excuse me, have you seen dita von teese's lingerie?

Everything worked out. We got the perfect location. My favorite photographer. Great hairstylist. Super makeup artist. Fantastic stylist. And one of my favorite subjects: Dita Von Teese. It's my third time working with Dita on a Genlux cover. Marc Baptiste shot the first Dita cover—in fact, that was my first time working with Marc—also my favorite photogs (I can have many favorites, right?). BrakhaX2 shot the second cover of Dita. And now, Tracey Morris shot this one!

I requested some snow, and Tracey obliged. She brought in a huge bag o' snow! We sprinkled it on the floor, statues, fireplaces, everywhere! Then, as we were shooting, we threw it on Dita. Like any element that conveys kinetic movement in a photograph—it brings it to life. So whenever possible, we like to add water, wind, fire, movement, and even shadows give a look of energy.

Angel Terrazas was our stylist. He brought a beautiful red Valentino patent leather coat and some great shoes. Dita supplied the lingerie—her own collection that available at Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, Myer, Figleaves, ASOS, Glamuse, and a bunch of other retailers.

I'll say this a million times, I appreciate that Tracey Morris and hubby Robert bring enough equipment to ALWAYS get the shot—regardless of the lighting situation. They have the scrims, the backdrops, tons of lights, all the goodies to get the shot done right. You won't find a shot done by Tracey Morris that isn't lit perfectly. She always gets it right.

Dita Von Teese wearing a Valentino jacket over Dita Von Teese lingerie

Dita Von Teese photographed by Tracey Morris

Dita Von Teese photographed at Sculpture Design, Los Angeles

Dita Von Teese's great quote, "We're not all racehorses, some of us can be show ponies."

Dita Von Teese wearing Dita Von Teese in the snow. We used plastic snow for this—hey, we're in Beverly Hills.

uh oh! the shoot's tomorrow and we don't have a location

It's 9:00am, on the day before our Genlux shoot with our cover model, Dita Von Teese, and we still don't have a location. Am I worried? Not at all. Lucky for me, I don't have a boss breathing down my neck to get a location locked in weeks, or even days before the shoot. As the Creative Director, all of the stress I place on myself comes from myself.

Over the past week I've looked at a few homes and made a bunch of inquiries, but nothing solid has surfaced. Still, I'm not worried.

I have a vision in my head of a large outdoor fireplace. A huge old limestone one that you'd find in Paris. Rewind to a few years ago when we photographed Emma Rossum using snow and it was beautiful—so I envisioned snow piling up on the mantle and on the hearth with Dita in front of it wearing a beautiful coat with her chic lingerie peeking out from underneath. Can you picture it?

This is the third time we've photographed Dita for our cover. Once by Marc Baptiste. Once by BrakhaX2. And this one by Tracey Morris.

10:00am: I remember having seen one of those outdoor sculpture shops over on Robertson and Burton Way, so look through the internet to find it. I call Sculpture Design Imports and the man who answers, George Judah, tells me he's open. By 10:30 I'm in his shop jaw-slacked at the crazy beautiful sculptures and urns and fountains. These aren't the cheap cast versions. Each of these are painstakingly carved from marble or limestone. Gorgeous "original" reproductions. Some really stunning stuff. But can we strike a deal?

my favorite chair

I'm obsessed with a few things. Coffee table books. Typography. Fashion photography. And chairs. One of my all-time favorite chairs is this one by Grete Jalk. Designed in 1963, the Danish designer teamed up with cabinetmaker Poul Jeppesen to create this work of art. Only 300 were produced and only a few remain today. Reproductions are now made of which, one day, I hope to own a copy.

Today I'm working on editing some recent fashion stories we photographed while up in Las Vegas last month. Here is a sneak peek at the opening spread of one of the stories. It's shot by Tracey Morris and styled by Holly Copeland. The model, who looks so much like Coco Rocha, is actually Daria Pershina from LA Models. We based the inspiration on A Clockwork Orange, the brilliantly twisted film by Stanley Kubrick.

Daria Pershina of LA Models photographed at Delano Las Vegas by Tracey Morris. Yes, she looks eerily like Coco Rocha—and moves just like her. Well, let me take that back. Only Coco moves like Coco!

three degrees of chris botti

A few years ago while watching a PBS special that featured trumpeter Chris Botti, I caught a glimpse of his super-talented violinist Lucia Micarelli and contacted Bobby Colomby (her manager and one of the nicest guys) to see if we could feature her for our music issue. A few weeks later and Lucia was in front of photographer Marc Baptiste's lens for our six-page feature on her. Fast forward a few years later and another of the artists who appeared on that same Chris Botti special was on the cover of GENLUX—the talented Katherine McPhee.  We were lucky enough to have Katharine McPhee perform at two of our Genlux events. Once where she sang, 'Over the Rainbow' (the song that catapulted her to fame during American Idol) on the rooftop of the Luxe Hotel on Rodeo Drive for our issue release party. 

Lucia Micarelli photographed by Marc Baptiste

Bobby and I always talked about featuring Chris but since we really don't cover a lot of men's stuff, it wasn't a fit. Over this past month or two, that story has changed.

Last week, one of my favorite photographers, Erik Almas (erikalmas.com), flew down from San Francisco to shoot Chris for our first male cover. In usual Erik Almas-style, it was a super-production. Erik decided to shoot a "music" video at the same time and things exploded into a mega production, but more on that later. 

In what started off as a series of "WHAT IF" talks over 'Taco Tuesday' with Craig Donahue of The Donahue Group; and "WOULDN'T IT BE COOL" talks with super-producer Bobby Colomby, have turned into this little miracle: Chris Botti will be performing a full concert for GENLUX Magazine on Rodeo Drive next month! Thanks to Craig, we've teamed up with the Rodeo Drive Committee and the City of Beverly Hills to block off the street (Do you know how hard it is to block off the most famous street in the world?) We are erecting a stage and a thousand seats and it's going to be the event of the year in Beverly Hills. More on all of this later!