But that’s life. One minute you’re on top of the world, the next minute some secretary’s running you over with a lawn mower.

 Guess who made it into the Top 10 female finalists in the AMC's Mad Men casting call contest? (Try saying that 5x fast, good lord!)

Me! Little old me. Thanks again to everyone that voted so faithfully. A lot of people have been asking me what happens now, so I will try to clarify how everything works from my understanding (via my interpretation of the contest rules)...



HI MOM!



Mad Men Math:

• Voters picked 10 men and 10 women = 20 finalists
• The shows Creator Matthew Wiener now picks ONE grand prize winner who gets the walk on role, and 2 second prize winners that win fairly substantial Banana Republic gift cards.
• So breaking that down a little further, I have a 5% chance of winning. It looks like a female was chosen for the winner last year so hopefully they don't pick a guy just because of that. I am just happy to have made it this far! My ultimate goal for entering this contest was to try and meet the award winning Costume Designer for the show (also designed the amazing costumes for HBO's Deadwood) Janie Bryant, and to maybe get a little advice about entering the world of costume design. Or even just meeting her and seeing the costume department would be lovely!

TOP ROW, SECOND FROM RIGHT

  

One last thanks to Bill Sitzmann of Minorwhite Studios in Omaha for taking this photo. 

Love you Bill & Minorwhite!

Mad Men Contest Entry

Today has been an exciting day, I finally had a photo accepted for AMC's Mad Men casting call contest!
Not only that, but since 8 am today I've received 580 votes with the help of all of my friends and family that have been so wonderful with pushing everyone they know to vote as well.
I appreciate you! You guys got me from page 135 this morning with no votes all the way to 580 votes and into the top 10 "most popular" pages of all the contestants.

Granted it will be A LOT harder from here on out to move up, since some of the very top people have close to 20,000 votes (and they're some of the weirdest photos!) but that's alright, I just want to try.

Above is the photo I cropped down to the permitted size and entered into the contest.

VOTE VOTE VOTE LIKE IT'S GOIN' OUT OF STYLE HERE

You can vote everyday, and as I learned this afternoon you can vote more than once if you have multiple browsers on your computer, and you can also vote on your phone. PHEW that's a lot of voting.

I love you guys and thanks again for all your (very fast) support.

Xo Rah

(Photo: Bill Sitzmann of Minorwhite Studios)

Miles Aldridge for the Win

Motivation, Vogue Italia-style. Enjoy!

Of course this is my favorite.

I'm just going to pretend that they were inspired by The Mynabirds' cake fight in "Let the Record Go". It's obvious, right? Miles Aldridge is totally channeling Laura Burhenn.

Xo Rah

(Photos: All photos by Miles Aldridge for Vogue Italia)

PINK DRESS

These are part two of my photo shoot with with Bill Sitzmann from this spring. Part one, "White Dress" is here. 

The whole suitcase situation is loosely inspired by this promotional photo from one of my favorite movies, Crybaby. Traci Lords' character, Wanda is totally the best thing about that whole movie and I am completely inspired by every aspect of her look. The tiny bangs all curled up on her forehead while the rest of her hair remains long, fluffy and curled, the attitude, the bold red lips, the leather jacket over the dress...GAHHHH it just slays me!

This photo (above) is the one they used in Omaha Magazine for my style feature.  All photos were (of course) taken by Bill Sitzmann of Minorwhite Studios. 

I guess I should say a little something about what I was wearing. The most amazing dress in the world is vintage, sheer socks with blue polka dots are from Anthropologie (I bought 4 pairs, favorite socks in the world!), and the silver glittered open toe pumps are Christian Louboutin.  They're also the shoes I wore to my wedding this past October. 

Were you missing the fake snow from part one? Here we go...

The best (above) of all the snow pictures, I think. 

Feel the burrrrrrrn! 

Snow was all up in my eyes again so although it's not the most flattering photo, I wanted to show you close up of my jewelry. I think I was wearing like four necklaces. Jewelry was a combination of vintage and Forever 21. 

What's that sitting by my arm? Do you see it? The little yellow bag...

IT'S CRACK! Or some other drug, I don't know. None of us were entirely sure, but I think it really sealed the deal to make these last shots my favorite. During the shoot, Colin Conces (also of Minorwhite) stepped on it by accident (after my hair stylist Darcy Covert found it on a mound of dirt and bravely picked it up) and got it all over his shoes. I think he ended up throwing the shoes away or at least had to scrub them down in fear that his dogs would somehow ingest the crack.

Seriously the most ridiculous thing to ever happen to me on a photo shoot. I guess that's what you get when you tell your photographer that you want to shoot in front of one of the most run down strips of (mostly) abandoned housing in Omaha. Omahans, do you recognize it? It's off Leavenworth Street. 

Thanks so much again to the Minorwhite guys for shooting me, I'm really looking forward to our shoot next week, for which we ordered 350 freeze dried honeybees.

That's all I'll say, you'll just have to check back for more BUZZ on the bees.

Xo Rah

LET THE RECORD GO

The Mynabirds - Let The Record Go from Saddle Creek on Vimeo.

This spring I had a chance to participate in a music video with some of my loveliest friends for The Mynabirds, which is Laura Burhenn's new band (formerly of Georgie James).  "What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood" is the title of the Mynabird's first record, available now on Saddle Creek.  It was so much fun to participate, I mean really, isn't it every girl's dream to smash cake in the faces of their friends?

The whole process and styling of the video was amazing, we filmed for almost a whole day but everything was edited down to about two minutes to fit with the video's song, "Let the Record Go". This song is one of, if not my favorite song on this record. Laura's voice is so beautiful it's almost haunting.
Most of the clothing for this video was vintage and it was all our own. I showed up that morning with two giant bags and a suitcase full of clothing, shoes and accessories (gloves, furs and almost ALL of my jewelry) and the rest of the girls did the same. Hair was done by Jessica Brown of Halo Studios in Omaha. In the end a few gloves and things were sacrificed due to the nature of the video (HELLO, CAKE FIGHT) but it was so worth it.

Here are some additional photos taken by Anna, Laura and Jess between filming, enjoy!

Pre-Cake Fight

'Aint nobody here but us chickens, havin' a tea party

From the Left: Anna Rafferty, Jessica Ewald, Laura Burhenn, Susan Sanchez and Me

Isn't Susan's hat incredible? It was completely covered in feathers.

     

Stepford wives?

Can I live in this apartment please?

Post-Cake Fight

What? Do I have something on my face?!

XoXo Rah

LOUIS VUITTON Fall 2010 Campaign

Don't you just adore the direction fashion is heading in right now?
I feel truly inspired by the way the majority of my favorite designers (Galliano, Prada, Jacobs) are taking from the '40s through '60s for their Fall collections this year.
This ad campaign seriously makes me grin from ear to ear. It's just so right!
(click photos for better detail)

Ponytails are to-die-for.

Christy Turlington are you really wearing a full leather skirt? AMAZING!!!

The prints! The textures! Gahhhh!

(Photos: Fashion Gone Rogue taken by Steven Meisel featuring Christy Turlington, Natalia Vodianova & Karen Elson)

Why Don't You Love Me (Enough to Give Me Everything You Wore in this Video)?

Have you seen this?

"Why Don't You Love Me" - Beyoncé from Beyoncé on Vimeo.

When did Beyoncé get so fierce BUCKWILD???!

I think the song is kind of boring and extremely repetitive, but the styling in this video is KILLER. B should definitely try to keep this look up.

Favorite things time:

'60s eye make-up featuring a guest appearance by liquid eye-liner tears




this swimsuit (really though, why don't you love her?)



ginormous chunky rings and robin egg blue nails



floral (maybe D&G?) lingerie



this wig, THOSE BANGS



giant broach on her hat with an honorable mention for the cat eye shades



and finally, the clear cat eye glasses, I would love to own those



Does anyone know who did the styling on this video? If I ever get $rich$ I'm going to hire them to buy all my bedroom clothes.

Xo Rah