LA YOGA Fall Fashion Style: “Yes!”
Styling LA YOGA Magazine Cover & 16-Page Fashion Spread for Sept. Issue.
Here I am with a lifetime of experience in fashion as a model, and as a Muse, to the most talented designers of our time. Now more than ever, my heart’s work is to be of service through empowering women to connect with their inner beauty, and I get asked to style a fashion shoot for LA YOGA MAGAZINE!
It was like a dream come true… and I say ‘Yes!’ again.
From Studio to Street, to Cover!
Here’s a fun ‘Sneak Peak’ for our behind the scenes:
Now, if I were to write out my ideal scene of where my career in fashion and inner beauty would lead, I couldn’t have drawn a better picture. But, I do not profess to take credit for my talents—those are God given and Spirit driven.
All I know is that I said ‘yes’. Just as I’d said ‘yes’ to those countless hours in New York, Paris and Milan, standing in front of designers as they draped the muslins and fabrics on my body for sometimes 10 hours a day, for months at a time. I’d said ‘yes’ when the contracts kept me working in those ateliers through Thanksgiving and Christmas, when all the other girls flew home to be with their families. I’d said ‘yes’ when they asked if I liked what they were doing. I’d said ‘oui’ when they asked me those things in French. I’d said ‘si’ when they asked me in Italian. And, I’d said ‘hai’ when they asked me in Japanese.
When Karl Lagerfeld asked me if I would slide myself down the runway on a toboggan for the winter collection at Chanel, I’d said ‘yes’! He knew the other girls would be to shy to do such a thing.
Working with the team at LA Yoga was a breeze. Everyone working side by side with a smile and no attitude? On a fashion shoot? I styled away, having the time of my life. How fun it is to dress pretty girls in pretty things. We shot 16 pages that day including the cover and the group shot. No one complained, not even the models! And everyone was grateful. Is this what we love about the ‘Yoga Culture’?
The studio we shot in is in the back of the house of photographer, David Young Wolff. What a welcoming place to work. His wife Pam bringing us watermelon ice water with mint sprigs… Even our doggies were welcome there, so we had three dogs on the shoot, too! David’s dog Coby; Lulu, the dog of Felicia Tomaso; and, of course, my Iggy Pup, who even made it into the fashion spread— modeling for the first time as a professional.
Iggy Pup modeling in LA Yoga Magazine Fashion Shoot! Upstaging his Stylist & Image Consultant mom, Lorelei Shellist
At lunch, while sitting under a shade tree in the backyard, Felicia came to sit with me. She thanked me and prized me for my talents. I can’t recall hearing much of that on the set in those days in Paris or Milan . . . except from the photographers saying, bella, bella, bella, until they got their shot. Let’s face it, fashion isn’t exactly a heart centered business.
As I was taking it in and sharing my gratitude, I thought back to my old friend L’Wren Scott, who went from modeling to styling for Vanity Fair magazine in New York. Well, you know how that story ended when she hung herself with a scarf of her own design. What a metaphor—a scarf of her own design! God bless her. And God bless me for having created a different path. A path of love and beauty after a lifetime of soul searching for the deeper meanings.
I wrote in my book, Runway RunAway, about the night I screamed out loud—asking God, “Why me? Why is this happening to me?”—when I was going through the pain and torture of watching the love of my life Steve Clark, drown himself in alcohol and drugs. And God said, “Love yourself, Lorelei—Love your-SELF!”
The voice was loud and clear, and from that moment on, I pulled myself up out of the deep, dark trenches of self-pity and said yes to finding beauty from the inside out. And here I am, a quarter of a century later, working with fashion and yogis.
Go down-dog, go inside. Go, warrior, and find your own Beautiful-Self, too! Just say: ‘yes!‘
Namaste’ Y’all,
Meet LA Yoga Fashion Team 2014
As always, with all my Love,
Lorelei Shellist
