My Sunday as a Stylist

I was going to go jogging today. Instead, I got drawn to do Arabellum's hair-do for a photo shooting she did today with AproModel and photographer Kai Joronen. Here are some behind the scenes photos from today's set in El Jefe restaurant!

Style by Coco: Molla la Donna

Some time ago our Pin Me Up Photography team did the prize photo shootings for Pin-Up Finland 2014 winner, Molla la Donna. The photo shooting was one of the prizes Molla got for winning the contest.

For this new photo shooting we wanted to bring something new and something we had not done before. I had been to London studying vintage hair styling last autumn, and I came back with a bunch of ideas. The course I attended was held by Vintage Hair Lounge, who is the European wholeseller of Besame Cosmetics. What they taught in the course was how to do period correct hair styling for camera from 1930's to 1960's. The teacher of the course was Gloria, so stylish woman who herself had learned to do hairstyling in the 1960's. So I came back home with a head full of ideas. I have trained doing hair styling all winter, and this was the perfect opportunity to try them in real photo shootings with our team and beautiful Molla.

The new thing we went for was that we wanted to do as period correct pin-up photos as possible regarding styling and photo retouching. The outfits in the photos were all sponsorship products from the contest. So it was very important that all the sponsor brands would get visibility in the best possible way. It was also the reason why we were not able to do totally period correct photos: all the sponsor brands were reproduction brands BUT they all represent high quality in and are based in the style of mid century style. This made the whole project very inspiring!

We did 3 styles for Molla la Donna and all of the styles were built around each sponsorship outfit that was also seen on stage in Pin-Up Finland contest worn by Molla. According to the style of each outfit we chose the decade that was closest to each outfit. I did the hair-do's and Arabellum did the make-up based on each decade's style. We even chose the Besame Cosmetics make-up shades to be true to the decades!

1940's:
First we took these tiki style pictures that were built around Dovima's coral playsuit. We have a new green background that fits just perfectly this theme. Tiki is a typical 1940's pin up photo theme that came to America with WWII soldiers. The victory rolls and classic pin-up make-up belong to the 1940's as well.

The other outfit for the 1940's was this What Katie Did lingerie set. What Katie Did is my personal absolute favourite lingerie brand and I love styling pin-up pictures with their products. This photo also became our valentine's day marketing photo. 

Both 1940's sets were completed with Miss L Fire shoes and JoJo's Hair-do's hair flowers.

1950's:
 For the 1950's photos we chose diner theme and I changed the hair for a pony tail, and Arabellum changed the make-up for wing eyeliners and red lipstick. The dress was from my own Pin Me Up Clothing collection, and the bag is from a talented accessory design brand Sulokas.

Photo credits:
(C) Pin Me Up Photography / Pin-Up Garage
Photographer: Ani Koivisto
Style and hair: Miss Coco de Noir
Make-up: Arabellum
Model: Molla la Donna/ Pin-Up Finland
Sponsors: Besame Cosmetics, Dovima, Jojo's Hair-do's, Miss L Fire, Pin Me Up Clothing, Pin Me Up Photography, Pin-Up Garage, RockaCherry, Sulokas, What Katie Did

Angels Forever First Performance

Last Saturday was a very exciting day for me and my partner-in-burlesque, Dixie Feathers. We started our Cotton Candy Cab and headed to Leppävirta with our dear Arabellum with us, to do our first Angels Forever performance in Harley-

Davidson Club of Finland's winter rally event. On the way we picked up KissKiss Forbid'n from Jyväskylä. 

You know the saying it's not the destination, it's the journey? Well, this time it was both! We had such fun time driving there and listening to great music from Youtube singing along. I just love being on the road listening to music!

The event was held in Vesileppis, a nice little spa hotel. Once we got there, we immediately started preparing ourselfs for the show. Arabellum did our make-up, we did our hair and put on our show clothing and before we knew it we were already on the stage with our feather fans.

We did a lot of work preparing this premiere, practising and sewing the outfits. And it really paid off! Everything went well and we were so pleased after the show. The feeling was incredible: we did it! I thought this was because it was the first performance that the feeling was so good. I wonder if the future performances will feel the same? I'm going to find out!

We did not get any good pictures from the show, but Arabellum took these photos after the performance when we still had our outfits on:

I must include thanks to Vesileppis crew for the very good service they provided to us! The food was soo good, and service nice. And we really appreciated this gift from the kitchen before our show:

After the show we stayed for a while to listen to Sweet Jeena and the Sweethearts play. They're such a great band and we were even asked to dance on the stage with them. Such fun evening!

In the morning we enjoyed the spa and went to bubble bath, and then headed home with our Cotton Candy Cab, with music turned to max.

A Busy Week

This turns out to be a very busy week: in addition to all normal work I've been getting ready for our The Black Feather Cabaret performance which is this Saturday. We will be performing in H-DCF Winter Rally event in Leppävirta with our new Angels performance, and this week has been full of practise after practise and after that sewing and finishing our outfits in the night time. That means adding some serious amount of sparkle to our glamorous What Katie Did lingerie. Here is a sneak peek to my outfit getting modified: 

I'm hoping to get my new feather fans tomorrow from the customs. They're perfect for our customers' photo shootings as props, but We can also borrow them to our performances. Stay tuned for more updates from us Angels and our outfits of course!

xxx Coco

Introduction

Hello you!

Thanks for finding your way to my new blog that I named after myself. I am Miss Coco de Noir, and with this blog I open the door to selected pieces of my life. Welcome!

I live a very busy entrepreneur life, trying to balance my time with work, hobbies and also having enough rest. Finding the balance can be very challenging sometimes as I try to give my best effort to things I do. 

I founded my company Pin-Up Garage in 2012. The idea was to bring a new pin-up lifestyle concept to Finland where you can find all the necessary items and services under the same roof. I started with a webshop www.pinupgarage.fi, then opened a shop selling clothing and soon we started offering Style Me Vintage workshops and pin-up photo shootings under the name Pin Me Up (which was initially the name of my very first blog).

I am also a host in the first Finnish pin-up contest, Pin-Up Finland. The contest is held annualy as part of a big car event Yankee Car Show in Lahti. This has been a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know and support beautiful blossoming pin-up models and I've really enjoyed it.

My newest "project" is burlesque. I started two years ago to go to Tin Ker Bell's burlesque classes in Etno Fitness. From last fall I've attended to Himo Club's burlesque lessons by Bettie Blackheart. So now I have formed a duo with Dixie Feathers called The Black Feather Cabaret, and I'm also part of a student group of Cherry Turrrbo-Cherry Dee and Tin Ker Bell called The Shangrilettes. I'm also coming up with a solo performances in the future. You know how it goes: first you start by admiring the performer on stage, and st one point you find yourself sewing sequins to your performance outfit. All of this is so exciting to me and I'm really figuring a way to have as much burlesque in my life as possible without letting it affect my work.

Having all these wonderful things in my life I can say makes me very busy. I want to enjoy my work and my hobbies, and recently I've been wondering how to make sure I don't get too tired from all the work and responsibilities. The thing is, when you're very busy and stressed, it's very easy to forget to take care of youself. Things like eating well and getting enough sleep are too easy to forget, even though those are the things that help to avoid stress. I've had lots of help with this matter from by best friend and collegue Arabellum, who instructes me with all superfoods and healthy lifestyle. This is a matter that I want to keep as part of my life and this blog as well.

Thanks for being here and I hope you will find this blog inspirational, useful and fun!

xxx Coco