Attached to her baggy jeans and T-shirts, SIENNA MACANNAtried out a girly teen beauty boot camp – and found it surprisingly enjoyable and informative
IT IS TWO days before the Leaving Cert results on a grey August morning and the last thing I want to do is catch a Dart to Malahide at 8.30am. But, believe it or not, there is something I craved more than sleep and that’s a distraction.
My sister, Bessa, and I arrived in Malahide station at 9.05am, got directions to the Grand Hotel and walked five minutes along the coast. I was not looking forward to a day of comportment, fashion and make-up.
When we reached the hotel my excited sister asked a bemused secretary for directions to the “induction” meeting and we very nearly claimed someone else’s job before realising our mistake.
After being shown to the hospitality room, which Bessa kept calling the “pleasure” room and pilfering a breakfast of cereal bars – which may or may not have been set out for us – we were introduced to Fiona (the gorgeous 17-year-old model), Chloe MacDonnell (the young communications expert) and style goddess Orla Diffily (manager and founder of Upfront Model Management).
The girls trickled in until there were 11 students in all, ranging in age from 12 to 18. Later we’ll see that the small group size guarantees one-on-one interaction for all.
After introductions, in which I learned to my embarrassment that I was by far the oldest and most ignorant in the class, the instruction in personal style began.
With the aid of a slide show and personal questionnaire, we were shown how to identify different styles of dress. And for every style there was at least one well-known celebrity example who had already mastered it. Jennifer Aniston, for example, is a champion of the natural look. Then there’s the romantic Cheryl Cole, dramatic Lady Gaga, classic Victoria Beckham, etc. As it turned out, my style is so casual that there is no category for it.
Then we moved on to the all important deportment section, which highlighted the importance of confidence and good posture in everyday situations, for health reasons as well as appearances. With effortless grace, Fiona shows us how it’s done, on the catwalk as well as the sidewalk.
For the first time that day, but definitely not the last, my 15-year-old sister (later judged “best catwalk”) and the 14-year-olds put me to shame. After my first attempt, the high heels are discarded, not just for my own safety, but for everyone else’s. And just in case I thought it couldn’t get any more humiliating, it all gets put on tape for later analysis.
Then it was time for a crash course in conversation skills from Chloe, also videotaped. Posture, body language and the age-old skill of small talk are covered, with every topic from films to Bono as president. After lunch, make-up artist Gillian Rafferty arrived to give us much-needed lessons in skincare and crafty consumerism. We learned the importance of finding the right foundation for your skin as well as the proper cleansing product. The danger of make-up remover wipes and hair straighteners were explained with the message that everything you do to your skin and body in your teens, while not necessarily obvious at the time, has a massive impact on the adult you. So, if you take the time and effort to wear suncream when you’re young, you can take 10 years off your face by the time you’re 40. This was the highlight of my day, and any doubts I previously had about the course’s usefulness were quickly dispelled. The atmosphere of fun and camaraderie increased as we learned to recreate the infamous “smoky eyes” (not to mention the correct application of such treacherous materials as liquid eyeliner and false lashes).
I brought my debs dress along, hoping for advice on what shoes and accessories to buy, and was told, with my debs four weeks away, I was cutting it close.
At the end of the eight-hour day, we got free goodie bags, containing a free voucher to a salon, our fabulous make-up artist’s card and a really useful booklet called The Style Secret by Josie McCannon crammed full of personalised style advice and the means to determine and dress for your body shape, whether you’re a pear, an apple or the dreaded inverted triangle.
General consensus: a day well spent. So if, like me, you find yourself suffocating in baggy jeans and T-shirts, you may want to give this girly thing a try. Turns out it’s not as hard or restricting as I thought. Far from it. In fact, I’ve finally realised what my sister recognised all along. Fashion is creative, exciting and, most of all, liberating.
Additional reporting by Bessa MacAnna.
The next Teen Beauty Boot Camp is on Monday at the Grand Hotel in Malahide. Cost: €65. See upfrontmodelmanagement.com
