Friday Fashion Throwback

Yves Saint Laurent, French Fashion Designer, French Couturier, Vanessa Voegele-Downing, www.themodeledit.com, women in suits, women in trouser suits, models, Loulou de La Falaise

Yves Saint Laurent, Marita and Me.

Yves Saint Laurent gentle genius, is the reason that I ever took a plane alone to Paris in search of work and wonderment. Yves Saint Laurent was my first casting thirty minutes after I arrived in my agency. Yves Saint Laurent saw something in the very nervous, overawed and underprepared, freckled and frizzy redhead and pressed ‘go’ on my modelling career. The next day I was being photographed on a great big building site that’s now know as ‘Les Halles’ wearing velvet knickerbockers and a hat with a plume and feeling on top of the world. Merci Monsieur.

Give or take the hats and the shape of the heels, the french phrase ‘Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose’ springs to mind.

Walking The Catwalk

Press Show, Paris Collections, Pret a Porter, Chantal Thomas, womenswear, Mrs V , The Model edit, www.themodeledit.com, Vanessa Voegele-Downing, modelling, catwalk, french designer fashion, redhead, model

 

Countdown to London Fashion Week S/S,17 so I give you old style me, Mrs V, wearing Chantal Thomas in both shots and feeling solid about it. Chantal Thomass made really feminine  clothes and sensational lingerie, not that I was need to model that… Apart from the very dated shoes I think that no-one would throw stones at me if I stood waiting for the 137 anywhere along it’s route. It does look a bit like I couldn’t decide which scarf and where, thought sod it I’ve got this, and self confidence is a marvellous thing.

 

chantal Thomas, Mrs V, www.themodeledit.com, Vanessa voegele-Downing, model, french fashion, catwalk, press show, Paris, redhead, supermodel

 

Again Chantal Thomass Press Show, Carree du Louvre.  All the model edit is saying is that the collections are really fun to watch but unforgettable to walk.

 Am I moonlighting in a Pantomime  as principal boy?

Mrs V and London Fashion Week.

Johnnie Boden, Emerging British Talent party, Union Club, Tuxedo Jacket, redheads, Boden, Boden Catalogue, staircase, private members club
London Fashion Week, Brewer Street Car Park Show Space, Mrs V, www.themodeledit.com, Vanessa Voegele-Downing, fashion, Prada Bag, Ray Ban Aviator Sunglasses, Adidas sweatpants

London Fashion Week inspired me to go everywhere, see everything, talk to everyone and wear everything residing in my wardrobe that simply doesn’t love the mud of Dorset. I must say a huge thank you to all my fashion mogul friends that have helped me on my mission, to infiltrate, illuminate and pontificate about fashion for people that are not teenagers but shouldn’t be sartorially sidelined just because of that. Lovely Modus Publicity are ever supportive and tolerant of my desire to be included and treated like a fully grown up blogger. Johnnie Boden, fellow swamp dweller down here in Dorset, didn’t bat an eyelid when I asked for help. My invitation arrived the next day. Huge love to him and his fully female dynasty.

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Unaccustomed As I Am

white dress, ray ban aviator,sunglasses, ankle boots, waistcoat

I have a very lovely friend named Anna Barez-Brown, and along with her business partner, Cal Whaley, they have created a concept which is called Shine for Women. This week Anna and Cal, invited me to speak at a reunion lunch for some of the women who have attended a Shine course since its inception. Here is my talk, which explains how I felt whilst doing it, and what I came away with. ( no, not a party bag! )

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MRS V

MRS V

My career began in London, then off to Paris, and 24 hours later was shooting ads for Yves St Laurent, who knew? That was it, the start of my Parisienne years, working on a daily basis for high end fashion houses an including, both Christian’s, Lacroix and Dior, Chanel, Versace, Givenchy, Hermes, Jean Paul Gaultier, Chloe and Valentino. I worked with the coolest and best photographers, shooting campaigns for clients like, YSL, L’Air du Temps, Cacharel, Avon and Martini.  I shot editorials and covers for French, Italian and British Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Tatler, Harpers and Queen, Blitz, Company and Cosmo, Woman’s Journal, and Own and every daily newspaper, taking planes like buses. I have been sensationally fortunate to work with experts in the fashion and beauty industry, who helped me, a tall, skinny redhead, with sensitive skin and freckles, to emerge from the frizz and become a regular on catwalks and appear in editorial for glossy magazines all over the world. Scan 7

Thirteen years later, back in London, I started having daughters, and when the house was bursting, with our three baby girls, and the prospect of ponies, fields and fresh air looming on the horizon, we moved to Dorset. Properly scary.

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