SIDNEY — Stage Stores, owner’s of Sidney’s Peebles, recently coordinated a fashion photo shoot and interview with Jessica Guillozet, of Maplewood.
Guillozet had been selected as one of the corporation’s Real Life Real Style women. Her photos and video will be posted in mid-November on the company’s blog, blog.stage.com.
Guillozet found out in September that she had been chosen, so there was lots of time for anticipation before she flew to Houston, Texas, earlier this month for the shoot. It turned out to be different from what she had expected.
“It was more than what I thought it was going to be,” she said recently. “I got more out of it.”
The Stage staff met her at the airport and checked her into the Hotel Derek, next door to Stage corporate offices.
Guillozet was impressed.
“It was white and chic. It smelled like they had cologne coming out of the air ducts. It was very modern with an ’80s vibe. There was snakeskin wallpaper in the bathroom,” she said.
The photo shoot producer had emailed Guillozet a call sheet, but she didn’t know what it was. She thought she was to report to the corporate office the next day at 8 a.m. So that’s what she did; however, the photo shoot was elsewhere. In the process of figuring out where she was supposed to be, Guillozet befriended the Stage security guard, who helped her find Bruce Darrell, Stage Stores creative director and a facilitator of the Real Life/Real Style program. A quick Uber ride took her to the set.
There, she met producer and art director Sarah Raskin and styling director Robert Mitchell. There were two dressers, a seamstress, a hair stylist and two videographers waiting for her. There also was a second Real Life Real Style woman, whose shoot would follow Guillozet’s.
Mitchell showed Guillozet the racks of clothes he had selected for her, based on questions about her style that she had answered by email several weeks before.
“I would have preferred more fringe,” Guillozet said. The cameras rolled as she and Mitchell discussed what he had chosen and why. She was to pick three outfits from the pants, shoes, shirts, vests, purses and jewelry. As she was in the dressing room in the first one, a seamstress began to tuck and pin the clothes into a perfect fit.
“I was in that outfit for 20 minutes,” Guillozet said. “I told Robert I wasn’t going to do that three times. Then Robert and I had a heart-to-heart.” Guillozet had mixed up pieces among the ensembles Mitchell had put together. She had pulled out items from racks meant for the second shoot. Mitchell had seemed somewhat nonplussed.
“I said, ‘This is real life. This is real style. Right?’” she asked him. Despite her boldness, she said, she and Mitchell ended up friends. That was a surprise.
“I did not expect to make a great friend out of this,” she said.
Once the outfits were established, Guillozet had her hair done. The stylist used hot rollers to set it.
“My hair was huge. I kept flattening it down,” she laughed.
The make-up artist surprised Guillozet by using Elf products.
“I can buy those at Walmart,” the new model said, pleased.
Before the interview started, Guillozet put her new clothes back on.
“Robert kept chasing me around with a lint roller,” she said. Then, she sat in what she said was an extremely uncomfortable chair, to be interviewed on camera by Raskin. One reason Guillozet had been nominated by the store manager of the Sidney Peebles was because she annually organizes a fashion show in Sidney with local celebrities and S&H Products associates with disabilities as models. Guillozet had said she wanted to be sure to have the opportunity to talk about the fashion show during the interview for the blog.
She did.
“The fashion show was the main thing we talked about,” she said. “We (also) talked about where I get my style advice or if I like to shop alone or with someone, about my kids, my work.”
Guillozet admitted to getting style advice from Pinterest and to shopping at Goodwill and thrift shops.
“I won’t buy anything full price,” she said.
After the second woman had the same kind of shoot, the whole team went to the corporate headquarters to do more filming there.
The whole day was exhausting, Guillozet said, but fun. She got to keep several of the pieces of clothing she’d worn.
Later, the videographers treated her to dinner at a Cajun restaurant.
“I had jambalaya, the best food I ever had on vacation,” she said. Then, it was back to the hotel for a long shower.
“I couldn’t wait to get rid of all the make-up and hairspray out of my hair,” she said. It had been a very long day.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. It’s the only thing I’ve done just for me,” she said.
Guillozet spent the next day shopping in the Galleria mall in Houston.
“I was there for five hours and I didn’t see half of it,” she said. She spent an hour and a half in a Sephora store — “Now I wear lipstick,” she said — and bought stationery for thank-you notes for the people she’d worked with on the shoot.
Family friends took her to dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
“It was authentic. I had thought the Cajun food was the best. This was so good,” she said. The following day, she hand-delivered the thank-you notes and called Uber for a ride to the airport. The driver was surprised to learn that Guillozet had not tried any Texas barbecue during her stay.
“So in the airport, I had brisket,” she said. “It was delicious. I’m going to have to go back to Texas for the food — and the friendships.”
Her new friends at Stage will be happy to see her.
“From what I hear, (the shoot) went well,” said Durrell, who was not present for the taping. “Everyone loves Jessica. They thought she was a natural on camera. Poised. Energetic. We think our customers are going to love her as much as we do.”
“It was a once-in-lifetime thing, but the bonds and friendship that have been established (are what matters most),” Guillozet said.
She hopes corporate executives will keep their promise to help promote the S&H Products fashion show.
“I think it would be a dream come true if Robert would come to Ohio for it,” she said. “And I really hope they have me back (to Houston) for a reunion or something.”
