Over The Rainbow with Heatherette Written and Photographed by Bradford Noble Modeled by Richie Rich, Trevor Rains and Lydia Hearst Opposite Photo: Lydia in the Poppy Field

“Hey Honey, Honey, Honey!” Said Richie Rich over the club roar at our dinner table at Lotus, “Wanna shoot our next fashion show invite?”

“Are you kidding?” I gasped, “Why, I’d share an igloo with an Eskimo, and suck on whale blubber, for a project that fun. Of course I’ll do it!”

As it turned out however, my elusions of creative grandeur transgressed into them wanting a black and white headshot of Richie and design partner Traver Rains, for cut out and drop into the original movie poster from “The Wizard of Oz.” All my hopes of doing something fabulous, cascaded into a doing a favor.

“Oh well, in that case,” I said with a heavy sigh of acceptance, “Come to the studio after I shoot this job for Golf Magazine, and I’ll just pay my assistants some overtime. You get one hour, don’t be late!”

Of course they were late. “Where the hell are you?” I asked, not at all trying to hide the frustration in my voice.

“On the way, honey, honey, honey,” Said Richie unfazed, “We just had to pick up the model.”

“Model? What model? I thought this was just a black and white headshot of you and Traver?”

“It’s just Lydia, she’s really sweet, you’ll love her.” Was his response in between giving the cab driver conflicting instructions.

“Okay fine…Just get here!”

Lydia Hearst
Photo Credit Bradford Noble

Fortunately Lydia did turn out to be super sweet, and while she was getting made-up, Richie handed me her model portfolio. “Check out her book, it’s fierce!”

Yeah, yeah, yeah…Models are always “fierce.” I thought. But when I started flipping the pages, all I saw were Vogue covers, and major advertising campaigns. “Wait, this is Lydia…Hearst? You brought me Lydia Hearst, the supermodel, celebutante, daughter of Patti herself?”

“Now do you forgive us for being late?” Traver said with a wink.

Lydia Hearst in Munchkinland
Photo Credit Bradford Noble

In the following two hours, we shot six looks, all in color instead of black and white because how can you shoot anything Heatherette in grayscale? It was as if our combined inspiration fueled a magic act. First there were the hefty bags full of fake flowers, to make a “poppy field” for Lydia to lie in dreamily, as if she was under the spell of the Wicked Witch. Then came the licensed original images from Oz, to use as our backgrounds, complete with Munchkin Land and the Emerald City-scape. Finally there was the silliness of Richie and Traver, skipping down the yellow brick road with a supermodel, with Toto for company.

Richie Rich on the Yellow Brick Road
Photo Credit Bradford Noble

This spur of the moment creativity only happens when crazy, artistic, talented, people get together with no plan but to make something beautiful happen. And so we did.

Trevor Rains "Gets on Down the Road "
Photo Credit Bradford Noble

At the end of out short impromptu photo shoot, Richie and Traver, and Lydia, all thanked me profusely. We all knew there were great images to work with.

“No, honey, honey, honey's!” I said, “It is YOU I need to thank. You came at the end of my run of the mill shoot day for a conservative magazine and brought me magic!”

Herein is what lies “over the rainbow” with Heatherette.

Trevor Rains, Lydia Hearst and Richie Rich
Travel The Yellow Brick Road
Photo Credit Bradford Noble

For more information about Heatherette:
http://www.myspace.com/richandrains
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heatherette