Throwback: A Decade of Christmases

Happy Monday! We are a week into December so I feel like I can wish you all a Merry Christmas without getting shouted at for it being too early.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

This week, I'm bringing you a throwback of my old Christmas shots. It was fun going back through my portfolio looking for all my Christmassy images from over the years. I started modelling over a decade ago and my first Christmas shoot was in 2015, so looking back at these images got me feeling super nostalgic (I get that way anyway around Christmas, when we are looking back over the past year as we move forward to the next chapter, neatly packaged in New Year celebrations).

Let's take a look at the images and I will talk more about them in each section. Heads up, this post is going to feature our favourite photographer Dave Edkins a lot because we have often tried to get a silly Christmas shoot in since we started working together.

2015: Brian Cooper

My first Christmas shoot was with Brian Cooper and it was SO much fun. I had only been modelling since the beginning of the year in 2015, but I had already shot with Brian quite a few times at this point. We got on well because we both had loads of silly ideas and loved to shoot things that were a bit different. After we had done an amazing Halloween shoot, we agreed that it was a must for us to do a Christmas one too... so we did. And the images did not disappoint.

I loved digging out these images because it's nice to look back at who I was over 10 years ago. It's a long time and so much has changed since then. If someone told me when I shot these images that over a decade later, I would be sat writing this blog post with the most perfect nearly-four-year-old creating a huge mess of toys in my living room, still modelling and talking about my work through a weekly blog post, running workshops with a photographer I hadn't met yet... I wouldn't have believed them. The Misuzu in these images is worlds apart from the one writing this post, which is crazy to think about really.

But enough of that, on to the images from my 2015 Christmas shoot with Brian. First, we started with my Miss Santa and Christmas Elf outfits, complete with candy cane stockings and Santa's sack!

Implied nude images can look so classy... but they can also be silly and fun like these two. The placement of the 'Santa please stop here' sign still cracks me up to this day. Apparently, this girl just really loves Santa!

And again with another Christmas sign (that I still have and use at home, as well as on shoots), plus the first of many art nudes with fairy lights. It's definitely one of my favourite festive shots to get, because it adds a nice twist to classic art nude shots. Also, it just looks so pretty!

2016: Nigel Spooner and Kevin Sheldon

I was going to just skip passed the years that I didn't have a proper Christmas shoot, but I decided to just add in shots from December shoots instead since they're kind of festive in their own way. And for some of the later years without a Christmas shoot, I've added in a little paragraph about why there were no Christmas images from that year. Mostly because I enjoy having this space to talk freely about my life and my work, plus it's nice to share a little about myself with you all.

While I didn't specifically do a Christmas shoot in 2016, I did do a few shoots in December that kind of had winter vibes.

Above are images from an outdoor shoot I did with Nigel Spooner, where I basically just wore hats and scarves (I remember it was bloody freezing so enjoyed the knitwear) and then below, a shoot I did with Kevin Sheldon indoors (thankfully) that again, isn't Christmassy but it was lovely to be all cosy in a nice warm house shooting some classic art nude images.

Nearly 10 years ago, no wonder I look so young and carefree.

2017: Mick Szabo

In 2017, I had a little home studio set up that I made from studio equipment I had borrowed from my dad. Mick Szabo came to shoot me there in the December and we focussed on an idea he had with a mask, weirdly similar to a shoot we did just last week (I should probably be offended that he keeps asking me to wear masks on our shoots, but whatever). I made him shoot something vaguely Christmassy with me because I love Christmas, so we went for fairy lights, of course.

2018: Dave Edkins

2018 was the year that me and Dave first started to work together. There's a whole post on that if you missed it and would like to give that a read. This was only our second shoot together, taking place at The X Factory in Stoke. It was freezing on account of it being an old partly derelict building with no heating. We cracked out the Miss Santa and Elf outfits and got these lovely Christmassy images. The outfits provide a really good contrast to the derelict background of the studio.

2019: No Christmas Shoot

The Christmas of 2019, I had actually moved away from Stoke and was living in London. I had spent the earlier part of the year travelling, first around Europe as a merch girl for a band, and then took a road trip around Ireland. Upon returning to England, I moved to London for a bit and wasn't really modelling much at that point, so there were no Christmas photoshoots. I ended up moving back to Stoke shortly after the Covid lockdowns in early 2020 and once we were allowed to start living again, I resumed modelling.

So in leu of a Christmassy image for 2019, here are a few shots from a December shoot I did in London with a photographer called Crezenda at his home studio:

2020: Andy Harding

The lockdown Christmas that I'm sure we can all remember, christmas 2020. We were lucky enough to get some snow and obviously it was too good an opportunity to miss. These were taken not far from my home by Andy Harding. We had to be super quick to capture these as not only was it quite public, it was absolutely bloody freezing (because, you know, snow is cold). These images came out really well and I'm very proud of them.

2021: Pregnant Christmas

I was shooting quite a lot around December 2021... but no specifically Christmassy shoots as I was heavily pregnant, so my main focus was on maternity shots. Here are some shots of me looking very round, taken by Dave Edkins (of course, who else would it be) in the pop up studio he created at his local Village hall.

The first image, I just love because it looks classy and glamorous, even though it's not even vaguely Christmassy. The second one in a warm jumper is definitely giving winter vibes, so i think it passes for a festive shot. The third image feels quite Christmassy to me with the red material and the warm candle lit backdrop. Slightly cheating to include these in a Christmas throwback blog post but I'll take any opportunity to add in images of me pregnant because I just really rocked it ;)

2022: Dave Edkins

My first Christmas as a mother was in 2022. I did a shoot at a local studio called Valcato with Dave. I had my almost-one-year-old daughter with me in the studio, so it was interesting trying to shoot around her in a tiny studio. Here are my favourite two shots from that day. We also got some lovely images with my daughter (both intentional and unintentional) but these are the best Misuzu-looking-vaguely-festive ones.

2023: Dave Edkins

In 2023, we went to Basford Hurst Studio with another photographer and made use of their lovely Christmas set. The outfit was courtesy of the other tog there, and that second shot I love especially as it was one of those shots that was unintentional but looks lovely.

Then the festive favourite: Misuzu in fairy lights. Usually when I shoot this it's in a low key setting, but these shots turned out lovely, shooting in the beautiful setting of Basford Hurst.

2024: Dave Edkins

Last year, me and Dave shot at The Kiln studio in Stoke. We shot some lovely art nudes by a very simple and classy Christmas tree, so not the crazy, bright, overtly Christmassy shots, but still lovely.

And the obligatory Christmas jumper shot (the shoot was actually on Christmas jumper day, so I insisted on this shot). I love this jumper, by the way: it features typical Christmas imagery like candy canes, snowmen and snowflakes, but the words say 'bite me', 'oh snap' and 'merry spacemas'. Because why not.

2025: Sneak Peak

Finally, over the weekend was our Christmas group shoot and here is one of Dave's shots that I edited quickly to add in for a sneak peek. Expect more Christmassy images next week!

And there you have it: A decade of Christmases with Misuzu. I hope you're having a wonderful festive season so far. Stay safe and be merry. Until next Monday,

Misuzu x