15 June 09
After sitting through an hour of traffic and stressing like crazy whether I was in the right lane, I finally stopped at the doors of seventeen feeling a tad exhausted and my day hadn’t even started yet! But I shoved it all aside, along with my fears that this could be a Devil Wears Prada rerun and walked inside. As I sat down at my desk I stared in awe at all the magazines – apparently they are subscribed to every teenage-girl mag in the world: Cosmo Girl, Teen Vogue, Bliss. And another thing that really struck me as totally awesome is the fact that everything was pink – and I mean everything! The Board wall, their Post-its, their stationery… oh and their business cards! And at that point I knew I was home. My first task was to call a few of the modelling agencies and ask for the Z cards of some models for a photo shoot that Taugheedah is planning.
Next up was a trip to the fashion closet. It’s not like Ugly Betty where the clothes take up the whole room, but they filled more than a few rails!
The main fashion shoot is in two days so I spent the rest of day in the closet unpacking boxes of clothes. Later, Anja took me with her to source some more clothes at the Waterfront. I have asked so many questions and learnt so many things on my first day! I’ve been so curious to know how it all works and what happens behind-the-scenes.
17 June 09
After a nice public holiday, it’s back to work! I was so excited to get back, I had an entire day to regurgitate all the info I was fed, and I was as ready as ever to start day two. The Beauty Awards was next on my list – all the entries had come in from the comp that seventeen ran in the June issue, and I had to start counting! It was a big insight into girls’ lives, and the products they voted for says so much about them. I had fun typing all this up and seeing which products were most popular. You can find out the results in the August issue, on sale 29 July!
One more day till shoot day so as we headed towards the end of today, it got really busy. More boxes arrived that we had to unpack, then we had to hang the clothing on the rails, phone all the parties involved in the shoot to confirm time and place. At about 4pm, Anja started styling all the clothes for the shoot and I watched her weave her magic… it made me really excited for tomorrow!
18 June 09
Today is the big day! We had to be at the office at 7am and I thought I would’ve fallen asleep on the highway, but I was so excited nothing could make me feel tired today. While the models were getting their hair and make-up done, I helped steam the clothes that were going to be used.
When everyone was ready, we set off to the location, which was a beautiful landscape near Boulders Beach in Simonstown, with bushes and vegetation growing on the hill, disappearing into the rocks and making way for the ocean… It was gorgeous! It was still really cold though and the wind was blowing – I felt sorry for the model who had to wear “spring” dresses!
The photographer had a laptop on location which he loaded the pics onto so Anja could see if her ideas were working with the story or not. It’s very intricate and so cool because if you’ve spent an entire scene on an idea, you can immediately see whether it’s going to work. Photographers really are one step ahead of the game. What a nifty trick! Each time the model changed outfits, it was my job to write down exactly what she was wearing and which store or label the clothes were from. This helps the art and editorial department when they choose the final pictures for layout and need to credit the clothes in the mag.
It turned out to be a lovely day (when the wind settled down!). Keep an eye out for the September issue – it’s on sale on 26 August!
Anja and I looking rather windswept!19 June 09
Today all the clothing that was sent to us for the shoot had to be sent back to the suppliers as no clothes are allowed to be out on appro over weekends. All the invoices were taken downstairs and clothes were compared to descriptions… tags were all over the place, we were all over the place, everybody had to get everything into the right bag, send it to the right place and do all of that before 11am! Finally, after all that was done and sent out, we returned to our desks and relaxed a bit. For the rest of the afternoon, I typed up the rest of the entry details for the Beauty Awards.
What a week this has been! I’ve had a very exciting behind-the-scenes magazine experience and I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of greater things to come.
Ciao everybody! And good luck to all you other girls on pursuing your dreams. Don’t forget to have fun along the way! Mwah**
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