COVER: Kristen Stewart
ISSUE: July 2010
SHOOT DATE: March 29th 2010
VENUE: On location, Beverley Hills, Los Angeles
PHOTOGRAPHER: Matthias Vriens McGrath
WRITER: Hanna Hanra
ELLE Team: Tom Macklin, Tom Meredith
STYLIST: Anne-Marie Curtis

It’s a baking hot Spring day and the ELLE team arrive on location at 8.30am sharp. The setting for our July cover shoot is a magnificent mansion, on Coldwater Canyon Drive in Beverley Hills, California. It’s one of those winding roads high up in the hills, the epitome of “Hollywood”. Every house is engulfing in size, some beautiful and classic, whilst others are pimped out power houses with golden gates, Grecian style pillars and oh, I even spot a miniature Statue of Liberty in one front garden en route.

The setting for our July cover shoot

This house, however, is a little more low-key and simple. And no stranger to this part of town is our July cover star, local Californian girl Kristen Stewart. She breezes in, PR in tow, just ahead of schedule at 9.45am. Dressed down in her usual battered jeans, converse and black tee, hair loosely pulled back, no make-up and a pair of shades. She is petite, and reminiscent of a young Winona Ryder / Jodie Foster. There is something that instantly draws you in, despite the shyness, she definitely exudes that star quality. She is friendly and welcoming, and after introductions are made we sit down to talk her through the set up for the day. Following her meteoric rise to fame courtesy of the Twilight franchise 18 months ago, fashion shoots are new territory for Kristen. ELLE is her first ever UK glossy shoot and interview, ahead of the release of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”, and the independent film “The Runaways”.
After an initial rail run through, it’s into hair and make-up. Our idea was to re-position Kristen slightly. Her shoots up until now have embodied that teen angst, and been quite hard. We were interested in creating something more grown up, a little softer, whilst maintaining that quirkiness which has become such a big style staple for Kristen. The make-up was light, and minimal, with clear skin and a soft red lip. For hair, we went for swept up, tousled, with lots of movement.

We try and bag the cover shot early on and start in front of a white board, moving onto a chair, sofa and then the floor. It’s not long before Kristen takes control of the speakers and plugs her i-pod in to provide the shoots play list. There are bouts of laughter throughout the day every time Kristen’s mobile goes, the result of a stalker fan who continues to make silent calls. Kristen deals with it well and laughs it off.
We shoot Prada, Vanessa Bruno, Clements Ribeiro, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Dolce & Gabbana and Aquascutum. As the day progresses Kristen starts to relax in front of the camera, finding her comfort zone. We complete an impressive 10 set ups in total.

The jeans are back and we reflect on the day as Kristen signs a print for our exclusive subscriber cover. Kristen and our writer Hanna Hanra prepare for the big interview the following day.

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