These polaroids are from the earliest days of the academy, when I used a Polaroid camera. The Poloroid was perfect because there was just one copy of which which the student could take or leave behind with me. These were the days when people were reluctant to have their pictures taken, not like today when everyone flaunts pretty pictures on social media. Each one of these photos brings to mind a particular story and the particular journey that I shared with the student – always assisted by our faulty of expert and caring deans. Im thrilled to share some of them with you as a special Valentines day gift. Here are just a few of the many ‘new women’ who passed through our pretty parlor, at Miss Vera’s Finishing School of Boys Who Want to Be Girls.
With more applications still coming in, I am considering a new program for sometime in 2024. In the meantime, you can book me for a consultation.
Happy Valentines Day to all!
Top Left: This pretty maid in black plastic was Chet – a reporter from Screw Magazine. He arrived scruffy, until we dolled him up and called him Selene.
Top Right: The feather boa around her face, reminds me that she was pretty as a peaock. Like many students of our early days, she loved garter belts, stockings and a tightly laced corset to enhance her waist. She was a European beauty.
Top Left: When I first began the academy, everyone wanted to be a french maid. We did our best to solve the domestic problem. This student sits proud beneath our academy crest – a stained glass gift from another student Jennifer James.
Top Right: Miss Deborah with our first dean of makeup with Christine. Miss Deborah was a famous male television host who came from Germany for one of our early television spots. It’s a good glimpse into our academy makeup area at the time.
Bottom Left: Six inch spikes add to the height of this student complimented by a wasp waist corset, a garment which turns every breath into an orgasm – and a mini skirt from my personal wardrobe designed by Miss Antoinette. Blondie is feeling her power! Dontcha love my lacey leggings? 😉
Bottom Right: We always had a student close her eyes in a second photo, so she could take a reference of her eyelid makeup and use it to copy the makeup on her own outside of the academy. To me, this girl looks like a young Kathleen Turner.
Above: Carla was not an academy student. She was community icon who has started a silk stocking club years before I created the academy. She always dressed as the proper lady, always with a hat (sometimes with a veil) and of course always silk stockings, and often makeup that was a bit too white – but for Carla, life was a cabaret.
Top left: When Jennifer James first applied the academy, she announced with enthusiasm ‘I want to be the wind beneath your wings’ – and she was. She served as an academy supermodel, and went on to become a superstar in countless PR spots in magazines, books and television. A TV star in more ways than one! For her 40th birthday I organized a photoshoot that took her from baby to bride and beyond. Rest in Pretty Jennifer James – you are now christened a saint of Miss Vera’s Academy.
Top Right: Stephanie travelled from the courthouse to our doll house. After coming getting in touch with her feminine side, she revolved to use her talents to become of service to the CD community.
Bottom Right: Not Jayne Mansfield and Sofia Loren, but Jennifer James and Greta.
Left: This was Erica. She loved her leather. She always arrived with long press-on talons. She was an early metrosexual who kept her eyebrows well-groomed, which came in handy when we transformed her.
Right: Michelle came from the midwest. When I first began the academy, executives had big travel expenses accounts and were able to travel cross country. Many of them included a visit to Miss Vera’s Academy as part of their private itinerary.
Left and Right: This NYU student came to the academy to make a movie, instead we turned him into a movie star. She came from Georgia so we named her Miss Peach.
Above: I inherited this maid from Jo Lynne – who had had her own transformation practice. Dont let the outfit fool you, he was much better suited to construction work than tea parties, but he loved to have his long hippie hair set in sponge rollers.
Top Left and Bottom Left: My dear friend Antony was a sexy makeup artist, who did my makeup and then his own to help up with publicity. We shared my apartment for a time – life was beautiful with my own live-in makeup artist!
Top Right: The woman in the this photo came to the academy with the idea of designing a custom clothing line for us. The man she brought with him was only too happy to serve as a model in an organza maids uniform, however he refused to shave his mustache – but maybe that was part of the look.
Bottom Right: Marlene had the body of a football player, and was determined to become a dead bride. We made a make-shift coffin for her and put her in a white gown, with white makeup to make her look really dead. Miss Debra and Miss Barbara gossiped over her corpse in the way she had fantasied. I say without judgment that it was bizarre and good fun. Who knows were our desires come from.
We were always stepping into another world with our students and I hope you enjoyed this initial glimpse of them.
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