Two months ago I was very lucky to be flown to an area off the coast of Africa to shoot an editorial in Cape Verde. I had heard about the area in the past but I wasn’t acquainted with its culture, history or its full geography. Cape Verde itself is actually made up of 8 islands. The main island is called Sal which is the only member of the islands with an airport. As we were only there for a eight days, we stayed on Sal but travelled each day for location scouting or to shoot the editorials for Big Is Beautiful magazine. The team included fashion editor Andrea Hollebeek, celebrity photographer Iris Planting, leading hair and makeup artist Ingrid Burger and top stylist Christel Monteiro. All of whom have extremely sucessful careers in the Netherlands. They were such down to earth and amazing women whom I learned so much from in such a short space of time. Both the editor and the makeup artist are working mums and multitasking gurus. Where they find the time to do everything I really don’t know but I was certainly in awe.
It was such a different experience to any other country I’ve been to before. The stores were very basic like general grocery stores or the odd tourist shop. There was one or two exceptions where we might have seen a local fashion store and ran into have a look, but it was extremely expensive as their products are shipped in from various parts of Europe or mainland Africa. So as you can imagine myself and Christel the stylist had a case of ‘lack of retail therapy anxiety’ by the end of the trip. 😉 Aside from this slight setback, it was a really interesting experience. As a developing region I was extremely surprised to see so many outstanding hotels and how wifi cafes did indeed have a presence. There was still great disparities to be seen on the island between the extreme wealthy to the levels of poverty which was terrible to see.
The locals were really intrigued as to what was happening. They treated us like celebrities as a fashion shoot for them was not a common thing to come across. Adults would even walk in front of the camera in the hope of being in the photo. It put things into perspective of how fortunate we are, how being surrounded by technology all the time in a digital world at home, can make you forget or appreciate the smaller things in life. It also increased my appreciation all the more for how lucky I am to be a working curvy model. The lifestyle on the islands is however full of positivity with the island motto “Capo Verde, no stress”. Everywhere we went we heard it. If the team were sorting out clothes and trying to get the next shoot location organised, a local would some how pop out of nowhere chanting ” hey, you’re in Capo Verde…no stressss…” . It became the unofficial title to our trip. It was extremely funny. The locals lead such a laid back lifestyle, but when you visit their beaches it all makes sense. No explanation needed. It’s Mother Nature at her best.
Above is a some behind the scenes photos of me in a black wig. It was styled in line with one of the editorials which centred around the monochrome theme. There was around 8-10 different monochrome shots in the current edition of the magazine with tonnes of plus size designer labels such as Anna Scholtz, Yoek, Sallie Sahne and gorgeous jewellery by a new Dutch brand called Bahia Love. It was certainly different to see what I’d look like with a black bob, but I think I’ll stick with my blonde hair for the moment! 😉 The second editorial encompassed the denim trend with a Bohemian twist to it. We shot in seven different locations for the denim shoot, so every look was really different and displayed some amazing parts of Cape Verde including one of the oldest salt mines in Africa which was incredible.
I’ve so much more to share with you all. But as the next issue of Big Is Beautiful is due to hit the shelves across Europe in the next few weeks, I will wait and post more details and editorial photos from the issue then. Lou.x
