In These Shoes 4: Cielo Ramirez x Shandar
Could she be the most beautiful girl in, well, this part of the world?
That was all that kept ringing in my head the whole time I was behind the camera shooting Cielo Ramirez, the final of four muses that local accessories design house Shandar had handpicked to grace the catalog of their shoe line’s premier collection.
I’d never met the girl before, only read about her in Kate Torralba’s (now-defunct) StyleBible.ph-hosted blog, when the ever-effervescent designer/musician had proceeded to declare Cielo one of her “girl crushes.” Now, if Kate were a man, it would’ve been a totally different story—it wouldn’t have sparked the slightest bit of interest in me, or, quite possibly, in anyone. Something about girls admiring other girls for their sheer beauty, though, that gives it an exquisite, almost numinous kind of allure. It’s a kind of allure that’s meant to be esoteric at first, and then it snowballs into something bigger as more and more people take heed in an attempt to demystify it. (And I’m not even making all this up: historically speaking, it was when the legendary Diana Vreeland fell in love with Penelope Tree at Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball that catapulted Tree’s career, and it was when Corrine Day fixatedly took photos of a gangly 14- or 15-year-old Kate Moss that elevated the latter from, um, plain Croydoner to crown princess of modeldom.) So it should be no surprise, then, that when Shandar’s Mark Tenchavez had brought up Cielo’s name, I’d felt a certain kind of thrill, and that here I was now on the day of the shoot, all sorts of enthralled and entranced. I couldn’t stop pressing my shutter-release button. Could it be that I was developing a little “girl crush” of my own here?
I mean, come on, look at that face. Eyes the shape of Caroline Trentini’s, a dainty little nose, and supple button-shaped lips perch on a delicately angular face. It’s the kind of face that makes you want to question, well, your genes. The makeup artist Hans Ferrer was on cloud nine: he didn’t have to spend so much time working his magic on this canvas as it was already a masterpiece by itself. Even if you took photos of her with her back facing the camera you’d still know she was beautiful. It made me ask: How was it possible that I was only seeing this girl for the first time?
Well, turned out it was my fault ‘cause I’d pretty much been living under a rock up to that day. The stylist Meyen Baguio was quick to point out that this wasn’t, for example, the first time Cielo was endorsing a shoe line—her appearance in the runway at the launch of Jandrick “Jumbo” Climaco’s Fushu brand a couple of months back was what had charmed Meyen and pushed her to pass a viva voce recommendation to the Shandar team. I would also learn that this wasn’t going to be her first catalog appearance, as she’d appeared in a couple of them in the recent past, most notably for the What A Girl Wants (WAGW) Pre-Fall 2010 collection catalog (shot by the talented Raleene Cabrera and styled by the fabulous Kryz Uy). I thought, OK, the girl had been around, which was good—it would be a shame to put a face like this to waste!
I could go on and on about her face, but I must not overlook the body. I think the reason why Cielo is so appealing to other girls (like Kate and Meyen) is because, while her face is that of a girl, her body is very much of a woman. (I think it’s the exciting contrast that does it, no?) During the days leading to the shoot I’d pictured her to be stick-thin or something like that (not that I have a problem with that), so imagine my surprise when I finally met her in person and it turned out she wasn’t what I’d expected her to be. I mean, sure, she was tiny, and this made her fit perfectly into sample sizes, but with curves in all the right places, you know what I mean? Needless to say, Meyen and the rest of the team had so much fun taking turns in dressing her up, like she was a dress up doll! (This is me trying to debunk the myth that only the gawky, tendril-thin girls are fun to dress up—it’s a little bit of sinuous curves that actually bring more life to an outfit.)
What was most amazing, though, was her attitude towards the work at hand. She was so polite and soft-spoken, and never complained. It was sweltering the whole time we were shooting—midmorning sun, the apex of summer (I think it was about 92 degrees out at the time)—but she was such a trouper, never asked for a break, tried so hard not to squint, even graciously declined our offers to fan her. The board had only called for three outfits, but when we decided the last minute to squeeze in a fourth one (because it was just so much fun dressing her up!) she gladly indulged our whims. It was her first time to meet most of us in the team, but never for one minute did she choose to alienate herself, or ask for her friends to visit her on set. How very different this girl was from most of the girls her age these days that I’d worked with, who were scared to stand one minute under the sun, would complain about having to do one more change of clothes, wouldn’t let go of, say, their cell phones, or liked to be surrounded by handlers or hangers-on! Of the four muses Shandar had picked she was the youngest—the team had reeled her in to make the product appeal to a younger audience—but this certainly didn’t mean she was the least professional. What we’d expected to run for five or so hours only took three, thanks to her dedication and hard work.
After we’d wrapped up she’d talked to us a little about her life, how she liked to travel (in a few weeks she was going to be in L.A. to visit family), her boyfriend. I can’t recall if we ever talked about her future plans, although I do remember Hans sweet-talking her into joining a beauty pageant. “You could be the next Miss Cebu!” Hans exclaimed, to which Cielo just laughed gleefully. Who could tell if that laugh meant a yes or a no? Whatever her plans are, I just know that great things are bound to happen to this girl.
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To think I almost said no to this session.
It was Meyen who’d come up with the idea of shooting at an airfield/hangar, and at first I’d had reservations about the whole thing, arguing that it had been done so many different times by so many different people. But she’d remained relentless, arguing back that she’d put together a really good mood board, and had already pulled some strings to secure the location. The long and short of it was that I let her have her way, in the interest of saving time, and was smacked by a complete reversal of opinion as she weaved her concept into life before my eyes.
For one, I was floored by the styling. This was the session I gave her pretty much the free hand and chose not to meddle with her business. Turned out she wasn’t kidding when she’d said she’d had a strong mood board. She’d wanted to portray Cielo as a jetsetter, perhaps taking a cue from the girl’s love of travel, and proceeded to assemble outfits that were ready to take flight, pun intended. I hadn’t seen the actual mood board, but it looked to me like she was aiming for a twisted kind of Catch Me if You Can—like, this was what Frank Abagnale Jr. would look like had he been a woman. Mostly flight attendant silhouettes, without being too uniform-y. Nonchalant luxury, that’s how I would define the look. I particularly loved the ‘60s Carnaby Street-style brocade crop jacket in cosmic latte and apricot, and how she paired such a dainty little thing with Mark’s rather wild animal-print peep-toe wedges. Also loved how she paired a black-and-white polka dot maillot with a tulip skirt and topped it all off with a sequin beret. Those were not the only brave combos she pulled off that day—I also remember gasping as she took out a TSENG by Noreen Tseng armlet and handed it to the model. What’s so shocking about this? Well, nothing, really, except a few pundits would say never use an item from another brand when shooting one brand’s catalog. But Meyen is never one to care about rules—“If it gives the outfit more flavor, why hold back?” Of course, it helps that she’s close personal friends with Noreen, and that the competition between Noreen’s brand and Mark’s has always been healthy. A word to startup stylists, though: This kind of thing is not for the faint of heart, so think long and hard before trying it at home.
This has always been Meyen’s strength—the ability to put together unexpected combinations. It should be noted, too, that when the two of us were only starting out more than a decade ago, as two thirds of a trinity of stylists that included Clarissa Ouano, Meyen was the first to make the bold move of mixing high and low, of ready-to-wear/street/retail pieces with designer. I’d always been the scaredy-cat, you see, watching my every move and afraid to step out of my comfort zone, so if it was me doing a shoot I’d stick with one retailer, one brand, or one designer. It was Meyen who first broke that convention, and her act of courage inspired me and Clarissa to follow suit.
What was most special about this one job right here, though, was that Meyen assembled these outfits not just with the sleight of her hand, but also with a little help from her 14-year-old niece Mickey. I talked about Mickey in a previous post—about how she’s an aspiring makeup artist and how she likes to tag along whenever we have shoots so she can talk to the makeup artists and observe them in action. Well, looks like she’s starting to take an interest in clothes, too! Kudos to Meyen for passing the torch, so to speak, this early! I intend to do the same, too, you know, when my nieces hit early teenagerhood—maybe hand down my old books and my Vogues, encourage them to always tote a camera, take them shopping. This is something I always talk about during dinner conversations, and more often than not I get flak from people who think starting kids early is “kind of cruel.” Well, it’s not like it’s child labor or anything. I simply joke, you know, that, “Hey, you won’t always have youth, but you’ll always have the clothes!” Seriously, though, it’s not even about the clothes. It’s teaching them the value of figuring out what you love most and looking for ways to do it for a living. Now, as for where to get the funds to send them to FIDM or Parsons, that’s a different story altogether.
Cielo Ramirez for Shandar | Photographed by Angelo Kangleon in Lapu-Lapu City on April 17, 2011 | Styled by Meyen Baguio | Hair and makeup by Hans Ferrer (to book Hans, click here) | Special thanks to Nestor Castillano, Claire Elardo, Maria Elena Gabaya and the Aviatour team | Wisteria/thistle/rose quartz unishoulder bodycon cocktail dress with puff sleeve and Swarovski and tonal flower adornments, Ronald Enrico
In These Shoes 2: Gayle Urgello x Shandar
When you ask someone about their taste in shoes, you don’t expect them to take it quite literally. But hearing Gayle Urgello say she likes shoes that are “good enough to enough to eat,” well, that doesn’t come as a shocker—what else do you expect from someone who is a serious pâtissier by day and transforms herself into a super stylish It Girl by night?
It should be no shocker, too, then, that accessories designer Mark Tenchavez of Shandar picked her as the second of four muses to inaugurate his shoe line. Before I could have a taste of her baked goods, it was her delish taste in footwear that had drawn me to her. I’d bumped into her a couple of times before, but it wasn’t until three years ago, at a mutual friend’s “crazy shoe”-themed birthday party, that I knew she way my kind of girl—while everyone else in the guest list stepped into the scene in strappies and gladiator sandals, she kicked it knee-high boots in patchwork suede and velvet, at once giving new meaning to “hot fuzz” and being a throwback to Penelope Tree (or Talitha Getty, if you will). Ever since then I’d become hooked, Facebook-stalking her like a crazy fan, waiting for her to put up the next photo album just so I could see what shoes she had chosen to wear to which occasion. At one point she even had this one album that served as her bucket list at the same time, filled with screenshots of gorgeous shoes that were not hers yet but presumably were going to be hers soon—outlandish-looking wedges from British high street fashion brand River Island, studded ankle boots from Spanish brand Bershka, electric blue Jeffrey Campbell booties, etc.—with hilarious little captions that said, “Hello there! Why are you so beautiful?” And so, you see, she was a natural choice for Mark’s team. No one had S-H-O-E-S written all over them like this girl did.
At first I’d wanted to shoot Gayle wearing nothing but laidback jeans, to differentiate her set from those of the other girls to be featured in the same catalog who were going to be wearing designer cocktail pieces, and to contrast Mark’s ultra-glam shoes. I’d even wanted to shoot her in her chef’s whites and toque blanche. But Mark and the stylist Meyen Baguio had a different agenda—they wanted abbreviated hemlines, Jenny Humphrey-style, to underscore her gams, which, to them, were “her best asset.” They also disapproved my chef’s uniform idea. I’m glad I followed instructions, because, as it turned out, Gayle indeed had some of the prettiest legs I’d ever seen (the third party guy who does all my retouching would later thank the heavens, saying Gayle’s legs required little to no airbrushing), and she had already been photographed in chef gear for a magazine feature a couple of months back. I can’t say I wasn’t happy with the clothes. Meyen did a great job mixing designer and ready-to-wear pieces, and I loved that she made the bold move of raiding Gayle’s own closet and ended up pulling out a delectable little skirt that the designer Barbie Alvez had made for Gayle for Preview’s 15th anniversary party. The skirt emphasized Gayle’s legs, and went really well with Mark’s stunning wedges in regalia patent leather and royal purple/satin sheen gold animal-print textured suede.
We shot on two different occasions, the first at Gayle’s parent’s house (an “imposing manse,” as one society writer had described it) in Maria Luisa, which had a patio that offered the most incredible view of the mountains, the second at the Banilad branch of their café/bakery Cream ‘n’ Cupz. We meant to do it all in one afternoon, but we couldn’t shoot in their kitchen that day—or ever!—because Gayle’s boyfriend Gerald, who is Singaporean and is also a pastry chef (they met and fell in love in Sydney, where they took the same classes at Le Cordon Bleu), was hard at work at something. There were two more shoes to shoot, so we had to push back to a different date to give us more time to look for a kitchen to shoot at—yes, although we were skipping the chef’s whites idea, we still wanted to feature that side of Gayle, and so a kitchen setting was a must. I’d wanted one that was quaint and homey. It took us weeks scouring the metro for that kind of kitchen, and I was about to give up when Meyen gave me an old Vogue of hers that had this one spread by Norman Jean Roy of Raquel Zimmerman helping out California-based chef Travis Lett in his Abbot Kinney hub, and that’s when I realized that a modern kitchen with stainless steel surfaces wasn’t a bad idea after all! Luckily this was the exactly the kind of kitchen that Gayle had at Cream ‘n’ Cupz, and so we had to look no further! It got me pumped thinking about the setup—it’s always nice when you get to shoot someone in their workspace, their “habitat,” kind of like how Hedi Slimane does it, visiting his favorite installation artists’ studios and taking pictures of them at work.
OK, I will come clean and say that another reason I was psyched we were doing it at her café’s kitchen was the prospect of getting free samplings of her delightful cupcakes. I hadn’t had red velvets since West Village’s world-famous Magnolia Bakery almost two years ago, and I’d heard Gayle’s babies were quite the treat, and so I figured it was about time for a sweet little relapse. And, boy, did I relapse! At least now I know I don’t need to wait for my next trip to the Big Apple to enjoy that one sinful bite! (I must not forget to Gayle’s wait staff: Thanks, you guys, feeding us—and for being so patient with us and helping out with the props, too!—and I hope we lived up to our promise of having minimal impact to your BAU!)
Speaking of red velvet cupcakes, these were exactly what Mark had in mind when he was designing the shoes that were going to be named after Gayle. Well, before I knew they were going to be named after her we kind of kept on calling them the “red velvet shoes” (like, “Hi, Meyen! Have you seen the ‘red velvet shoes’ already? What do they look like?”), so don’t be confused—they’re one and the same style. Like their namesake cupcakes, they’re creamy, full of texture, at once bright and noir, almost sinful to look at, and impossible to resist (well, kind of like their namesake muse, too, if you come to think of it): peep-toe wedges in lava/Falu red textured suede with coquelicot patent leather straps. She wanted something that was good enough to eat—well, that was exactly what she got! Needless to say, they were my favorite pair. I think it annoyed everyone that it took me two or so hours sprawled on the floor just taking pictures of them. Yes, I get obsessed like that. But, hey, who could blame me? How else were you supposed to photograph something you were head over heels with but to do it quite literally, with your face in the ground?
Another thing I fell head over heels with was working with the makeup artist Jessie Glova. He did the second session, when newcomer Hans Ferrer, who’d done the first, couldn’t make it due to scheduling conflicts This was my first time to work with Jessie, despite the fact that I’d known him for years. He just took one look at Gayle, one look at the shoes, one look at the clothes, and then he got to work—I have so much respect for people with this kind of aptitude, because I know very little about makeup, and explaining to a makeup artist what kind of look I want can be a real pain in the backside, and so someone who just gets down to work without needing to be told is just a joy to work with. He also loved to tell jokes. I think it was Christy Turlington who once said that the one thing she loved about the late Kevyn Aucoin was that he was always trying to make people laugh, whereas “most makeup artists try to prevent you from laughing while they work”—well, Jessie had that thing, too, wherein he could get you laughing nonstop and still be really skillful with his hands. The end result was just fabulous. I almost cried when Gayle hopped out of the makeup chair—I’d never seen feline eyes done this beautifully. (PR and marketing whiz and eventologist extraordinaire Jaja Rama would later comment on the behind-the-scenes snapshot that Gayle posted on Instagram that she looked like the English actress Tamsin Egerton, a.k.a. Guinevere in the TV series Camelot.) And as if that magic touch wasn’t enough, Jessie asked to tag along for the shoot, despite the fact that he was expecting more clients and was busy laying the groundwork of the new salon that he was about to launch in a little over a month. On set he acted as coach, teaching Gayle how to smile with her eyes, how to give out the right pout, how to twist her hips, etc. We had it all too easy, thanks to him! I don’t think we could’ve done the kitchen countertop set effectively if not for Jessie. I cannot wait to work with him again.
Gayle Urgello for Shandar | Photographed by Angelo Kangleon in Cebu City on March 28, 2011, and on April 28, 2011 | Styled by Meyen Baguio | Hair and makeup by Jessie Glova (to book Jessie, click here) and Hans Ferrer (to book Hans, click here) | Special thanks to Blenn Suan and Nestor Castillano
Behind-the-Scenes Instagrams Clockwise from top left: Stylist Meyen Baguio helping out with the props; the set that never made it to the catalog—shoes against colorful menu blackboard—although now I kind of wish it did; makeup whiz Jessie Glova working his magic; we invited stylist Blenn Suan to help us with the set concept, and he ended up being sittings coach, too; Meyen taking a break between sets; Nestor Castillano overseeing the shoot from afar (Gayle’s parents house is sooo huge I think I got lost three or four times); Hans Ferrer doing a quick fix to Gayle’s hair; I won’t lie, that’s me trying to show Gayle how it’s done, but failing miserably anyhow—thank God Jessie was there to take over the reins.
In These Shoes: Marjay Ramirez x Shandar
We go way back, this girl and I. She was only 13 or 14 when Elite Model Look-Philippines 1996 winner Charity Lagahid and I met her at a coffee shop one Saturday afternoon a little over a decade ago, a peppy high school athlete who, up to that point, had wanted nothing else but to follow in her parents’ footsteps (both of them lived and breathed sports—her father a basketball player, at one point for the MBA and at another for the PBA, and her mom a volleyball player). A few days later I would chaperone her to her very first casting (for a Levi’s fashion show), and that was when I introduced her to Valeriano “Chicoy” Tomol III, founder of the indefatigable institution Models’ Association of Cebu (MAC). Chicoy would take her under his wing, and the rest, as they say, was history. Under Chicoy’s skillful tutelage she would graduate from ingénue to spitfire supermodel faster than one could go through, say, high school, bag the Ford Models Supermodel of the World-Philippines title in 2001, make it to the top 10 at internationals in Miami later that same year, and then take the Asian fashion worlds by storm. Marjay Ramirez was unstoppable.
So unstoppable, in fact, that I would lose touch with her for quite a while—once she got it rolling, that was it, she was all over the place, and it became fiendishly difficult to pin her down! Funny thing, really, ‘cause I’d known her literally since the beginning, but I never got the chance to work with her, not once. Well, not until now.
She was home for an extended vacation early this year (she is now based in Calgary, AB, where she works for a telecommunications company and part-times as, well, a model, represented by I Model Management), and we would bump into each other while carousing in the streets on Sinulog day. I must’ve hugged her about fifty times that day. She asked what I was up to these days, and I told her I was sort of into photography now—but I must’ve been really wasted ‘cause I forgot to ask her what I’d been meaning to ask her for a long time, which was for a chance to get to work with her! Luckily, about a month later, she would chance upon my very first solo work (the grunge/’90s-themed engagement shoot I did for an Ormoc-based couple), and then she hit me up asking if I wanted her to sit for me. Of course, I did! Now more than ever, I said, that I was only starting out and could use all the help I could get to build a portfolio, not to mention I was leveraging the long-lost art of grunge as launch pad—and you couldn’t get any grungier than this girl, right, what with her air of insouciance and her current penchant for tastefully tattered shirts in Alexander Wang-like silhouettes (i.e., oversize, with asymmetrical hems), tomboy denims and work boots. My head was racing with ideas on where to shoot, what the styling would be like, etc. Time wasn’t on our side, though, and we would soon run into scheduling conflicts—I was only available to shoot on Sundays, but with only two Sundays left before she was to board the plane that was to take her back to Canada, she said she’d rather spend them on the beach with her family. I had to give it to her—I knew how important quality time with her mom was for her.
My lucky stars would shine on me once again, though, when, a few days later, I got a call from Mark Tenchavez, head designer of the local fashion accessories house Shandar, telling me about the shoe line he was about to launch under the same Shandar brand, and commissioning me to do the photos for the premier collection catalog. I was stoked—not only was this my first commercial job as a photographer, I was also going to be working with an A-team that included my stylist friend Meyen Baguio and, well, Marjay! The concept was rather simple: the shoes were to be donned by four of Mark’s muses of the moment, and that included Marjay (it would turn out she was going to be the only legit model in the roster, as the rest would be “real women”). True to form, she had given an availability of a Monday. This time I had to say yes—I figured, if this was my only chance to work with her, I had to compromise, and, boy, am I glad I did!
On the day of the shoot Marjay arrived in her ultracool uniform of the moment—oversize ripped tank top, harem-style sweatpants—and I kept thinking, you know, that this was the Marjay I wanted to shoot so bad. But Mark’s shoes were glam—bejeweled patent leather strappies in fire engine red, snakeskin stilettos, etc.—and so there was no way it could’ve worked. So much for the grunge concept that had been dancing around in my head for days! But that was alright. The beauty of it all was that you knew that whatever Marjay slipped into, and whatever theme or concept you threw at her, you were still going to end up with a perfect picture no matter what. Mark couldn’t have put it more dead-on when he said that she was the “ultimate chameleon…an amalgamation of everything her jetset life throws her way.” Her profile pictures in Facebook is testimony to this: one moment she’s thrift-store garage rock (à la everyday Kate Moss) in Romania, the next she’s laid-back tomboy in the streets of Kathmandu, the next she’s geeky/sleuthy cool in Berlin, the next she’s biker chic in the Canadian Rockies. And then there’s that photo of her sashaying in a cobalt blue décolletage cutout bodycon dress from a Vania Romoff lookbook, taken by her good friend Vito Selma, that just proves that she can take glam to the next level, too! And so, you see, I had absolutely nothing to worry about! When Meyen ushered in the rack of cocktail pieces from Ronald Enrico’s Holiday ‘10/’11 collection, that’s when I knew I was in for a real treat.
I don’t think I’d ever enjoyed shooting someone like I did that day. I was reminded of how far more special it was to work with a bona fide model (and take note I’m using this term to differentiate them from the, um, B-list models, for lack of a better term, not as opposed to real people, because real people are a different story altogether). Not only was Marjay a champ at utilizing a bit of method acting on set, she also demonstrated unmistakable cooperation. She had a hand in every aspect of the shoot. She talked to the makeup artist about what shades/blending techniques worked best on her face, oiled her own legs, helped in picking/rearranging the sets and in looking for good lighting, folded and pinned extra fabric herself so the clothes would fit perfectly. Even talked to me about some of the best photographers she’d worked with, and dispensed some really helpful tips! In other words, no sitting around and merely waiting for instructions, and no diva-like behavior. She considered herself a part of the creative process, a part of the team, so she worked to contribute whatever she could, and in doing so made the job easier for everyone else, and reduced the shooting time by 40-50%! What I’d expected to run for six or so hours only took three!
She would leave for Calgary five days after the shoot. I don’t know when she’ll be back for a visit, but one thing is for sure: I’m already gearing up for an action-packed shoot (or, a series of them) for when she does! Finally I’ve caught on what a lot of people have been buzzing about for years: There’s just no getting enough of this girl!
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People have been asking me how we came up with the concept for the catalog cover—guy in bathtub filled with rose petals, shoe cradled between shoulder and chin like a violin, or like a vampire. I am tempted to say, oh, you know what, it just hit us like lightning right then and there, but the truth is that it took an awful lot of hard work and logistics—and a little dose of wicked inspiration. Mark and Meyen had wanted something striking and unpredictable—sensual, if you will, but without being overly so. I had to choose between five or so shoes to feature in the cover shot, and easily my favorite was that one pair Mark had named after Marjay—the Ramirez, which were taupe grey/Payne’s grey python skin-pattern leather peep-toe slingbacks with gunmetal glitter-encrusted heels. How to anchor snakeskin in a sensual context? My first impulse was to slap John Collier’s painting Lilith against the mood board—naked woman, hair down, serpent coiled around her body—but then I realized that would be going to far. Then I read about Lilith being the first rumored vampire, and that’s when it hit me. In no time I was watching Queen of the Damned from 2002, replaying my favorite scene—Akasha (played by Aaliyah) and Lestat (Stuart Townsend) making love in a tub filled with rose petals, with Deftone’s “Change (In the House of Flies)” playing in the background—over and over again. For years I’d been itching to recreate that scene, and finally here was a chance to do it! Poor Mark had to go to the night market to obtain dozens upon dozens of roses, and it took everyone a good thirty minutes to fill the tub with their petals. Of course, I didn’t ask for plastic vampire fangs; we were thinking more on the lines of the shoe as the vampire temptress. We almost witnessed an actual bite, though, when a little creepy-crawly that came with the petals surfaced for some air—good thing the model was quick to whisk it away. Marjay had to endure some 20 minutes of sitting at the edge of the tub, in the most awkward of positions, extending her legs to a point they threatened to cramp, all while trying hard not to slip. But I can’t say all our hard work didn’t pay off. I don’t normally blow my own horn because I’m terribly self-deprecating and you know it, but the pictures came out beautiful (even the unedited ones). I have never been prouder of me.
Marjay Ramirez for Shandar | Photographed by Angelo Kangleon in Cebu City on March 28, 2011 | Styled by Meyen Baguio | Hair and makeup by Hans Ferrer (to book Hans, click here) | Special thanks to Nestor Castillano | Black unishoulder bodycon cocktail dress and white Swarovski-encrusted bodycon cocktail dress, Ronald Enrico
