February 9, 2005
Retro pinups raise funds
Pinup gal calendar proceeds aid Young Women for Change
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Take a dozen friends, an award-winning photographer, awesome vintage clothes and a great idea. The resulting mix is a recipe for the Pin Ups 2005 calendar, a mix of sassy and sexy photos that pay homage to the 1940s pin-up gals.
Released earlier this year by Ella's Vintage and Retro Apparel, the calendar is also a fund-raiser for Young Women for Change. Profits from the 100 calendars printed are earmarked for that organization, which works with high school women to promote philanthropy through grants.
The idea for a calendar had been discussed for the past few years by friends Wendy Buhr-Dorman, co-owner of Ella's, and Elizabeth Conley, a photographer formerly with the Traverse City Record-Eagle. A movie about some women creating a calendar planted the seed for their idea.
Last February, the idea and opportunity crystallized: Conley and Buhr-Dorman invited their friends to a family cottage on Torch Lake for the photo-shoot.
"We did eight girls that weekend and it was really fun," Buhr-Dorman said. "None of them were professional models, they were all just local women friends of mine and Elizabeth's."
Participants brought their own music and, if needed, wine to get them relaxed during their turn under the lights. Buhr-Dorman harvested appropriate items from her store and brought an assortment of slinky vintage clothing and accessories for each model.
"Wendy kind of knew each person's personality and from that had pulled out vintage clothes and pieced things together for each of us," said Neely Neu, the September model in the calendar. "It was a lot of fun, we had a weekend and someone did our hair and make up and Elizabeth is an awesome photographer."
Neu said that with everyone being friends, even those who had never modeled before were able to relax.
"It's wasn't a stranger type of thing, it was a group of friends," noted Neu, who has modeled for Ella's advertisements.
Conley took a mix of digital and film images that weekend, capturing enough material to cover eight months. The project stalled, however, until the following Halloween. Buhr-Dorman and Conley had trouble coordinating the schedules of the remaining four models and Conley, who now lives in the Detroit area and works for the Detroit News.
When one of the four models did not make it for the "must do" weekend shoot in the basement of Ella's, Buhr-Dorman stepped into the breach.
"I was six months pregnant and I just put a big hat in front of my pregnant belly and did it," she recalled.
The calendar's quirky aspect is the contribution of Buhr-Dorman's grandmother-in-law, Mary Dorman Lardie. Lardie, 91, worked for Hallmark for 61 years and composed a ditty for each image. Her son, Buhr-Dorman's father-in-law, showed his now-retired mother the pictures and wrote down her lines.
"She talks in prose, it was really easy for her to do it," Buhr-Dorman noted.
The potential of a $500 contribution is exciting to Yvette Babin-Ringsmuth, a member of the fundraising committee for Young Women for Change in Traverse City. The Michigan Women's Foundation started Young Women for Change in 1995 to improve economic self-sufficiency for women and girls. The Traverse City operation began in the fall of 2001 and this year is working with 18 young women from around the region.
"These are high school age girls who decide they want to be the change they want to see in the community," Babin-Ringsmuth said. "The girls have to learn about philanthropy and programs that are currently running in their community."
"We're really excited about the calendar because we are only three years old and it is nice to get our name out there," she said.