Dangerous Liasons

In February I had an exciting shoot with Shaun Hodge and his wife Amanda, where I got to wear an amazing French 18th Century style dress by costume maker Giovanni Gobbi. The poses required were exaggerated and glamourous, full of seductive body language and haughty attitude, a la Glenn Close in Dangerous Liasons.
The detail of the outfit was incredible, the one I wore was from around 1770, and the corset part had to be stitched on so tight. The frame undernealth was huge, giving me giant swaying hips, so I could only go through doors sideways :) Here is the full outfit...

























And with make-up by Jess Heath...














Giovanni has worked in opera, film and ballet, cutting and tailoring costumes for over 12 years, after intensive research into the history of the original patterns from costume museums in Venice, Paris, Munich and London.
He says 'Thanks to this, I have learnt about the evolution of costume from the character, to design, to pattern cutting and tailoring, decoration, dyeing and costume painting. I draw and make both embossed jewels in copper and weaved threads of brass."
And hopefully I'll be going over to Italy to model many more of his amazing collection in September.