For those of you who have never been to a "Pin-Up Festival", it is a new and different experience. There are classic cars, lots of photographers and pin-up girls everywhere. Pinned Miami was an exciting mix of all of the elements of pin-up culture - and until you see it with your own eyes - you cannot imagine how much fun it really is!
My partner-in-crime - Melissa Coleman (who also discovered her new career as the fabulous Bettie Page) - and I drove down Friday morning with all the trimmings in tow for our stylish booth. We had all of our Art of the Pin-Up Girl promo materials, posters and sponsor swag, as well as our original merchandise created from
Anne Cha's #GirlPower piece. There were vendors there of all kinds, pin-up hair and make-up, clothes, bands, and even tattoo artists giving tattoos on the spot for anyone who wanted one!
Melissa Coleman (Bettie Page) and Sam Streich (Rosie the Riveter) showcase our fabulous finds
at the Art of the Pin-Up Girl Booth.
Anne Cha's Girl Power pictured here on right.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday we worked the booth, selling t-shirts and dog tags with the iconic GirlPower image as part of an exclusive arrangement with
Artist Anne Cha and sponsored by
Tatyana Boutique. The energy was electric and we made lots of new friends and all bonded heavily over our undying love of all things Pin-Up! We even got to meet
Celeste Guiliano in person! She is a nationally known pin-up photographer whom we have been smitten with for years!! She was signing her beautiful new book Keyhole Cuties that is a compilation of so many of her spectacular pin-ups. She is the best in the business.
Sam, Celeste, Melissa, Lacey and Heather ~ after the show!
Saturday night was the show, so as the cast and band began to arrive, the ladies retired to hair and make-up which was done by
Terribly Girly. That is, all of us except for Melissa's Bettie, who had already worked the show floor, handing out postcards and promoting our show - and otherwise making people stop dead in their tracks with her uncanny resemblance to the real Bettie Page! She even snapped a pic with a Marilyn Monroe.
Miss Olivia Jean as Marilyn and our own Melissa Coleman as Bettie Page
Popeye was photographed by the Sun Sentinel, who gave us a nice mention:
And we were also #2 on the Miami News Times list:
Our cast was spectacular. The ladies transformed themselves into the most beautiful Pin-Up Girls from every era of our show and were visually stunning! I cannot say enough how proud I was of them. Their energy and enthusiasm for the original material and the focus and positivity that they exuded was so inspiring and contagious. Their sparkle and our fantastic (kick-ass) band made for a truly magical combination.
Left to right: Melissa Coleman, Lacey Nikkinen, Ariel Amoure, Zoralys Calle and Sam Streich
Photo by SA Dawkins
Band Members: Gregory "Popeye" Alexander (keyboards, harmonica, bass, band leader) , Dakota Dawkins (bass), Jerome Degey (guitar, bass), Tim Malbacher (drums), Angel Pagan (percussion), JT Tutino (saxophone, guitar), Johammie Romero (trumpet), David Bayardelle (trombone)
Photos by SA Dawkins
Tallahassee-based burlesque troupe,
The Assets, choreographed an original dance
When showtime came, everyone looked amazing and we were so ready to share this piece with the audience. As fate would have it, the band before us ran long and so we began our sound check at the time our show was supposed to start. So the audience of about 400 people, actually sat and watched our sound check. It was strange and uncomfortable at first - but it seemed to melt all of our nervousness away and everyone was able to deliver a really great show!
Melissa Coleman as Bettie Page
Photo by SA Dawkins
There is nothing like the feeling of seeing this original work come to the light and be so well received by the audience. Numerous people came up to me after the show and the entire next day to say how much they loved it and how everyone was talking about it. It just makes us all want to do it again! So buckle up, Bettie, this train has left the station!
Art of the Pin-Up Girl at Pinned Miami
was generously sponsored by
There will be more to tell of this adventure, so stay tuned and follow our Pinterest board for all the media related to our performance at Pinned!
Art of the Pin-Up Girl. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.
Anne Cha's "Girl Power" is also protected under United States Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.