I often wonder what it means when you catch sight of the same damn thing. For me it’s a word, the same pair of shoes in magazines and it’s like when you buy a new car – they vroom past your view almost consecutively.
Whilst interning at British Vogue I met the insanely cool and down to earth Danish model Freja Beha Erichsen. Since our encounter, she’s been the one fashion figure who persists in catching my eye. I’ve watched Freja’s lithe frame sweep through the glossies like a tide and stalk the catwalks of only the leading names in fashion.
Now she’s gone and decorated the cover of August 2010’s Vogue with her bewitching good looks. Dressed in a delectable peach hued wool dress by Miu Miu and exhibiting a deliciously dishevelled hair-do – Freja has been depicted as a real feminine feast for the eyes. She exudes that fascinating femininity where a girly innocence collides with her boyish idiosyncrasy.
The pinnacle of my arduous interning days has to be the experience of assisting on a Vogue photo-shoot. I was fortunate enough to assist Fashion Director, Kate Phelan on a shoot where Freja and her model-chum Lily Donaldson created one of my favourite editorials in Vogue history. It was for the August 2008 issue and cover. When I eventually received my copy I was in awe.
I spent a whole day witnessing the technical expertise that went in to this shoot. The photographer, set designers, hair stylists, the make-up artists, the manicurists and the master styling skills of Kate all amalgamated along with Freja and Lily’s model prowess to create images that captivated and inspired. All of the Alexander Mcqueen, Alberta Ferratti, Balenciaga dresses, YSL, Prada and Gucci shoes etc etc were unrecognisable from their just-out-of-a-box state. I suddenly realised why I loved Vogue and their incomparable translation of trends so much.
Anyway in between camera flashes and set manoeuvres I found myself, the overzealous intern, engrossed in conversation with Freja and mesmerised by how laid back she was. Personally, I was overwhelmed by the whole experience. I’d acquired my own chauffeur for the day to ferry me to and from the studio, I was immersed in a sea of designer shoes and garments that, no doubt, amounted to more than what I would earn in my life time and I had drinks, CHOCOLATE, and first class food on tap.
Freja was, obviously, used to what I wasn’t! and seemed so happy to sit and chat with me about me – oh and tatoos. She has ‘Float’ scrawled across her neck amidst numerous other skin engravings. She informed me that she just floats through life – like I hadn’t noticed. I so nonchalantly asked her what she was up to after the shoot had finished, “I have a Louis Vuitton campaign to shoot”, she replied - without an ounce of pretence I must add.
