After traveling 6 hours on a flight from NYC, I arrived with 6 trunks of clothes and accessories. I was expecting sunny skies and glorious weather... But it was freezing cold! No one was prepared for the punishing, sandy windstorms or the desert cold of Rosamond, California, the location of our PITSTOP shoot. Anna S from Silent Model Management was so professional though. Barely covered in spring/summer wares, poor Anna was so cold between shots we ran her big sweaters and robes to warm her and endless cups of hot tea. Anna would shriek and shiver in the frigid air and then jump onto the orange flamed semi truck or the old diner booths in bathing suits or a mini dress and transform into the sexy, lost traveler of the Pitstop story. She braved the arduous winds, the winds which left us all with a thick desert film on our faces, clothes and eyes. The whole crew dreamed of long, hot bathes that night. Between shots we'd seek warmth and deserved shelter in the location van. Anna turned up the dance music in the van and danced with the cute male extras and taught all of us a bit of Russian.
The hardest shot was one that didnt even make it to the magazines pages. Anna wore a purple Lisa Marie Fernandez scuba style swimsuit with a Sonia Rykiel clear plastic trench coat. The trench was the worst for Anna because the robe didnt help over the cold hard plastic! Mark Segal had her walk through shrubs to continue with the lost traveler theme but with heels sinking in the sand, swirling sandstorms and the complicated reflection of the clear jacket, this shot proved too tough.
The second day of the shoot was slightly warmer but definitely not typical LA weather and not as warm as we had all hoped for while packing for the trip! We were in an old LA movie set which the film SAW was filmed in. The rooms were eery and cold and the home to a one eyed cat named Lucy. Mark attempted to get a shot of Anna in a Gucci dress holding the cat but Lucy was not happy about it and left scratch marks on Anna's back and neck.