SHOOTING ANITA BERBER...

Shooting Anita Berber...

Painting of Anita

We were asked to show our interpretation of Anita Berber and shoot the look twice on two separate occasions to show continuity. I began by practising my design on Phoebe Jacob Epstein but changed it for my final look. 

Practising my face chart...

Model: Phoebe Jacob-Epstein

Product list:

Purple eyeshadow- personal palette

Silver glitter

Kryolan foundation palette

Mascara wands

Mascara

Supra colour palette

Lip palette

Illamasqua tremble blush

Illamasqua Disobey bronzer

Illamasqua satin primer

Vaseline

Hair:

Curling tongs

Hair oil

grips

pins

Pin tail comb

hairspray

First shoot...

Model: Charlotte Summers 

My final look didn't really differ from my practice but I decided not to include the smudged mascara look with glitter as I don't think it looks like I've purposely done this on camera.  I think the second look works much better with the purple eye-shadow and dark lip colour look good against my models pale skin. However the hair is much shorter than when I did it in Phoebes hair like pictures below. The shorter hair was much harder to include in the rolled up hair at the nape of the neck so a lot of it hung down at its natural straight length. The length of it also stopped me from curling some of the ends that then stood out at the end. The hair was still really effective in the and paired nicely with the make-up and beads but the short hair was definitely challenging. The much shorter, layered areas at the front also made the curls stick up rather than fall down so it took me a little longer to try shape them down the front of the face then grip them so they weren't visible on camera.  

The short bob I did on Phoebe...

As I wasn't allowed to work on Phoebe for any of my shoots any more so  I deliberately chose Charlotte as she was also ginger like Phoebe. I know it was our own interpretation of Anita Berber but I still wanted my version to be ginger like the original just so I still had that historical element. I think Charlotte fair skin also worked really nicely with the make-up as it really made the colouring jump out. I dressed her in beads like the traditional, show girl and brought a corset and silk dressing gown on set but just decided to add the beads as they looked more effective alone. I was considering having her pull her bra straps down to give the illusion she was naked but they were dark blue and has a silk look to them anyway so I thought that tied in with the theme nicely.

On most the images I researched of Berber she was tall slim and very ginger, my twist on the original is that my model is a little curvier but I think it really suits the look and goes against the traditional stereotype of a thin stage girl.