mac
Make up assistant Amaranta Bea
Set Alun Davies
photographic assistant Rik Patel
Hair assistant Mel Pearce
Set assistant Xan Ashley
Hand processing Barb Wilson
Deconstructed colour landscapes, re-printed using silver emulsion by the artist Walter Hugo
Special thanks to Cassandra Maxwell @ CLM
Production Edie Rohl.

Photo 1: Headpieces by Pam Hogg and Piers Atkinson, Dress by Craig Lawrence
Photo 2: Headpiece by Keko Hainswheeler, Catsuit by Hannah Marshall, Shoes by Pam Hogg
Photo 3: Customized headpiece using mask by Piers Atkinson and props by Alun Davies, Dress by Hannah Marshall
Photo 4: Headband by Keko Hainswheeler, Dress by Dr Noki

* collaboration with Piers Atkinson for Machine A

....Kim called and asked if I didn't mind popping around to stamp a golden lip on a mannequin for Piers windows at machine A... Knowing the team i'd have spent a day with I said yes right away.
The result was...Hot as Hell, Is it ok to say I quite fancied the mannequins myself?? super sexy stuff.



(The first two pics are from Anna Trevelyan's blog, mine came out all red and not nice at all...)

 

Anna's pic

Anna's pic

Me and Piers with... Kate.

windows credits

Kate's lips <3

The Team: Piers Atkinson, Kim Howells, Alun Davies, Reuben Esser, Daisy Newman. Models Kate and Neil.

* the Screaming Dead - Paint it Black

Thanks to Paul Joyce for sharing this gem. I have looked for it online everywhere in a digital version but couldn't find it... so I uploaded a link to it, and here it is:

paint it black mp3

* Piers Atkinson Look Book photos by Ellen Rogers

Everytime I think Ellen has surpassed herself and she could not impress me any more... She manages to pull something like .......THIS.

I gasped when i saw the pictures.
And here I say this is the best job i've ever been part of.

Piers's works of art are something i could build my house with. Basement to roof.

A perfect day... And a perfect team.
and kudos to Kim Howells for linking everything together and Alun Davies for creating the magic set in what became the garden of wonders.

Awww...this whole shoot is exactly the reason why i want to do my job.

Client: Piers Atkinson
Stylist: Kim Howells
Model(s): Chloe Watson
Model Agencies: Storm Models
Set Designer: Alun Davies
Make Up: Martina Luisetti
Hair: Kenna
Make up assistant: Chiaki Azuma
Stylist assistant Reuben Esser

* Know that when you leave, by blood and by me, you walk like a thief.

.

* 160, Higham Hill.

I  lay there on the sofa, the sun is coming in through the blinds, i think of the people who will truly understand what this post means... and one of the worst times of our lives, a time we all shared in that place. I hear kids playing outside in the schoolyard.

Time stands still in this house, as nothing happened.

But i recognize the light, the odours, the space, the colours, the sounds that my steps make. 

I lay there and a song comes to mind: a song i want to dedicate to this people, to us, to say how proud i am of what we all became and how much i love you.

Iggy, Fab, Mandy: this is for you with a big smile. And a toast to more and better times that will bring us even closer, I love you..

xxx

The Last Tuesday Society's Danse Macabre.

Danse Macabre - October 29th, 2010.

I borrowed a song.

I borrowed a song, i'm lending you a song.

Possibility.

* 'Discorso nel cielo.'

5 Gennaio 2006,

Un regalo prezioso.

* Later that same day the

girl who smelled of honey and smoke sat at the desk and lit fires to the town. She had Bianca start at one house and work in a descending circle, burning it all down. She then collected the papers in a stack, tied it with ribbon, and placed it in a box she titled Light Box.

(Shayne Jones)

* A poem from Nonno Guido for you, Martina.

This poem has been on my beloved Musante picture frame for at least one year now, I used to read it once in a while, it was one of the sweetest things I have ever read and it's a poem from my grandpa.
We used to write to each other often, old school letters with a stamp and everything, I would seal mine with  sealing wax, red, or purple, cause grandpa understood all forms of art.
Sometimes I'd put pictures of my London life that I had printed and hand-cut for him and not long ago he had found one and he put it in his lounge, next to all the the ones he liked the most: it was a picture of me and my mum near the house of parliament when she came to visit me in London.

We stopped writing letters to each other when I was working too hard and doing ridiculous hours, but it was always on my mind. I need to write to him, I'd think, in the middle of some job or travel, but just wouldn't do it most of the times. I have no regrets, he knows how much i loved him, but tonight unspoken words are on my mind and in this case, like in others, they are a reminder of how much i hate them.

Unspoken words are always damaging.
Tonight I don't want them, It's too lonely here for unspoken words. Tonight I want to hear the ones that make me go home in a heart beat.



"A poem from Grandpa Guido for you,  Martina: Your return to London."

The plane has landed
on time, by memory,
and in London has landed
your young story.

Another flight, another journey,
your english life
preceded by wisdom
through your courteous emigration.

A wanderer's path
that blossoms with time:
the Patience, the value of
wanting to know more.

But already your thought comes back here
where you turn your face,
while up north flies
your sweet smile.

Guido Montana

(I miss you so much.)

* The past is a grotesque animal.

Drew once shared this song with me.

* August 19th, 2010. The Distance.

Cards of a woman holding a shield. 
And a man, holding a shield. 
There is an angel between them, pouring water on the dirty shields that fell to the floor. 
They can only find each other through Distances. 


I go away,
I look back.
I leave footprints in the sand: signs of thoughts that felt like warmth.
The field is too vast and the sea is too far.


So i go again. 


The footprints washed away. 
The warmth taken by the northern wind.
The man swallowed by his field.

* His heart beats.

I took this photo at Big Chill festival, it was one of those perfect split seconds to be lucky enough to catch.

I love it so much i probably cannot explain... It's purity, happiness, bliss, unawareness, desire to be back to that special place, for one split second.

Thank you little kid for this picture, i wish i could find a way to give it to you.

love,

Martina.

* BABALON: A collaboration with Ellen Rogers, Tomihiro Kono, Rose Ford.

.....I have no words for the beauty of this.

Photos by Ellen Rogers
Head pieces/Hair by Tomihiro Kono
Styling by Rose Forde
Make up by Martina Luisetti
Model Francesca *

* Random facts and thoughts.

Facts:

1) If i had to be portrayed by Robert Mapplethorpe with all of my favourite things in the same picture it would be a very crowded picture. Does that make me an enthusiast? I guess. People often confuse that with lack of clarity in one's mind but it actually is, in this case, an excessive enthusiasm towards beauty in life and things. I don't know why i'm such an enthusiast of certain kind of things. What would i put in that picture? I'm not sure. But i would like to test the answer, one day i'll try to nit pick and i will ask Cesare to take a picture. He's not Robert Mapplethorpe but on the other hand I'm not Patti Smith.
(Her 'Just Kids' book would definitely be in the picture.)

2) I have not blogged about seeing Pavement live with my best friend and that's because writing needs to come to you, not the other way around. But it was special, I just want to make sure it's recorded.
Cesare handed me Pavement CD's one after the other and before anybody else had even noticed their existence, as it often happens with him. I loved to be part of this 'secret' world and i miss it sometimes, when it doesn't find me for a long time.
Seeing Pavement with Cesare was ...simply beautiful and something i probably can't even write about because the memories and the roots are too many and it's nice to keep them in my heart after all these years, though i will admit that when Atlas Sound paid Pavement a tribute with their "we dance" i hugged Cesare and tears of joy streamed down my face for the simple fact of having someone who knows me so well in my english life even for just three days. That's something i miss every day, every minute, every, every minute of my english life. It was beautiful.
And the fact that Nicola came with him too, that was also beautiful and it meant a lot to me. Being with them was "home" while it lasted. From the bus in the car park to the hostel in Bristol.
I guess i'll never quite find these feelings with the people i know over here: It has something to do with growing up together and sharing the 'beginning years'.

3) I have bought another six books which i probably will end up reading in a few years time. Why do I always keep on doing this??

4) Last week i have let someone very special pass me by. I don't know why i did it: I guess I'm not as free as i like to think that i am. And I also think it's for the best but it made me really sad.

5) Today I gave some money to a busker at Oxford circus tube: He was in the tunnels, playing his guitar, his voice reminded me of Chris Isaacs'. He didn't notice me until he heard the coins falling on other coins, he said thank you and I briefly looked at him. He saw i was sad, smiled and sang: "Pretty woman, won't you pardon me, Pretty woman, I couldn't help but see, Pretty woman
That you look lovely as can be Are you lonely just like me Wow
Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman, talk a while
Pretty woman, give your smile to me". I walked away after I smiled at him, I felt recharged and back on sync with the things around me: Kindness of strangers.. The guy made my day.

6) I really want to do the "Night of one hundred records": will have to find the right people to do it with though. Someone from the Chelsea hotel would be ideal.

7) I'm buying way much more music than i can afford and I cannot feel guilty about it no matter how much I wish to.

* Absynthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder.

Absynthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder(c)1999 by Jason Webley
After a couple glasses, The floorboards don't feel so secure. And I'm afraid I could really go down tonight. I'm out-numbered by the ashes, Held hostage by the door. And the air in here is so damn loud tonight.
But I've got this old four-by-six photograph, Your face pressed up against my shoulder, Little pools of salt mark where tears have dried. And I've got this big needle stuck in my chest, So deep it's starting to tickle. I'm a thousand miles from the chimera I chase. Love is a sadness with a face.
There's a darkness in all wanting, My intentions all feel stained, And the Devil keeps filling my glass tonight. My adrenaline is clotting, And the faces in here all seem strange. But I just want to touch something that'll last tonight.
If I could just taste one sip of an answer, Maybe I could break out of this drunkard's prison. I'm homesick for a place I might have never seen. Something more than these old feet brought me here, So these feet can't take me away. No I didn't get here on my own, Whoever brought me here's gonna have to bring me home.
I'm a thousand miles from the chimera I chase. Home is a sadness, not a place. 

* Songs to shave your head to.

When i finally met Robyn Tunney the first thing i said was: "I shaved my head because of you, my mum wasn't happy!" she laughed and i laughed and for a second that memory came back stronger than ever. But i had forgotten the film i did it to ("Empire records") and the song i chose playing in its background. 
It was "The ballad of El Goodo" and now, with my long locks, i want to celebrate for one moment that Martina who was a very cool girl, more than she knew, back then.  
She thought that having a big heart was complicated but never once she let go of it and I'm so proud of her...with my long locks.
I want to tell her that heart ever left, like she thought it was set to do.

<3 to "MattiMia" <3

(I also want to tell her one day the roles in this picture would totally reverse... and in permanent ink!!! ;)

* Sometimes London is also This.

* Sigur Ros - Hoppípolla

Stealing Ierepovi's words:

"Be happy, it's free and a great option. Listen to this music and try to understand it =) Wish you the best. "

Wish you all the best. <3

* Ellen Rogers and the Modern Primitives for Vice magazine.

I have three favourite photographers: Henri Cartier Bresson, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Ellen Rogers.
I guess.....we're talking another level of beauty imagery that draws from inner beauty itself and the importance of the moment. I did this with Ellen and i am in love with these images, thank you Ellen <3

I Especially LOVE this last picture.

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  Photos
  Ellen Rogers
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  Styling
  Sam Voulters
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  Hair and Headpieces
  TOMIHIRO KONO at Balcony Jump using Kiehl's
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  Make-Up
  MARTINA LUISETTI using MAC

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  Photo Assistant
  Hayley Brown
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  Stylist's Assistant
  Emmanuel Balogun, Derek Martin
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  Hair Assistants
  Chiaki Azuma, Tomoko Ueda

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  Make-Up Assistant
  Dave Waterman
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  Models
  David Gant, Betty at Models1, Abena Afari, Alex Voulters, Alice Goddard, Eleonore Desnos, Kenny Kenc

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http://vicestyle.com/en/features/shoot/gallery/modern-primitives