This blog series – Evolution of a Lady – is a nod to nostalgia. Nostalgia all of two years old, but so what. I do not know if it is my current career choice or simple life circumstance, but the last two years have allowed me to become. To continue to become. To become whoever it is I am interested in being. What a beautiful freedom. Lucky girl – I know it. In that time, I’ve imagined myself in a number of roles. I’ve highlighted my many aspects. I have photographic evidence! He he. This one – this one is The Schoolgirl.
FINDING SCHOOLGIRL SEXUALITY
This was such a fun shoot. I absolutely absolutely absolutely love these outfits. They are made by one of my all-time favorite designers: L’école des Femmes. She is a Los Angeles-based designer with Parisian roots. Her fashion speaks to me ever-so-sweetly. It is sexy in it’s overt innocence. If that is even possible in making sense.
Anyhow, I had to have this little number. Oh, and this one. I just had to. It was 2015 and I was in the throws of my graduate studies. Embarking on a new sexual journey, I recognized I was leaving my innocence, bidding adieu. Yet, I so wanted to display it. This is very much my beginning, my starting point.
The young school girl into the Marie Antionette. Oh, what journeys await!
YOUR GIRL FRIDAY
This is also the birth-place of my foremost, my most prominent, online persona. That is – Your Girl Friday. I was actually called this. There’s LinkedIn evidence. I was an undergraduate sophomore in Northern California (Go Bears!), and working as an editorial intern at a publishing house in San Francisco. I was living my dream then. The Devil Wears Prada had nothing on my life, and I absolutely loved it. I was the go-to girl in the office, and as a most-dear mentor named me in a LinkedIn recommendation – I was the “Girl Friday.”
I had to look it up.
And of course, I fell down the rabbit hole of that term’s history.
At that time, I do not think I had been so…honored. It was the kindest thing to have read. It was the most uplifting thing to know my bosses, my superiors, my mentors thought that of me.
I often think, and more often lament, over the statement, or question, or pondering – whatever it is:
“If only someone just showed us…”
I mean that in the very broadest way. I have to thank from the bottom of my heart, those who have shown me. Shown me the world. Shown me things. Shown me beauty. Shown me skills. Teach and shown might as well be synonymous here. I have to thank them. Without them, I’d be missing it. And that would really suck.
My heart aches for those who don’t have anyone to show them. For those who haven’t had anyone show them. I often think this of our POTUS. I often think, no one has ever shown him the redwoods, no one has ever shown him Pink Floyd, especially not The Wall. The Wall. My heart aches when I think about those who haven’t seen the beauty of this world. I sometimes cry. Cell phones replace sunsets. That’s still the favorite part of my day. Colored skies. So many colors. I know how, but how does it? I can still be amazed.
Can you?
Then I wonder, if people would even wander. Would they follow? Like in They Live, do we need to be forced into freedom?
And so it goes. The Girl Friday down her rabbit hole…
PHOTOGRAPHER WANTED
Natalie Embrey is actually a friend of mine. I was totally uncomfortable, and still quite am, of taking nude and sexy photographs, and thought a friend might be the way to go. It was. I loved the images we produced. She captured me, in my home, in my garb, doing my thing, and I couldn’t have asked for more. I hope you enjoy these ones. They are dear to me, and carry with them some of my origin story.
Check out my beginnings by reading about my first ever shoot here!
