50sFest at Norwich Castle

For anyone that has been to Norwich city centre you couldn't have failed to have been the castle perched high upon a massive mount. Norwich Castle has a really interesting history, once being a Castle, then a prison and now a Museum - the natural course for a castle obviously!

 

In 2010 I was part of an event to Celebrate the Beatles to Bowie photographic exhibition, showing previously unseen photos of the major stars of the 1960's.

 

This time the event was to celebrate the opening of the photographic exhibition - Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration

 

Pop Up Salon ready to go...

1920's Hair and Make Up Transformation

A couple of weeks ago around about 10.30pm I decided that I wanted to try a 1920's makeup look out after seeing a really ace 'modernised' 1920's shoot.

You heard me, 10.30pm. Inspiration takes us at odd hours sometimes.

I am in love with the 'faux bob' too, so for me this was just the time to try the makeup and hair together at once.

You must excuse the before photo, this is the makeup free, glasses-less Amy that not that many get to see (thankfully). But I wanted to post this photo to show the transformation, and everyone likes a transformation right?

MakeUp:

Foundation: MAC Studio Fix
Eyeshadow: Urban Decay (Naked Palette)
Lips: MAC Chilli

For the eyebrows I soaped over them so I could draw them higher - I've always wanted to try this!

Hair:

Easy. I tied it back in a very loose ponytail and tucked it under at the neck.

My husband described this look as 'pantomime' and maybe it is, but I still like it. I just need to find an occassion to wear it.

Zombie Wedding - A 1980's Undead Musical Spectacular

You may have possibley heard mummerings from my Twitter or Facebook that I'm designing and creating the hair for a new musical called Zombie Wedding.

I really am very excited about this! There's singing (from some stunning voices), zombies and it's based in the 1980's (crimpers at the ready!), what is there not to like? If you want to know more click on the link above, you can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook too.

The play is going to be performed for the first time in the UK on 18th and 19th October this year. It was performed at the New York Fringe Festival last year.

It is going be be performed here, at the Gorleston Pavillion. I visited it for the first time today and it is beautiful, a hidden gem! It's a great little theatre and you watch the play seated round tables for that cabaret feel. Look at the sun shining!

 

I think that there is going to be a real buzz about this play, plus there's lots of other exciting things happening around it, but I can reveal no more! If you want to keep up to date with all the Zombie happenings then you can follow the blog on their website. 

My Favourite Behind the Scenes Photos

Today I decided that I just had to sort my folders out on my computer. I have so many photos now I just had to get them in order.

I was organising a 'Behind the Scenes' folder and as I was doing so I came across photos I had forgotten about and just love. They bought back some great memories, so I thought I'd share a few of them with you here.

I have always loved this photo. I love Cher's pink hair and stripy top and how you can see all the other people on the shoot in the mirrorsi n the background. I'm loving that massive cactus as well!

I could have posted all of the Behind the Scenes photos of this one, they all came out so well. Here we are in the Assembly House, Norwich shooting a Marie Antoinette inspired project.

This was taken before the fashion show at Norwich Fashion Week 2011. There was such a great atmosphere going on in the salon and Meriels hair here (as is obvious!) was massive. I just love how she is causally checking her phone with such wild hair!

This is Molly, she was one of the participants on a Vintage Make Over TV Pilot I was involved in. She looked like a film star. I was so please with how this photo came out.

This is at a vintage bridal shoot stylist Fabulous Miss K did with photographer Andi Sapey. This wasn't Hollies usual style at all and it suited her so well. I took this on my photo with the Vignatte app and I think it looks like a genuinely old photo. Beautiful.

This photo cracks me up! This was taken in the afternoon before we did a styling demonstration named 'Modern Vintage' last year. I'd love to have know what the people walking by outside thought about this!  



Here are Robyn and I on a shoot for photographer Tatum Reid. It was the middle of winter here and the models were in bridal dresses. But here I am snug and warm, I was not jealous of them!



Yes, I know, I know, very childish! Nothing funny was going on here, I think they were just trying to sort a bustle out or something, at least that's what I was told. This shoot was such a laugh and we got some brilliant images!

Iona's Wedding

I absolutley love my clients sending me photos of them on their big day with the hairstyle that I designed and created for them.

My client Iona sent me these photos and they really bought a tear to my eye, have you ever seen anyone look so incredably happy?  I really wanted to share these with you.

Thank you Iona form sending me these beautiful photos.

Behind the Scenes - 1960's Editorial Shoot

Here are some photos from my shoot this weekend gone with Camilla Felgate from behind the scenes.

Camilla decided to shoot in Bungay (yes, I know, before I lived in Norfolk I sniggered at the name too - it's pronounced Bun-gy) a quaint and beautiful village on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Part of the reason I love this part of the world so much is because of cute little places like this!

I can't wait to see Camilla's shots. Also, thanks to the lovely models Esme and Alicia who were fantastic.



Above: photo by Camilla
Below: In the car on the way to our location

We were so lucky to find this flower delivery lorry. I can't wait to see the shots from this!

At the end of a shoot you just gotta have cake, right?

An Oslo Wedding

Last Friday I headed to Olso, Norway with my husband for a very good friends wedding.

This is a slightly self indulgent blog I'm afraid. I wanted to share with you just a few photos from the day. Hopefully I should be able to show you a couple from the professional photographer soon, and better ones of the hair - why did I not take any good ones of the hair?!

View from the hotel where we got ready. Amazing!

We got to get ready in a really smart hotel in Oslo, we where on the 6th floor and the view was incredable.

Another view from the 6th floor

What was also incredable was the weather - look at the sky! It wasn't too chilly at all, around 17C, which I didn't think was was bad considering we were roughly as far north as Shetland.

On the way down in th lift to catch our cab to the church I couldn't resist but get a photo of us in the mirror!

I styled Lindas (the bride) hair and her maid of honor Mari. I hope you'll agree that they both look beautiful.

Linda had a wonderful idea of putting some text that described the guest under their place name. I wonder what she could have chosen for me?

Where's the Flamingo?

I get asked now and again why I called my business Flamingo Amy. There is a story behind this, not rivetingly exciting but a story all the same. I thought it would make a good blog post, because I realised that it's not actually documented anywhere. The story meanders through my time at art school in Norwich, so have patience!

Take a seat and I'll tell you how it all began...

I came to Norwich in 2003 to do an art degree. It was around this time I started getting into the whole rockabilly thing and realised my appreciation of 1950's imagery and general stuff.

At the time I was really influenced by artist Antony Gormley's 'Field for the British Isles'. I first saw this piece at The British Museum and was totally blown away by its size. When you stood in front of this mass of clay people you had a feeling of what it must be like to be a singer on stage at a massive concert, sounds a bit clichéd but I can't really describe how amazing it was! I still remember the way I felt when I first saw the piece in real life and haven't really stopped thinking about it since.

'Field for the British Isles' By Antony Gormley.

I realised that one of the things I loved about this piece was repetition. I wanted to create something kind of like this, but knew I didn't have a) the space or more importantly b) the money.

But what would I use to create my Antony Gormley inspired art work on a smaller scale?

The story takes us now to Greenwich. I honestly can't remember what I was doing there. I do remember seeing the Cutty Sark and going into a shop that sold retro homewares. This is when I first saw 'Don' the plastic garden flamingo. Love at first sight is all I'm saying. I embraced that handsome fellow and knew that at what ever cost he would be mine. Fortunately it turns out it was only about a tenner.

We then boarded a boat together and sailed away up the Thames. See how happy we look together? You can't really see that we are on a boat here. The little girl in the background is my best friends daughter balancing some plastic fruit I had bought at the same place on her head. As you do.

The beginning of a love story (2004).
Sorry about my awful hair, it's much better now I promise.

So answer to the above question. Flamingos. I was going to use Flamingos to create my art work.

My original, and quite frankly, mental, plan was to aquire 500 of these garden flamingos and display them in Chapelfield Gardens. How amazing would that have been!?

I even looked into funding by going on an Arts Council funding application course in Cambridge. I called the head office that made the flamingos in America to see if I could get them shipped over in a massive container. I was in contact with directors at several Zoos to see if they would allow such a display - one even agreed!! I was very serious about it.

For whatever reason it didn't work out. And I was left alone with just my dream (hear the violins in the distance). I realised I was going to have to downsize. If I couldn't get these flamingos in real life I was have to settle with just their image. And so I created the image below.

'Flamingo Field' by Amy Taylor (2005)

It was infact a very popular image. The BBC featured it on their website and the art school used it in their prospectus, it even got featured in the local paper.

So really, I hadn't failed completely.

From then on I had flamingos on the brain.

The next part of the story is fairly boring, but the sequence of events became the inspiration for my name.

One day not long after 'Flamingo Field' was created I was setting up an account on the internet for yet something else, I don't remember what it was, probably myspace or something. I had to think of a username.

Flamingo Amy. That'll do. But this name struck me as quite good (if I did say so myself!) and thought I should keep it in mind should I ever have a business. And, well, later on I did, so used it.

So why love flamingos but not have any on your website or in your logo I hear you ask?

It's another story really. I just wanted to show you some fun pictures and take a trip down memory lane. But if you do want to hear more then let me know and I'll blog that too.

If you have a business how did you get your name?


P.S You'll be glad to know Don is still alive and well. And should I come into a fortune Flamingo Field will grace Chapelfield Gardens.

Little Vintage Lover Fair

I'm totally shattered from a very busy week - I wanted to put these up sooner but haven't had the chance. Everything I will be posting over the next week is going to be lagging behind the times I'm afraid - but I hope you enjoy the photos all the same.
On Saturday I got to attend my very first Little Vintage Lover Fair at Dragon Hall. For all you non-locals they don't keep dragons there. That would be ridiculous. Dragons simply couldn't be kept in a hall could they? They would need a much bigger space. Anyway, enough of my rubbish jokes, on with the hair!

I was fully booked up before the day started, which was great, but kind of not at the same time, becasue naturally I wanted to go and look at all the cool things for sale.

My first client of the day was the lovely Davina; she had won the competition to come and get her hair done with me. Although she had time to pop in and have her hair done she had to go straight off to work - Davina, if you read this let me know what your colleagues said!



Competition winner Davina and myself

Side view of the classic Hollywood set

I was lucky enough to have Make-Up Artist Sherrie Sparkes come down and assist me for the day. Thank you Sherrie - your help was fantastic.

Photo by Stephen Plumb

It was Antonia Rose's 9th Birthday - cute!

Lynnes Fingerwaves

Would you write Finger Waves, or Fingerwaves?

No matter.

Here is a photo from the the weekend of my good friend Lynne who is a bit of a fan of the 1920's. I was itching to give my marcel wave clips a go so when round to try them out.

For some reason I did not take a photo with the in. Doh. Next time.

Here Lynne is looking somewhat pale, but she then transforms...

Apologies for the small photo! It we had more time I think I would have added a curl or 2 extra down the wave at the front, but I was fairly pleased with the experiment.

If you've tried fingerwaves what tips would you give? Also, what gel would you recommend?

Hair Up Demo

Tonight I gave a (nearly) 2 hour demo to some NVQ 3 students at a local training academy. I didn't realise it was so tiring talking so much!

I didn't teach vintage styling, but showed how knowing a couple of little tricks can make a relatively simple hair up look really AMAZING.

I know that a lot of hairdressers are mortified of hair up, and I remember another hairdresser telling me that when someone came in for hair up all the other staff would run to hide in the staff room so she was the only one left standing there. Pretty shocking!

Here's a couple of photos from tonight.

Massive thanks to my model Meriel, who put up with me talking constantly!

The 'Jennifer Lopez'. Don't know if she ever wore this style, but I can imagine she would. I acutally quite like it!

And from the front...

How to enchance a Chignon to make it look extra special!

Same style as above but from the side.

What do you think?

Behind the Scenes - Bohemian Love Story

I thought that I would just share with you a few photos I took on my phone today on a shoot I did for new headwear brand Bohemian Love Story. They were lucky enough to get to use some fantastic clothes from Anditdote Vintage on St Giles Road, Norwich. Some stunning 1970's pieces.

We had a beautiful day for a shoot and managed to get out to the woods for the photos. I will have the professional one soon, but for now here is a sneak preview. Unfortunately my photos do not do the models, hair, make-up, clothes or headpeices jusstice, but you will get the idea!

Norwich Fashion Week - Fashion Night Out!

On Friday 10th March Flint and I took part in the Norwich Lanes Fahion Night Out. We were teamed up with Seven Wolves and Catfish Womens Wear.

The night started at 6pm with Conor cutting some hair upstairs at Seven Wolves. Flint had bought one of the double sided mirrors and 2 of the beautful barbers chairs to use. Lucy then demo-ed a couple more mens haircuts for the crowd - I don't have any photos of this myself yet, as I was busy downstairs at Catfish and couldn't get upstairs to see their work! I'll try and get some to add to this later.

Other fun I missed were the cocktails made by 42 King Street - gutted! I was offered a cocktail, but I will admit I am a total lightweight when it comes to alcohol, so I had to decline.

 Here's the beautiful dresser the Catfish staff got for the event - stunning!

I was lucky enough to get to wear one of the Vivienne Westwood dresses they have for sale - a lovely stripey yellow number! It's not a colour I have worn before - or the sort of shape I have ever worn before, but I loved it, and it was so easy to work in. I did take a full length photo so I could show you, but I've blimin' well gone and deleted it off my camera haven't I? Doh.

You can see the wonderful Viv shoes I got to wear here though...

And look at these. I know wearing 'jelly' looking shoes shouldn't be right, but well, when you look at these it just is! If anyone wants to buy me a pair...

I was busy all night, creating beehives, quiffs and victory rolls! If any of my clients from the night have anymore photos please post them on my Facebook wall, I'd love to see!

The staff at Catfish and Seven Wolves made us all so welcome, thanks guys!

There more Fashion Week fun to be had this Wednesday at Cinema City. Blog to follow!