"Uh, is that one of your outfits?" I ask with a wry smile.
"Uh, nooooo," she says with her typical sass. "Come help me unload the car."
Whoa. Inside her car are giant, clear, plastic bins exploding with purple skirts, green pants, wigs and fur. Lots of fur. We carry everything downstairs. Dar is excited about setting up the basement as a staging area. You see, we've got about eight chicks coming over for a photo shoot. It's mid-September and we are just two weeks away from our target launch date for thechicksguide.org Web site. We need our chicks for thechicksguide.org to be a sassy reality.
The girls start arriving. They are all ages, all sizes, all personalities, all hair colors, all ethnicities, all styles. Andrea and I are ecstatic about our group of models. Dar ushers them all downstairs and starts explaining the logistics.
"Welcome, ladies, and thanks for coming," she says. "We're here to get photos for our new Web site, which is an equal-opportunity crafting Web site for all things hip and chicky. We launch in October and our first theme is 'costume wardrobe.' So, all of the crafts and info relate to building a bomb-ass costume wardrobe, and we need to get photos of ya'll in really cool, almost theatrical outfits. I've assigned everyone an area, so you can spread out all of your clothes and accessories. Once you get situated, it's time to play dress-up like you've never played before. First call is for retro, so everybody give me you best retro outfit. When you're ready, head upstairs to the garage for your close up!"
Chicks start racing between the staging area and the photo studio. Each time they disappear and come back, they are wearing another wild outfit.
Upstairs, Andrea is in his element, snapping away and capturing each chick at her best. He really does know how to photograph a woman. I am by his side, acting as the art director. My love for the theater and dance flows into my modeling commands. Our photo studio is in the garage. We've set up studio lights and unrolled a sheet of white seamless paper to act as a backdrop.
Back downstairs, the basement makes the photo studio look like a church. Stuff is EVERYWHERE. Scarves are flying. All of our chick models (mostly friends and family and friends OF family) are in various stages of dress and undress. There is one pro model and the rest are just chicks looking for a new experience and fun. It's NOISY! Chicks are becoming fast friends, sharing and helping to dress one another. I walk into the flurry to experience all of the teamwork:
"OK, so I'm gonna wear this sarong but I think I need chandelier earrings. Anyone have some?"
" I can't figure out how to paint a flower on my face. Who's good with eyeliner?"
"I'm thinking porange (this is a new term I learned, pink + orange = porange). Who has a top and tights that would go with this pink boa?"
"Baby girl, you need a necklace with that cleavage! We need some BEADS, STAT! Can you check your stashes?"
"God, if my boyfriend could see me now, he'd go wild! I'm like a whole new girlfriend!"
Dar is creating a "bad girl" pile of racy clothes while Susha is pulling from it and throwing items to models, "here, try THIS!" The music is throbbing. Models are giggling, munching on snacks that are set out next to drinks of all sorts. And, best of all…there's CHOCOLATE!!!!! Oh yeah! CHOCOLATE!!!!
Eight hours later, thousands of photos are shot and all of the models get CDs of their photos. Everyone is a little tired, hungry and slap happy. I tell Andrea that we need to do it again in December. Not only did we get great photos of chicks acting goofy and having a blast, we got to party with some really cool young ladies. So, here we go, photo shoot redux! Only this time, we want YOU to model for us! Yeah, you! Email your photo to submissions@thechicksguide.org and get ready for your close up!
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