Of course you can see a lot of Hiroko… ))))

Diner with our friends to celebrate Virginia and Ricco Deblank visit for a couple of days. Ricco was the General Manager of the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo Mid-Town and moved 6 months ago to Hong Kong to become the CEO of the Hotel Division at Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Diner at Two Rooms restaurant on Aoyama, with Nick Wood, Ken my husband, Ricco, Craig & Denise, Kong of Inter FM, Tak Norris and Maria H.

UP: Maria H. & Virginia Deblank

DOWN: Ken, the loving couple Virginia & Ricco Deblank, Graig Nomura who runs GAP & Banana Republic in Japan.

Our friends on that night included Music guru Nick Wood, Kong of Inter FM, Virginia & Ricco Deblank, my husby Ken, designer Maria H. & Realtor Tak Norris, Denise & Graig Nomura.

We miss you here Virginia and Ricco, come back soon for another diner. Love from your friends.

 

HOLLYWOODISH ISRAEL

MODELESQUE PERU

SOPHISTICATED TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

STATUESQUE PHILIPPINES – MABUHAI MAGANDAN FILIPINA!

FEMININISSIMA  BRAZIL

 

 

Senang summer Campaign until August 31st.

Good news, my favorite salon has a special offer for the pre-summer. Book your facial now, it is much cheaper and the quality of the treatment and services is perfection.

1) “Relaxation & massage course” BODY TREATMENT with rich vitamin C oil…….¥15,000/60minutes (It’s ¥5,000 cheaper than normal price of ¥20,000)

2) “Complete facial course (including foot massage)” FACIAL & FOOT CARE…….. ¥15,000/90minutes (¥2,000 cheaper)

3) “Total foot course (including pedicure)” FOOT CARE…… ¥12,000/95minutes (¥3,000 cheaper)

4) “Cyber veil course” FACIAL with a special mask which contains plenty of vitamin C ……….. ¥18,000/85minutes (¥6,000 cheaper)

FOR BOOKING CHECK SENANG’s WEBSITE AT http://www.senang.jp/index.html

Top Model Ai Tominaga, designer Peter Dundas and Fashion Model Miyuki Koizumi

 

I LOVE EMILIO PUCCI COLORS, CUTS AND DESIGNS. AMAZING!

IF YOU WANT TO DRESS TO IMPRESS, SO GO FOR IT!

PHOTOS BY JUN SATO

 

Maiko went to train with Sunao at Toni&Guy to learn how to style her her, Miss Universe style fr the competition in Vegas on August 23rd. He showed her to get volume and Hollywood curls. Then Takako snapped these pictures outside the salon in the basement.

Looking good Maiko! I am waiting for you…. it will be fun to have you moving into my home next week!!!!! Tanoshi desu kara! Demo isogashi…. You gonna rock at Miss Universe, I know!!!!

COME BACK TO READ SUNAO’S INTERVIEW… I ASKED HIM 3 QUESTIONS…. MATA NE!

 

Sunao is actually doing my hair right now as I write….. I will have curls and wearing a cowboy hat for the shoot! Whatever you say Sunao, you’re the master!

Camillo* Lauricella, Álex Bullon & Laura – ‘Not Myself Tonight’ (by Christina Aguilera)

 

WOW!!!!! WOW, WOW, WOW !!!!!

Incredible energy. Found this video on my friend Miguelito’s Facebook wall. I want to share talent and creativity with you for a happy day in sunny Tokyo.

 

 

May 30, 2010 — http://www.facebook.com/camillolauric… This is Álex, my lil cousin Laura and me performing Xtina’s new single ‘Not Myself Tonight’. Choreography by Álex Bullon and myself. Hope you guys like it!

 

Have the best day ever, and remember to dance in front of your mirror, you will feel happy and you will look good after a few weeks!

 

Love to all, must get ready as my hair and make-up artits, Suno & Izumi, are going to arrive at my home. Gonna be a long day shooting today for my DVD… shooting my home, my private life, inside my closets ect….

HIROKO MIMA, miss universe japan 2008

EMPHASIZES HER UNIQUE AFRICAN / ASIAN / INDIAN / INCA / FILIPINIANA / TRIBAL LOOKS

for CASSIO’s camera

swimwear by MARIA H.     http://www.mariahietanen.com
accessories by GISHUR     http://www.gishur.net
hair by SUNAO (TONI&GUY)    www.toniguy.co.jp
make-up by IZUMI SAITO     www.izumimakeup.com
photos by CASSIO     http://www.cassiophoto.com

 

YOU ALWAYS SEE PICTURES BUT RARELY HEAR FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHER…

Also, I have asked Cassio to tell us his story behind the shooting.For your information, Cassio is Brazilian / Italian.

Where, when did he get the idea, the inspiration?

 

This is what Cassio wrote to me:

Sometimes I am asked how I get an idea for a photo shooting, I have to say that there are plenty of research involved, I research hair and make-up, styling, lighting, posing, special Photoshop effects, accessories, music… I can get inspired by anything that surrounds me… even evening news on TV!!

In the case of Hiroko’s “african asian” shooting, the primary concept was taken from the music of this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzU7oHy1K5g , a very exotic music…I download the songs and I listened to it a million times… I had these songs for breakfast, lunch and dinner…I almost became the song!

The “miss bikini” fashion show in the video above had a lot of exotic jewelery, the necklaces and earrings were indeed very exotic!
EXOTIC became the key word for the shooting!
EXOTIC is a word that I relate to the jungles of Asia and South America, it’s a word that I relate to the indian tribes of North America and Africa,
EXOTIC is TRIBAL, TRIBAL relates me to AFRICAN WARRIORS,… relates me to AMAZON WOMEN, and here we are…now all I had to do was to find a model with a very exotic look and who can pose like an African warrior…HIROKO was the name!!

I google “african warrior” and I noticed they always have a “stick” in their hand…the stick is their weapon,…it’s a spear!!

I noticed they paint their faces and wear many different kind of accessories around their body,…even on their heads! I knew GISHUR  jewelery from sometime ago when I had a chance to work with them. They have a very exotic line of accessories which they kindly lent me specially for Hiroko’s shooting.

I went to get some bamboo sticks to be used like a weapon on the shoot, I asked Izumi Saito (the make-up artist) to do a very strong make-up specially around the eyes,…black and smoky eye shadow, I Googled “amazon women” and I noticed most of the women in the tribes of South America have their hair fringed, so I asked Sunao (the hair stylist) to make a fringe-extension on Hiroko, as on the video above I thought it would be a good idea to wear bikinis…but what kind of shoes should we have?? Ines had the great idea of Hiroko wearing boots!!…and Hiroko’s own Gucci boots were just perfect!!

Now we have an exotic looking model with all the accessories, spear, bikini, boots, hair&make-up…all we need now is an exotic looking backdrop! Once again back to Google (before internet I would spend hours and hours in a library doing research) and search for tribal houses and see what kind of material they use when building their huts,…they use a lot of wood,..bamboo,…mud…fortunately I had some “sudare” at my studio,…”sudare” is a Japanese “bamboo screen” widely used in the country side, “sudare” was just perfect as a backdrop, it’s texture and color couldn’t be better! But only “sudare” wouldn’t make it,…I needed more colors,…more green…so I went on a foliage hunting mission around my neighborhood and managed to get many kind of leaves!!

But using ONLY “sudare” for 6 different photos would look a bit boring, so Africa is not only tribalism, Africa is also wild life..and luckily I had a piece of leopard skin fabric big enough to be used as a backdrop…so 6 photos…3 with “sudare”…3 with “leopard skin”!…perfect!

I made a playlist of African music on my iTunes so we could play it loud during the shooting, as I said above, MUSIC was my primary inspiration for the shooting…so…we HAD to have good African music playing LOUD so it would get into our blood cells and spark our brains with the TRIBAL feeling we needed for the shooting!!
all SET…I am ready for the shooting day!

The shooting went great and fast,…we finished in just a couple of hours!
Now it’s time for Photoshop retouching,…looking at the photographs taken I realized Hiroko was a bit too “white”,…I need her to be more “black”,…”white” is not exotic…right??
on the Photoshop I had a very hard time selecting only her skin area which took almost a full day in front of the computer, and after a bit of research I learned how to make her skin look much darker!
the “sudare” was a bit too “pale”, so I had to select only the “sudare” area and make it a bit darker on a graduation from above,…getting darker and darker at the bottom,
even the bamboo stick (the weapon) was too pale,…I made it much darker too!!
the green of the foliage could be more striking, so I selected only the foliage and used a few Photohop plugins to give it more texture and volume so it would pop out more!

2 hours to do the shooting…and 3 days to do the Photoshop retouching!!

the photos were taken in my very small studio…I mean SMALL..not bigger than a 6 tatami room!!….I guess tribal people don’t have electricity at their villages and probably use fire as a source of light, so I tried to imitate “candle light” as a light source for the photos having the area around Hiroko a bit darker than the center, so I used only one 500w spot lamp to do the job!!…sometimes simple is best!!

and here is a link to the “making of” video…hope you like it!

 

 

Cassio