Recognise the only guy standing in the picture? Oh yeah, it’s me.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a phone call from Carol and Nikki at Nuffnang asking if I’d be interested in being spoiled-rotten at a photoshoot for Juice magazine? The “day as a model” was planned thanks to Hotlink, and we were dressed by Topman (well, the girls were in TopShop lah).

If you have read this month’s edition of the magazine, you would have noticed Hotlink’s advertorial which published pictures from the shoot, including some behind the scenes shots.

Back to the phone call; I wasn’t so sure at first. After all, I’m more used to being on the other side having been editor of a men’s lifestyle magazine previously and now, working in a newspaper. It is usually me who stands there “directing” the shoot. But I thought, should be fun and it was Deepavali, so I had the day free.

I went to the studio, located in the heart of town not knowing anyone. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know what to expect considering the amount of fashion shoots I’ve planned. I knew it was going to be a lot of waiting, waiting and more waiting. The only person I expected to know was Editor In Chief Muna but I figured she would be busy. So I brought my script from The Swimming Instructor.

Lo and behold, two familiar faces walk in. It was my friend Jeremy, from Red.FM and his *cough* other half *cough* Cindy. The latter was also one of the three bloggers treated to this shoot (besides Jane Lau). As we were waiting, we took some goofy pictures. This is me and Jeremy trying to cover each other’s “muka baru bangun on a public holiday”.

I was a bit worried at first because I didn’t see any of the guys clothing lying around anywhere. I cracked a few jokes about them making me wear ladies clothes. Still, I was careful not to laugh too much lest it come true. You never know stylist these days, they have weird sense of fashion. Look at the dress they made Khairy Jamaluddin wear on the cover of a local magazine. hehe

Although a sense of relief washed over me when I was passed the clothes I was to wear, I wasn’t completely ecstatic. Other than the pants, I would never choose any of those clothes off the rack! See for yourself – it’s not quite me.

Of course, it could easily be me; that I just don’t know how to carry some clothes off. Or maybe, I just don’t know how to style it. I look pretty plain, I thought and it looked pretty strange in general. But then, they sent me off to be glamourfied and things started looking up.

I took pictures of me going through the process of hair and make up. The two top left pictures was of the hair guy (I didn’t get his name!) waxing my hair, before putting on some makeup on me (the top right picture, and bottom left). He did my hair down and the stylist didn’t like it that way – he wanted something edgier. So the other guy worked his magic (last three pics) and did my hair up.

I thought it was pretty cool (considering I was due for a haircut!).

The shoot, for me, was pretty okay. I’m not particularly camera shy so I wasn’t overly self conscious. We did some solo shots before waiting for the rest to finish theirs. Then it was time for the group shot. By this time, we had waited for about four hours or more so we were all pretty knackered. After all, none of us are real models so we’re not used to this. When we were finally done, everyone cheered! haha

Thanks to these three (and to Joey Yap and her crew, the makeup/hair artists that I didn’t get to know … sorry) for a fun day (and for making me look, umm, reasonably nice. They were all camera shy, so I’m just posting tiny pictures of them. From left is Muna, Blink Studios’ Eric Chow and stylist Calvin Cheong.

Oh, and what was the outcome? Well, I really like that group picture we took that I pasted at the top of this post. But yes, of course, there are the solo pictures which I actually rather liked. Not my usual look but it didn’t look half bad. Which one do you like best? My favourite is the one on the left, but I think it’s only because I’ve got a cheeky look.

Thanks again to Hotlink, Topman (thanks for the vouchers), Juice and Nuffnang for the opportunity. More please? Hehe

Oh, and if you’re interested in winning RM100 Topshop/Topman vouchers, you could try just topping up your Hotlink online. Click on the graphic below for details:

10.58pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)