The Making of the Card

Tiff and I had so much fun dressing up for Halloween we just couldn't stop. Our friends Marc and Meredith had heard about this place where you could do a glamorous photo shoot in traditional Chinese costume. Of course we signed right up! As you can see, Marc and I carefully examined the racks of clothing for the ultimate in imperial fashion.

After much debate, we decided on one Tang Dynasty costume set, and one "classic" Shanghai set. We were going for that classic, 1920's and 30's "Paris of the East" look.




Marc realizes the costumes were not made with tall white guys in mind.....










Tiffany with her blond tresses looks more Rapunzel than Zhang Ziyi, but don't worry, these guys were pros, and soon had her fixed up appropriately...

With the proper hair extensions, wigs and makeup, Tiffany was soon transformed into a vision of Middle Kingdom majesty...








You can barely tell Meredith and Tiffany aren't just two local Chinese village girls made good!








Here I am getting pretty for the big photo shoot. There's nothing like a little man makeup to make your eyes pop.

I wanted them to add some bushy eyebrows to give me that scowling emperor disdainful-of-his-minions overtone, but somehow that didn't translate...







It's amazing how traditional Tang dynasty wear and Tang dynasty-esque hair extensions can convert two blonds.

Local Shanghainese who walked into the photo shoot quickly dropped into deep kow-towing in fear of these feudal empresses.








The royal couple all made up and ready to go! Unfortunately, as the photographers were soon to scold us, Chinese dynastic imperials do NOT smile.









A group photo with Marc, Meredith Tiffany and me. Every time we started cracking up laughing (about every 4 seconds or so), the photographer would yell at us to stop smiling. Our job was to master the oh-so-slight curl of the lip smile, which would exude mystery and enhance our powerful mystique, as if the all the secrets in China were locked up tightly behind those lips. Or something like that...




Here is one of Tiffany and me, elite members of Shanghai's roaring 20's upper crust, out for a quiet Sunday stroll with the timeless 'sun umbrella'.

Other artistic shots...

All in all, the day was incredible fun and great inspiration for our holiday cards (see below). As Tiffany and I jet off with man makeup and black extensions in tow to celebrate Christmas in the US, we'd like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!