A few years ago I was shooting an independent film in the middle of the desert. It was freezing cold, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere with only our small cast and crew surrounded by bugs, snakes, rats, possums, horses and whatever other wildlife exists in the Mojave. I was playing a ghost so my costume consisted of a white nightgown (because what else do ghosts wear?) that was soaking wet, because my character died from being drowned to death. During the day shoots the wet thing was actually quite welcome. It was so hot that I kept having to get back in the shower because the desert heat would dry off any moisture in minutes. But this night, our last of the shoot the cold was prohibitive. In the close ups the other actress, and I would keep our shoes on, but in the long shots I was barefoot in the dirt and jagged rocks. On top of this, I had to strangle her and we both toppled to the floor on several takes. I can only imagine that her bruises were even worse than mine the following day. Of course the movie magic was worth it in the long run, but I remember joking in between takes that when I was a little girl I thought a movie star was a woman who wore a long gown (preferably made of red velvet), a fur coat, very high heels and very large sunglasses. My co-star laughed and told me that when she was in third grade her friend dressed as a movie star for Halloween and that was exactly what she wore!
In these photos I am wearing a Helmut Lang dress that gets packed on every vacation and also gets worn a lot here at home. It’s the perfect garment to throw on after a long day of touring, to head down to the hotel lobby for dinner or drinks. Plus I will be ready for my close up if I happen to run into the ghost of Mr. DeMille.
Helmut Lang dress (similar here). Alice & Olivia faux fur. Kate Spade clutch. Juicy Couture heels and Oliver People’s sunglasses.
Photos by Yoshua Shelton.
Thank you for reading my blog!
xoxo,
Lisa
