Shades-a-Coming 251211...

So as the countdown to 251211 continues in the next few posts I figured I'd let you guys in on a few behind the scene secrets from the Shades of Blue journey...including a few taster stills we took while we were on it!

When asked why I chose to take a team to Amsterdam for my 1st video instead of shooting in London (which would have been much easier/cheaper lol), the short answer would be that I couldn't help myself! But the truth lies much deeper than that...and it has nothing to do with my ganja-holic tendancies lol.

First off Amsterdam is such a photogenic city...beautiful canals, interesting architecture, amazing street art...it's a location scouts dream! Secondly, it was the first place I landed when I ventured into Europe solo for the 1st time! This trip turned out to be almost like my passage into adulthood, a time of learning and healing wounds that I'd been ignoring for the longest time!

Shades of Blue was inevitably written on this trip...a song about betrayl, and love-loss...conflict, making peace and moving on! Everyone we love will leave a trace of themselves on our emotions, everyone we love will leave a shade of blue on our heart...some darker than others, but all help to define the way we relate to people around us.

All Photographs by Neil Raja

 Shades of Blue is a song about embracing those shades as part of who you are. It's tough, but only by accepting them can we 'free' ourselves from the people who put them there in the first place!
How many Shades of Blue are you?

#shadesacoming

@sh.x

EastEnders...

A handful of you already know that I've shot my first music video for soon single Shades of Blue :D! We're not talking about the Live-r than ever Trilogy (the last installment of which is going up in the next week or so :D) we're talking full blown, pre-produced production assalt...in AMSTERDAM lol!! I can't reveal too much more about it, but I just wanted to put this post in context!

Neil Raja is a good friend of mine, he headed up the production team I took to Amsterdam and he's also the guy responsible for taking my first 'modelling' photographs back in 2009 :

Picture from Raw Jelly Baby shoot 2009. Who does she think she is lool!

Neil and wing man Jack Mcloughlin have both given their time and support to my musical endeavours so I've got bare love for these guys! And aside from their constant flow of work shooting Indian Weddings, these boys are also wracking up a fabulous 'star CV' having photographed/interviewed the likes of Wretch 32, Toni Braxton, Macy Gray, Jesse Boykins, and Method Man (to mention a few) for Urban mega-blog SoulCulture! Check out their website: HERE

I stopped in to their office in Whitechapel to check on the progress of the Shades edit and as usual I was greeted by Jeeves...the office feline butler lol! We went for a smoke some time later, it was a lovely day and Neil announced that he wanted to take his camera for a walkabout - with me in it's sights :o! (I'm sure his right eye is actually a bionic paparazzi lenz undercover lol)! Many would feel slightly perturbed by Neils impulsive desires but you get used to them lol and we all know the most amazing things can happen in a heatbeat - so off we wandered through the infamous East End!

The man himself...

A true photographer, the best part of this walk was when Neil shouted to me: "How High can you get??" Haha! Much to the amusement of passers by and security guards trying to get out of the narrow allyway I was in, I managed shimmy a good 9/10ft off the ground lool!

Thanx Neil x... we got some grrreat pics, took in the scenery, and quenched our thrist with a can of Red Stripe from a stall on the road haha! I love being surrounded by positive creative people like Mr Raja...it inspires me, and reminds me that no location is too far, no wall to high to scale and no friends better than those who entertain your dreams!! (WoW...uber-gay moment there hehe *blush*)!

I can't wait to show ya'll what we achieved with the Shades of Blue video so watch THIS space...!

@sh.x

Styling Miss Annastasia Baker:

You might remember this chica's name from 2010's Xfactor?! Click here to see her audition. Like most REAL talent that graces Simon Cowell's stage Annastasia proved too much for the Xfactor to handle lol...she made it all the way to the round before the live shows before leaving the show! I've got nothing but admiration for this young mums determination...and it was an absolute pleasure to meet her on the off chance at Flavour Live in September 2010!
Scrolling forward a couple months...I'd kicked in the full time job to sing and style for a living...and Miss Annastasia was continuing to gig, and entertain audiences around London! One November night we found ourselves performing in the same arena we had met (details in Ashleigh Ashley Flavoured)...check out Anna's interview from the night:



We got talking...as us girlies do and I told her a bit about the styling malark I do hehe! Good thing too, because a few months later we were planning her 1st proper promo shoot! Annastasia Baker is reborn...AA styleeeee hehe!!
THE PROCESS:
Well as with any styling gig we had loads of little hiccups, but the themes for the three costume I had planned finally came together in the week before the shoot! *PheW*. Here are the three 'looks' and some of my fave pics from the research stages!
ANNA-RELLA:
This look saw Anna dressed as a chained 'goddess'! My vision was a soft white Grecian dress with a full-ish skirt...feirce, dark eye make-up and copious amounts of chains to dress her. Soft angelic white with hard cold iron/steel could only make a dynamic combination!

COLOUR:
This 'look' was to be infused with POP! Bright colours, striking make up and candy sex appeal! Just to add a bit of a twist Metal Man reared his metallic head again in the form of shoulder pads, modelled here by our gorgeous photographer Leah Jude-Porter!

NAUTICAL:
This was just a simple and natural look for Annastasia...(who did an amazing job picking the perfect/versatile hairstyle for this shoot). I must admit I had to back down on this one... Anna had been patient enough with me and my outlandish idea's of African print trousers and lengths of chain. We went simple with a nautical jacket and jean combination. And I think you'll agree that the final shots look absolutely stunning! These are a couple of cool refs:

FINAL SHOTS - Well my faves anyway:

We're so proud of the results...and I think you'll agree Anna looks FEIRCE! Well done girly...Go Team Annastasia!
Photographer: Leah Jude-Porter
Make Up: Amanda Graham
Styling: Ashleigh Ashley

Holla at me on ashanneash@gmail.com for more info...or indeed if you want a shoot of your own!

@sh.x

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!

We enter 2010...

Loads of cool stuff happened after the Puma shoot! But this catch up will take forever if I go into all the parties, smoozing and late night recording sessions in the studio!! I could tell you about meeting the Vivd Imagery crew and working on a music video shoot with up-coming rapper Kasha, or about my adventures as a new-comer on the open mic circuit OR about my continued experiments with designing / drawing etc...actually I will show you the lips clutch I made lol...just cause it's sexi:



This blog is predominantly about my musical journey, but it's taken me to some pretty cool places along the way!! As part of my need to 'free my mind' and get inspiration for some new beats that I had to write to I went on a little trip across Europe to welcome in 2010! I coached it to Amsterdam for my birthday, trained it to Berlin, before stopping off in Czech Republic for New Years!!
I finally finished my 2nd tattoo and what better place to get it done than in ol' Dam! - musical of course:



I'd part written x2 tracks produced by RED SKULL (who also produced this track for Low Key - which was banned from TV lol!!) before arriving in Czech Republic! Was introduced to photographer Ywetta Sarah Nickel by a friend of mine!! We ended up doing an impromptu shoot in the basement of her MASSIVE house lol - did I say basement...I meant to say photographic studio / costume heaven !! Took an age to get the shots back after I got home, but here are a couple of my faves:




My mate Martin took this one lol!!

Oh and the weirdest thing! Guess who ended up on the front page of a Czech newspaper after 4days in the country?! There's a long story behind it-involving a secluded millionaire and a private zoo, but I'll leave that for another time lol!!

Catching Up_Part 2...

So we jump to a little later in 2009. Random Magazine are doing a shoot for Puma collaborations with Alexandra McQueen, Evisu and the like... TOMO art directed and photographed the shoot and even though all us 'models' had never met each other we were one big family by the end of the day!! Miss Rivkie was the stylist and she did a great job making sure none of us 'borrowed' any clothes...though we all desperately wanted to lol!!

The pics were published in Random Magazine and the an exhibition to display the shots took place at the London Arches later in the year! All in all I think it was a job well done!! I edited the behind the scenes video for it (below):





And here are some of the final shots!! If you want to see more of them check out TOMO's website!

Catching Up_Part 1...

Ok, so since I'm a bit late to this 'blogging game' I've got a hell of a lot of catching up to do!! It's been a MENTAL year so far, and I want get all of you lovely people up to speed...hmmmm where to start??......

How about mid 2009 when an up-coming fashion photographer - Gina Amma http://www.ginaamama.com/ - stripped me down to my knickers and painted me all shades of shiny black!! HAHA!! Thats as good a place as any!

Gina is an old friend of mine from Camberwell College of Arts so of course I was happy to help out with her latest project! Having established "I don't do nude" she compromised by turning up at my house with black body paint and a giant tub of vasaline! Mystique EAT YOUR HEART OUT lol...check out the results:




Terry Richardson-esque don't you think! The pics came out AMAZING!! Gina returned to Poland shortly after that...and unbeknown to me entered one of the shots into VIVA AWARDS 2009. I only found out about it when she called me and gushed down the phone that she'd only gone and won the bloody thing lol!! Well done G!!