The next edition of Glasshouse Diaries, an editorial collaboration between photographer Jessica MacCormick and the Glasshouse team, is focused on Charly Clive, a writer and actor based in East London. We visited her at home, the perfect location for Jess as she aims to foster a deeply personal approach in her photography; “I tend to draw on the spirit of the people and environments I photograph, and take great joy in that. I think my anthropological background taught me to value those small things that hold a great deal of meaning and contribute to the storytelling of our lives.”
As Charly’s regular hair stylist, our senior stylist Ashley took the lead - “Charly has incredible hair; thick, healthy, with a bit of a wave that styles so amazingly”, says Ashley. “At her last appointment before the shoot we wanted to add in some textural layers to remove some weight and create beautiful movement. I finished by cutting in curtain bangs to frame and open up her face, bringing attention to her eyes.”
On shoot day, Ashley styled hair in a variety of ways, from soft effortless waves to a sleek twisted up-do. “For the first style I prepped the hair used Oway Molding Mist, Sea Salt Spray and then added texture with Volume & Texture Hair Puff. We wanted natural looking waves, so to achieve that I used my 1 inch curling iron - curling the hair in different directions to make it perfectly imperfect.” Olivia used RMS Beauty for make-up, dabbing their signature creamy luminizers and multi use Lip2Cheek balms onto the skin to create fresh and clean looks with a flush of natural colour. Whilst Ashley and Olivia worked on hair and beauty, we were keen to discover more about Charly’s life, work and perspective.
Whilst for some it takes years to decipher what we want to be when we grow up, for Charly performing has been a long term fascination, as she remembers “...apparently I started saying I wanted to be an actor when I was 3… then when I was 8 I watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe on Channel 5 one rainy day because I couldn’t find the TV remote to change the channel to cartoons. I just accepted my fate and watched this black and white movie and I loved it. I was like ‘oh yeah I want to do that, I want to be funny like her’. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do really, just make people laugh and hear people clap.”
Fast forward to present day and Charly is now living that dream, having written and starred in both stage and television shows - “In 2016 my best friend and I took a show to Edinburgh Fringe called Britney and very unexpectedly it did really well; so well that we ended up deciding to try and do it professionally and I’m pleased to say we now do”, she shares. “We’ve been doing live comedy for a few years now and have some really exciting things coming up…I’ve also been in some really special TV projects. Last year I spent most of the year filming and that was great and it was exhausting, and this year I’m spending most of the year writing and it’s great and it’s exhausting. When I’m acting I’d rather be writing and when I’m writing I’d rather be acting.”
Whilst Ashley works on creating the second look - a lived in, contemporary take on the French twist - we ask Charly what has piqued her interest recently; “My biggest inspirations this year so far have been; Anne Hathaway’s fringe, the merrily we roll along Broadway soundtrack and Stephen Sondheim generally, the city of Antwerp, the film Down By Law by Jim Jarmusch, pickles, My Neighbours The Dumplings (the restaurant), The TV show The Curse, The Radio 4 show TLDR with Catherine Bohart, noodles, Cowboy Carter, the novels and plays of Ira Levin, Jude Bellingham’s bicycle goal, The Celine Dion documentary, bacon, podcasts about cults.”
Charly’s home she shares with her best friend Ellen is as eclectic as her influences, including an incredible wardrobe room full of vintage pieces we used for styling. “We started renting the place in lockdown and it was very in need of love when we moved in. Ellen painted every room happy colours and pulled up the horrible carpets and put down nice rugs. I contributed a bit too, I bought some decorative cushions and burned some sage”, she shares. “My favourite parts of the house are the roof terrace, our attic office that overlooks the park, the haunted crawl space, my wardrobe and the hole in the floor that previous tenants stashed porn mags in.”
As we pack up for the day we reflect on how lucky we are to be surrounded by such a varied and dynamic clientele and collaborators; women who are paving their own way in life and career and inspiring us to do the same.
Photographer: Jessica MacCormick / @roadstory_
Hair: Ashley Wadwell - book in with Ashley by clicking here
Beauty and Art Direction: Olivia Crighton
Muse: Charly Clive
