'NY' Mag: Protestors In Berets, Conventioneers In Cowboy Hats
Just because I want to burn all my freelance bridges before I leave Gawker tomorrow, I have to publish this internal email detailing the photo styling for the New York mag photoshoot on the Republican Convention protestors and conventioneers. The best part? The Republican Convention attendee should have big hair, but "but not over the top ugly." Heh. True -- we'd forgotten that our City was about to be menaced by an epidemic of Texas hair during the convention. The memo follows.
From: XXXXXX Subject: shoot notes Date: August 6, 2004 5:00:24 PM EDT To: XXXXXX
hey there --
so a few notes:
in general, think preppy handbook in that all the clothes exist for the purpose of caption boxes. so if the outfits look a little mish-mash, it's ok. they should be readable but this isnt a fashion shoot per se. you get that.
the girl we said should be medium blonde, all american. that i can recall, the only thing we didn't talk about was hair and makeup so:
PROTESTOR she'll be wearing a beret but should have a bouncy looking ponytail underneath, maybe a few tendrils poking out (or hair could be down but not big). the idea is to make it really clear that she's WASHED HER HAIR.
makeup should be minimal, fresh.
props: she's gonig to have a backpack, which will be impossible to see if she's wearing it, so if it's possible to have it at her feet or nearby, and open, so that a copy of "the bush haters handbook" can be poking out. the title won't be visible to a reader but just so you can see there's a book in there (and as much of the title showing as you can -- you never know). if you need emily (stylist) to the stuff the backpack with something else to cheat it, whatever it takes.
CONVENTIONEER she'll be wearing a cowboy hat, but should have bigger hair -- think modified newscaster, hot rollers and some volume, but not over the top ugly. (we're going for in between what she's really look like and what an actually fashionable person would look like.)
makeup could be brighter but conservative/femininte -- maybe a bright lipstick.
props: there are a few. she'll have a little american flag, a judith lieber bag, and she should also have a big ralph lauren tote or something. there will be magazines poking out of the tote, similar to the protestor's book bag. if we need to drape her in the lieber and the tote, that's ok (remember this can be a little bit of a pile-on). or stick the lieber in the tote next to the mags so it's poking out. the idea with the lieber is so our republican girl can be day-to-night. but if it absolutely doesn't work, the tote and mags are more important.