Zoe Chamberlain talks to a photographer helping women build confidence using a touch of the burlesque
Rachel Spivey’s studio is an Aladdin’s cave of feathers, fabrics, mirrors, hats, feathers – and even nipple tassels.
For Rachel is not your average photographer.
She turns ordinary women into extraordinary glamour models, empowering them with enough confidence to feel like burlesque stars with her boudoir photography.
“Women love the glamour of it,” says the 38-year-old from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. “They like the fact that it’s a bit naughty. You might not show your mum the pictures but it’s not rude or salacious.”
Rachel has always loved the glamour of old movie stars and modern burlesque artists such as Dita von Teese and Immodesty Blaize.
And it is these stars who have brought about a huge interest in burlesque culture, from pole dancing classes to boudoir hen parties.
But it’s not just extrovert, glamorous women who are getting involved, it’s actually often those who are shy and reserved.
“When women who aren’t particularly body-confident see pictures of people with a bit of cellulite, or others with a big bum, looking gorgeous, they think: ‘Hold on, I could do that too!’ “It’s like the Gok Wan effect. Women find it very empowering.”
Many women come to Rachel as a way of boosting their self-esteem following a major event in their lives.
Rachel, whose children are Ted, 10, and four-year-old twins Wilf and Dan, says: “Some have just had surgery or are recovering from a serious illness. Others have got divorced or suffered bereavement.
“But they’ve all got one thing in common – they want to increase their confidence and self-esteem. This is one way they can do that.
“When they’ve been through a major change in their lives, something snaps in them and they decide they want to do it.
“There was one woman whose first husband had been really nasty to her, not physically but he was nasty about the way she looked. Her mother had always been horrible about her appearance, too.
“She was getting married to a new bloke and really didn’t feel confident about her body.
“I felt like crying when she told me her story. But by the time we’d finished the shoot, she said it was the best experience she’d ever had, and that she felt great about herself.”
Formally trained in photography at Cheltenham and Gloucester College, Rachel began her career at the Hulton photographic archive – working with original negatives from the likes of Fox Studios and Picture Post – before starting work as a commercial and wedding photographer more than 10 years ago.
When a couple of brides asked if she did “boudoir photography” she jumped at the chance – and used the family’s savings to open her own studio to photograph half-naked women.
With a life-long passion for old movies, retro clothes and all things glamorous, creating a boudoir studio with a vintage twist was a natural next step.
Equipped with a wide range of props and backgrounds, Rachel uses genuine vintage Mole Richardson lighting to achieve an authentic warmth and Hollywood look. Sessions start from £250 including hair and makeup, post-production and two prints.
Women bring their own underwear and have fun posing in Rachel’s “Aladdin’s cave” of props.
“Some women are nervous to start with,” says Rachel. “But then I show them the images and they say: ‘Wow! I look a bit of all right, don’t I?’ They soon get into it. Lots of women choose to go topless, some using nipple tassels, others not.
“Being a mum-of-three, I don’t have many inhibitions myself and it puts them at ease. When people have body issues they feel safer to come to someone like me: a woman and a mum. I tend to look at the person, not their size or age or shape.
“One woman had had a lot of surgery on her heart throughout her childhood and was quite shy about her scar. She asked me to take away the scar on the pictures afterwards. I think she wanted to see how she would look without it.”
So has Rachel tried it herself? “Of course!” she laughs. “I tried it with Jeni and Sue, the girls who do hair and make-up here, because we wanted to know what it feels like to do it.
“We had a great time. Jeni has a beautiful figure but was quite nervous. In the end she had nipple tassels on, and loved it!”
Rachel’s husband Craig is a graphic designer and he helps her to make the pictures unique to the client, turning some of them into old-fashioned playing cards or postcards.
“We work with them to create the session they really want, from ‘What the Victorian butler saw’ to a 1950s pin-up,” she says.
“What they do with the pictures afterwards really varies. A lot of them go into an album, which is tucked away in a drawer. But some have them made into massive canvasses they put up on their bedroom walls.
“A lot of women say they do it for their partners but I think sometimes that’s just an excuse for them to go out and buy themselves some fancy knickers and have a go!”
So what does Rachel’s family think of her line of work?
“Craig loves telling people what I do for a living,” she smiles. “Ted has seen my pictures, although not the ones of the bare boobs because he’s only 10.
“Now, when he sees anything like high heels and so on, he says: ‘I bet you like that mum because that’s burlesque’.
“It’s easier for me to fit this in around the family. Commercial photography can be very last minute with people wanting me to get on a plane to Glasgow the next day. I can’t do that anymore.
“But I do this in between the children’s school and nursery runs, so it’s great. My mum really helps me out.”
Most of Rachel’s client’s boudoir images tend not to be for public consumption, but she has had a few volunteers who have modelled for her portfolio.
“Darkteaser was one of the first of the burlesque performers who volunteered to model for me a few years ago. I have since photographed her on numerous occasions, both in the studio and live on stage,” she explains.
“A trained dancer she lives the vintage lifestyle 24/7 and performs regularly around Europe.
“Like Darkteaser, Lily was one of the first ‘burly girls’ I worked with and someone I have gone on to shoot several times since.
“Cheryl and Lisa are both hairdressers from Coventry and came in together to road test my first studio. Neither had ever modelled before and were delighted with the results.
“Their shoot provided me with an opportunity to try out loads of different ideas in the studio and also in post production. Lisa as a pin-up playing card has proved one of my most popular images.”
Customer Alison Brown, 54 and a teacher from Warwick, decided to brave boudoir photography as a wedding present for her husband John last year.
And the first person she showed the pictures to was her mum.
“You think you’ll never look as good as you look today, yet you look in the mirror and think you look horrible,” says the mum-of-two, who has changed her name to conceal her identity.
“I wanted to be able to look back in 10 years time and think I looked quite good. I bought basques, frilly knickers, stockings, shiny high patent heels – things I’d never wear normally.
“Then I disappeared one day with my bag of undies, stockings and beads, and did the shoot.
“I was nervous. Like most women, I felt conscious of my lumps and bumps, especially as I’d never done anything like this in my life.
“Rachel made me feel like I was beautiful, and there was nothing I couldn’t do. I explained that I wanted something sensual and subtle because of my age, nothing completely nude or tarty.
“I was really into Biba when I was a teenager so they made me look like Twiggy, and I posed in a basket cane chair which hung from the ceiling.
“My mum, who is in her 80s, loved the pictures. They’re really tasteful, although I haven’t shown them to my children. I gave John the album the day before our wedding and he was utterly gobsmacked.
“I also had a couple of prints done which are on the walls at home – one of my legs in stockings and another of my face in soft focus. He’s really proud of them. It was totally empowering, I came out feeling on top of the world, like I was a 1940s movie star!”
Rachel has gambled her savings on Raquel Rouge photography based in Leamington Spa but she felt it was now or never.
She says: “I know it’s brave in the current climate but it’s only money. I didn’t want to get to 40 and think ‘I wish I’d gone for it’.
“When I was a girl, I used to sit and watch old black and white films on a portable TV in my bedroom on Sunday afternoons.
“While my friends danced around with hairbrushes pretending to be pop stars, I wanted to be a movie star from that era. I love what I do.”
