Bringing artists together
Well what a project this was! A 50’s style rockabilly photoshoot in the city of Pecs with Sophies.model that brought together a team of people from all over the country. It was definitely a challenge to not only bring together a photographer, a designer, a make-up artist, and a hairdresser but to do it all rockabilly style. Well, you can only imagine the sleepless nights!
Sophie managed the impossible and brought together a team of creative artists that would produce the desired atmosphere. That was the first part; the second part was all about the timing. Stefánia Ágoston, the designer, is located in Buda; Marietta Stugel, the hairdresser, is in Pest; Beáta Herman-Bakonyszegi (Bea), the make-up artist, is in Dorog; and Tibor Mészáros, the photographer, is based out of Pecs. Take into account that Pecs is a 2-hour drive away, and we couldn’t use motorcycles due to the clothing supplied by the designer and a hairdo that would not appreciate a helmet, easy right?
Rockabilly Clothing Designer Stefánia
Meeting Stefánia, the designer couldn’t be done in a single day, so on Friday, we met her at her store in Buda. Upon entering the store, it felt like stepping back in time. The colours that hit you were better than a double shot of espresso! Whether it was dresses, headscarves, jewellery, or a giant picture of Elvis, she had it all. Even Stefánia was dressed in an inspiring outfit that immediately told you that she loved what she does. From the bright red shirt and colourful headscarf down to the tattoos and skirt adorned with images of Frida Kahlo, she really looked the part.
I had such a strong urge to break out my Spotify and find some Stray Cats Strut!
Warning: If you google Stray Cats, you will have an uncontrollable desire to stuff socks into the shoulders of any old suit, grab the nearest sweeping brush as a makeshift double bass and dance from the waist down in the kitchen!
(just in case, I’ve included the link at the bottom of the page).
Trying on the Rockabilly Clothing
Yet again, Sophie seems to have the perfect figure for trying on other people’s costumes or clothing, this strangely enough includes mine. I would be ok with this normally but I draw the line at her looking better than me in my own clothing!
Surely it was not possible to get an ice-cream headache from looking at so many differently coloured outfits. I was eased into it with a very nice poker-dot dress, Sophie not me, I’m not quite there yet! Then the flood gates opened and I was hit with pink shirts, bright red corsets, vivid blue skirts with Betty Boop prints, more pink in the form of frilly petticoats and finally a black and white trouser outfit just the bring me back down again and return my sensory overload back to normal.
With the selection made and the clothing carefully bagged, it was time to make our way back through the rush hour traffic in the city and head home. The next challenge would be on the following Monday morning when Sophie would meet with the hairdresser before rushing down to Pecs for the shoot.
Sophie’s Salon Visit: Prepping for the Rockabilly Shoot
Prior to heading off to the photoshoot in Pecs, Sophie stopped by the cozy hair salon of Marietta. The hairdresser was eager to begin. They chatted about the hairstyle for Sophie’s upcoming rockabilly photoshoot, and Sophie showed her some inspiration photos. Given that her hair is light, Sophie couldn’t promise the style’s longevity but Marietta had every confidence in her ability to make soup stand up straight if enough hairspray is used.
Sophie noticed the stylist’s creativity emerging as they discussed her hair’s behavior and devised a design based on it.
Dreams of bigger things
Following a quick wash, curl, and style, Sophie shared details about the photoshoot project she was embarking on. The hairdresser opened up about her dream of owning a complete makeover salon that caters to walk in clients. After the final touches, the hair stylist revealed what could only be described as a work of art!
After snapping a few photos, Sophie rushed from the salon to meet me where I was patiently waiting in the car in an area I probably shouldn’t have been waiting, the building site equipment and diggers were a bit of a giveaway.
A simple drive to the photoshoot right?
After picking up Rockabilly Sophie we headed out of the city for a drive down to Pecs. The GPS is set and we are looking good for time, should arrive with enough opportunity to grab some lunch prior to the shoot, or so we thought.
About an hour into the trip and for some unexplained reason, we are driving down the wrong motorway and our arrival time is now 25 min late for the shoot. It’s very hard to screw up your directions on one road! Now I am driving with a very unhappy rockabilly chick next to me who would happily bite the heads off a couple of small furry creatures right now.
Ragthered switches to race mode
I eyed the controls of my car and wondered what would happen if I pressed the big red button that I’m not usually allowed to touch, you know, the one with Sport written on it.
A short time later, we arrived late by 2 mins and a new high score was achieved in my own mental version or Gran Turismo.
The place we were shooting in today was at the very atmospheric pub called Csinos Presszó (the name means Pretty Pub literally) which had been made to look like it had been lost in time, you really need to check out the pictures to do it justice! This was going to be perfect for a rockabilly photoshoot.
Ceiling Furniture and Guess the Door
The décor was very retro, and each room had something different to see. Murals on the walls look like they had been designed by students studying politics and had just finished eating their space cakes during a marathon bout of watching Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Spread out from room to room were photographs of someone’s great, great, great grandfathers, cousins, neighboring farmers council rep or some such other relation.
In one particular area, furniture was stuck to the ceiling and I couldn’t help but wonder, how many Guinness’s it would take to give it a go, looking at some of the broken chairs on the ground, I feel this may have ended in a failed attempt at some point.
Quite the jungle
The bar was very cool and looked like a jungle made from bottles, obviously, I ordered a coffee.
The bathroom downstairs was a completely different matter, and if anyone is a fan of Jackson Pollock, you would be quite happy spending a penny here. If you would like to recreate this effect in your own home folks, just invite 21 spotty-faced youths and supply them with all the spray paint they could ever wish for and tell them to knock themselves out. It was like one of those magic paintings that used to be very popular, where you had to stare at it long enough to see what was there. Finding not just the right toilet door but any door at all was the new challenge of the day. People who enjoy using pronouns would love to partake in these facilities without a care in the world.
Outside is a very large seating area with giant saucepans on the table that are used as ashtrays… can you imagine the size of the cleaning lady! Beautifully lit by the afternoon sunshine and comfy seating everywhere, I was hoping to spend a good bit of time out here drinking coffee and writing up my notes but it just wasn’t to be.
It’s all about Sophies.model, Lipstick and DSLR’s
The Make-Up artist or MUA as it’s known in the business and the photographer or camera clicky, clicky person as it’s known in the business were both there and greeted us warmly upon our arrival. Bea the MUA was all prepared with her make-up kit and Tibor the clicky, clicky camera chap had already removed lens covers and was throwing back the Pepsi with sheer reckless abandonment.
After doing a fantastic job at recreating the 50’s feel with her make-up, Bea was inspired and threw out a few thoughts about a potential new project with Sophie and Tibor. How about a “through the ages” make-up and photo-shoot that would cover all the decades up to now!? Wow, that was a great idea! Tibor even knew someone who could supply the clothing. Is this the start of a major project that would span a few days? We will have to wait and see if we can pull it all together again.
Csinos Presszó
I managed to wonder around the pub and took my usual behind the scenes pictures and video for our blog. I even managed to snap a few of Sophie’s costume changes that I’m sure was to the delight of a few of the patrons of the establishment. Then it was time for Tibor to do his thing, which for me, started off well. I saw the potential of the surroundings and how they were fitting well with the clothing choices. Sophie provided some great poses and worked well with her surroundings. The staff of the Csinos Presszó were extremely helpful and even smiled when we may or may not broke a glass panel, danced on table tops and abused an antique piano!
Ragthered is left Holding the Bag?
Now, being Ragthered behind the scenes Videographer, writer, motorcycle daredevil and devoted husband to my crazy wife is not all glamour, lipstick, and paint. This I found out when Tibor and Sophie had to move to another room and realized that we were in a public area with a lot of camera equipment, clothing, handbags and phones etc. left out on display. Yep, my role as Ragthered has now extended to security guard for all things shiny and bright.
This wasn’t something we had put much thought into when shooting outside of a studio. I spent the next hour sitting on the nest of gear like a protective, although be it a tad sleepy, mother hen.
I did find an old bike magazine among the thousands of other literature that adorned the walls of the pub and took to reading about a bike festival that was coming up in… 2006! Well it doesn’t get more retro than that.
Tibor and Sophie finally finished their rockabilly photoshoot and we said our goodbyes and were looking forward to seeing the results. As with any photographer that works with Sophie, his usual 300 to 400 pictures had become around 1500! What is it she is doing to these guys!? I hope he doesn’t send over a 1000 and ask us to choose 30 or we will be doing that for the next 3 weeks.
Please give me food now!
As we hadn’t eaten since 7.00am and it was now around 5.00pm, it was now safe to assume we were a tad peckish. Now making sure we were on the right road heading home, we decided to look out for the nearest fast food along the motorway and grab a quick bite to eat. Note: anyone driving along the M6 there are no bloody fast food places!
We eventually stopped at a McDonald’s that was about 30 mins from home and we only stopped then because we needed fuel.
Full credit to SophieS the model extraordinaire, as tired as she was, she stayed awake the whole way back to talk to me and stop me from having any potential long blinks. We were both quite excited to see the results but equally as excited to set off on our next collaboration project to bring more creative minds together. The plan continues as we try to create the ultimate Sophies.model portfolio.
To see more work produced by these incredible people, follow the links below:
TiCCi Rockabilly Clothing (designer)
Marietta Stugel (hairstylist)
Beata Herman-Bakonyszegi (MUA)
Tibor Mészáros (photgrapher)
