Good afternoon lovelies, This year I’m helping organise the fabulous Miss Sou’West Pinup Contest with the talented Sarah of Red Leopard Photography, taking place in beautiful south west of Western Australia. The Miss Sou’West Vintage Fest, is an event like no other, celebrating women, celebrating all things vintage, and celebrating you! If you’d like to be involved in the pinup contest, or the event in any way please email missswvf@gmail.com. For all information please visit the official Facebook page. To aid competitors on their pinup journey, I’ve created this blog to guide them through how to prepare for this event. At a later date closer to the event I will post another blog on what to expect on the day, last minute prep, and how to deal with the nerves of performing. The contest has changed a little this year, to make for a bigger and better event. The contestants have one category: western theme wear, where they will have one minute on stage to perform a routine consisting of poses and movement using props, and costume to portray a theme, or story related to the western theme. With industry professionals judging, the winning lady will receive many wonderful prizes from our very generous sponsors, as well as the fantastic opportunity of performing, meeting new friends, and taking part in a fabulous event!
Preparing your routine: You have one minute on stage to wow the judges, where you’re required to have a minimum of 5 poses, with a theme of ‘western’. Each pose is help for a minimum of 4 seconds. In this time you’ll need to shine on stage through confidence and vintage glamour. When creating your routine its good to research as much as possible to find a storyline/theme that matches the contests theme. Looking up artwork by Gil Elvgren and watching old movies like Pin Up Girl with Betty Grable are great inspiration. Once you have this, for creating your routine its good to think of choreographing events, rather than a dance routine, as this is a pinup contest. You want to have a bold entrance and exist on stage as this will really stand out to the audience members and judges. Having a storyline will make creating this routine much easier and make your performance much more memorable, for instance I once competed having a beach BBQ as my theme, I walked on stage with a vintage BBQ, pretending to light and cook on this, then bathed in the sun, after having this story to follow the poses created themselves. Never forget; glamour above all things, pinups are not practical, if you look at Gil Elvgrens art, there will be a pinup painting a picture in her finest day dress, and silk stockings. To have the best possible mark its important to take into account important aspects that you’ll be judged upon to have the best possible performance (these are listed below).
When you’ve finished creating your routine, its a good idea to have a spectator (friend or family member) watch what you’ve created so you can have a second set of eyes to give you feedback on what you can improve on. Its important to take this onboard as no matter how good you are, there’s always room for improvement, the person reviewing us is not trying to hinder us, but rather help us grow. Upon reaching this stage you need to rehearse your routine as frequently as possible, as this will let you body’s muscle memory kick in, so rather than trying to remember what to do, you’re able to perform more. You’ll also want to practice in full hair, makeup, costume and props to ensure everything runs smoothly, more often than not there can be a costume malfunction that’s easily averted by rehearsing this. What you’ll be judged on: Entry Photo:
Hair & Makeup:
Clothing:
Theme:
Performance Tips:
I hope my advice is helpful to all those fabulous aspiring pinups, myself and Sarah very much look forward to meeting you at Miss Sou’West. Don’t forget if you have any question I’m more than happy for you to email them through to me at contact@ladylace.com.au.
Burlesque Artist | Pinup Model | Vintage Blogger
contact@ladylace.com.au
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