Watch the Entire Behind-the-Scenes: Click Here

my new ad is out. it's cute, but it was shot last year with my shorter hair... i guess what's old is new!

i'm girlie, and i like having beautifully polished nails as much as the next girlie girl. but it's just not possible, because at any moment the waist-down shot can turn into a beauty shot with hands... and models always need to be prepared, well groomed and clean/clean.

so nude buff shiny nails it is!

It's tough work but someone's gotta do it!

Marili Forastieri is a sweet, talented photographer who i had the pleasure of shooting with in the Hamptons last year.

She's a busy lady, but for the right model she'll do some testing, either in her Soho studio or on location in the Hamptons.
Let me know if you want me to connect you.

Our shoot was so awesome that Marili made it into a promo card (like a model's comp card). Pretty =)

Iconic designer Alexander McQueen has left an imprint of his imagination with the legacy of his design house, which Gucci Group has announced it will continue to run.

During my fashion circuit years, pre-NYC market, i was able to see firsthand how influencial Alex was in the industry, winning British Designer of the Year awards 4 consecutive times.

In these times of cookie-cutter commercialized fashion, the rebel with a passion for extreme fashion - who called Mr. Givenchy "irrelevant" - will be missed.

i was recently interviewed for this article on mid-air theft while flying... cuz my stuff was stolen on the way to a shoot.

I think it's human nature to let our guard down when we get in the air... So read and learn from my mistake.

"I closed up my bag, got up to use the toilet...came back, sat down, got a weird vibe because the girl in the window seat seemed a bit uneasy, but she was kinda odd (read: unwashed and crazy eyed) so I let it pass."

Robbed in the Air: How To Protect Your Valuables and Not Be A Victim While Flying

When I tell people I create iPhone apps, 6 out of 10 times they'll say "I have a great idea for an iPhone app!"  

The thing is, creating a successful app that makes money isn't easy, and it takes money to create an app, so it's a balance. The few projects I have taken on all have unique marketability that I believe in, because it's a lotta sweat that gets invested into the devleopment.

Here's a funny overview on what has become a success story for Eugene Lin and his Peek a Boo App. Congrats Eugene, I like board games too!!!

i was shooting for Stage Stores the other day and my agent at Ford emailed me bcuz a client needed up-to-the-minute beauty digi polaroids. my makeup and hair had already been done by the uber-talented Bill Westmoreland so i thought why not ask the photographer to snap a few shots with my phone during our lunch break...

instead, he kindly offered to use his pro cam, snap off a few frames and give them to me on my USB drive to take home.

note to modelwannabees:
- always have a USB stick with you just in case an opportunity arises to get your pic files on set
- always jump at any opportunity to get free pics, since testing costs $500-$1000 per shoot
- never underestimate the potential of any shoot, even if the clothes aren't "fashionable"

and so, in the midst of shooting elastic waist pants, i got the most stunning 10 frames of amazingly lit, really natural beauty shots.

below, my two favorite shots, one of which is to be my new comp card front... and many, many thanks to Tom Wool for shooting these off-the-cuff frames =)

Rock It Out in 2010!!!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

In Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil, National Geographic Explorer investigates a baffling pattern of twins in a German community deep in Brazil.

In just a one mile radius with 80 families, there are 45 with blond, blue-eyed twins, a rate nearly 1,000% above the global average!!!

Many believe that this phenomenon is the result of escaped Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele, who was spotted in town around the time the twin phenom started and who may have continued his experiments to build an Aryan master race in this tiny town.

Crazy stuff.

here's the link for Mittens. thanks everybody xo

This is the year of reorganization, including my website development business.
My oh my how it has grown, but organically, the way a business should. It's not just website design and programming anymore- everything is integrated, so over the years I've become full service. 

PPweb is a full service web development company providing domain name brainstorming & url registration, hosting, information architecture, database development, user interfaces (UI), design, programming, social networking integration, web app & iPhone app development, CMS, ecommerce, merchant accounts, SEO - it's the whole package whittled down to the best technologies, all in one place with one POC  - me, Paula Patrice!

I have quite a large team now at PPweb.Net and we are turning out some beautiful websites, each optimized for web 2.0 but nothing based on a fad. Technology needs to be scaleable, tried and true, reliable, and most important clean.

A lot of people don't realize that clean coding is really important for SEO. Search engine robots will skip over indexing your site - ie no google listing - if your house isn't in order!

More on that and a lot more later... once PPweb.Net becomes PPweb.Com in January 2010. 

New beginnings, new passions, same ol' fashion tech geek me =)

Ford Models is holding an open call in NYC and LA on November 21st for their Supermodel of the World contest.

I've worked with past winners of this competition, and it is incredibly competitive as well as lucrative. Winners really do go on to very successful careers, unlike some other model contests...

Here's the deets, let me know if you're gonna try and how it goes! Good luck =)

I heard through the model grapevine today that Prabal Gurung is looking for a fit model for the dress he's designing.... for our First Lady Michelle Obama.

Never heard of him? I predict you soon will...

My choices from his Spring 2010 Collection for Mrs. Obama:

Fierceness!

this business is so transient. it's a small world, but we only meet each other for a blip of time on the calendar...

i finished off the summer with a great shoot by Marili Forastieri on location in Hamptons NY.
and funny: i just cast for Soft Surroundings catalog and the client remembered me- she said "yes it was that shoot in Santa Barbara with Marili Forastieri"- hahaha oops, guess i should tell Marili we already knew each other before the Hamptons shoot... who knew?

they titled it "some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world".
view U-Mag here .

how apropos de rien.

i self-titled this story "ive fallen and i cant get up"
...and now u know what came of this. 

i had to submit a photo of me & my mom for an upcoming tiffany's campaign.
i dug up this one, a fav. we were celebrating.

my mom is so cute xo

it's something we often dont think about til too late. INSURANCE .

when i was shooting my recent Loreal campaign with celebrity hairstylist Christopher John of Garren NYC, he was going through a tragic loss of his beloved pet. suffering from a fatal condition, his cutie patutie dog was in the veterinary ICU clinging to life for days before he peacefully passed on.

the cost of ICU? almost $3000/day. this is not a NYC price, i've heard this from friends across the US. my sister's cat was uninsured, and when he was diagnosed with diabetes he had a two-day emergency stay that cost $2000. once diagnosed he was fully treatable, but that's a lot of money to get to a diagnosis!

no matter what our position or success in life,  no matter how much love you have for your pet, one will take pause & consider spending 3k per day on a sick pet, cuz it's a heckuva lot of money! if your pet is sick, ,and the vet is promising that "treatment can work", that's $21k for a week of treatment.

common sense tells us to weigh the possible life term of the animal with the cost. human sense tells us to pay whatever it takes to save our pet... this is not a position i ever want to be in!

after a whirlwind trip to detroit to shoot the new Chrysler tv spots...
i'm back and they're already airing- less than two weeks after production!

now here's what's interesting from behind-the-scenes: this tv commercial was shot 50% on green screen. what does that mean?
it means that none of that stuff was there when i was shooting it!

 

here i am shooting that glass screen with all the graphics:

 

pretty cool, right? the magic of television! 

they all came out really cute! i hear theyre playing like crazy. yay!!! this one's my fav:

 the past few days i shot a tv commercial with tim gunn. it's for Tide, the sponsor of project runway amongst other shows, so it should get mayjah exposure.

tim is just the nicest, most professional, humble, intelligent, witty man ever! even moreso than he appears on tv, if that's possible.

we had a great time. 

it was a long day - we shot in a park in long island. nice to be in the fresh air tho!

i love the start to the Fall! fashion is in there air.

the Genart show was exceptional this year, with a turnout of over 1000 people.
hosted by Brenda aka Shannon Dougherty, it was SRO!

i personally thought the menswear designers were the breakouts of the season.

click to read my interview in Viv Magazine. photos by Ondrea Barbe.

i just received a memo from my booker Patty at Ford.  

Jerry Ford passed away this weekend. He was the kind, thoughtful, beloved owner of Ford Model Agency for over 60 years. Gerard and his wife Eileen founded the agency in 1946.

Ford is the most forward-thinking agency I've ever had the experience of working with. I'm proud to be a part of the company that was Jerry's vision.

Eileen has asked in lieu of flowers that donations be made to either The Humane Society of NY or City Meals on Wheels.

It was a rough shoot in Sandestin, 14 hour days, 5am call times and 98 degree heat on the beach.

On the last day a few of us hit the local fish house for dinner to celebrate.
The food wasnt great, but the company was FANTASTIC!

that's eamonn mccabe  the photographer at the head of the table. love him!

just about to make final edits from the shoot for my portfolio. here are a couple out takes: