Who is Ashleigh Ashley?...

Who is Ashleigh Ashley!? It's a question I was forced to ask myself after realizing something that artist like Beyonce realized a long long time ago...performing in Ashleigh Ashley's shoes is about bringing my kindred alter-ego out to play! Being Ashleigh Ashley is being vivacious, and spontaneous, and colourful, and imaginative...she's a chameleon who has struggled to find her identity in my paintings, films and songs over the last 10 years! Part of being her is not knowing how she's going to manifest herself next!!
Thats bordering on psycho babble lol...but how do you create an 'image' for someone who is always changing?

I brainstormed this concept of identity and how it tied me to my music. I researched obsession and colour, and looked back at the "boombox" culture where people wore their stereo's like accessories!! Ian Rankin and David LaChapelle gave me a lot of inspiration, especially with their daring use of color! I imagined BEING my music, being tangled up and surrounded by all the kit that makes the sounds I love possible! Here are some of my fave images from the research stage:







Ok, so I had the concept...'Musical Entaglement'...but what to wear??? High street just wouldn't cut it unfortunately, so it was back to my mums with a few design ideas and a prayer that my 3week deadline would be enough for us to make up a STORM! Fortunately my mum had more than a few good idea's of her own!! Here are some of the stages that we went through to create the all improtant'LOOK'!:

I found a similar design for these trousers in the Virtual Shoe Museum and after a few design modifications from yours truly my mum (pictured blinking tutt!) made them into reality!:



I wanted a wire corset lol! In keeping with the theme Musical Entanglemet this corset was to be made from all manner of music related wires and it turned out to be the piece-de-resistance of my demo shoot! My mum even left a webcam as one of the fixtures! Plug IN BABY!!




This was an experimental outfit...didn't really work out in the end, but I made the neck piece as part of an on-going project called METAL MAN!! I'll fill you in on that bad boy in a later post!:


This behind the scenes video from the shoot is the perfect insight into the Ashleigh Ashley persona. Shot by presenter JP and edited by yours truly it's a perfect summary to what turned out to be a successful shoot! You also get introduced to the make-up and hair stylists that helped me complete the look.

I enlisted fashion / music photographer TOMO to bring my concept to life! Looking at his website you'll see why! He has a fantastic imagination, and is not afraid to go bold with shapes and color! Not to mention the fact that he's portfolio includes a campaigns for C4 show Skins and promo shots for Kate Nash and Lee Ryan!
These are the FINAL SHOTS:





One sneaky image even made it into our favorite mag RANDOM!