'We'll Take Manhattan': Whovian crush Karen Gillan stars as Jean Shrimpton

I could be one of the biggest Jean Shrimpton fans alive. I read her (then out-of-print) autobiography many years ago. I've made two fan videos for the excellent film she starred in, 'Privilege'. I styled myself after her for my own wedding. So my devotion to The Shrimp is (at least) equal to the Whovian's to Doctor Who – and therefore, Karen Gillan, also known as the 'Ginger Goddess'.

This puts me at an odd contingency to suggest: although Karen Gillan is as lovely as she can possibly be, she doesn't quite do it for me as Jean Shrimpton. I realize this is dangerous territory, given the fandom she has. Please forgive me, Whovians, I'm just that partial to The Shrimp. There was something so otherworldly and doll-like about Jean Shrimpton's face. Not that I can think of an actress who can do her look more justice than Ms. Gillan.

From what I understand, Jean Shrimpton did not want to be involved with the production of this film. However, she did ring up Karen Gillan, herself, after she previewed 'We'll Take Manhattan'... to tell her she thought it was well done and an accurate take on what happened. And that's the best recommendation her performance and the film could get, since Jean Shrimpton is nothing if not absolutely straight-forward and grounded.

I've been excited to see 'We'll Take Manhattan' since I heard it was going into production. I'm not sure when it'll get to us across the "pond" (har-har ;)), but I'm ready. David Bailey, of course, happens to be one of my all-time favorite photographers. Their relationship was a fascinating one and together they changed the face of fashion. 

Jean Shrimpton was the very first real supermodel the world had ever known. This tends to be debatable, but I personally stand by that in terms of how influential she was. Even the dramatic popularity of the miniskirt in the 1960's is credited to her, and you can look that up. She inspired the young Lesley Hornby –– better known as Twiggy –– to want to be a model, and we all know how that turned out. Of course, David Bailey was the visionary photographer boyfriend behind Jean Shrimpton's meteoric rise, as well as several other notable beauties after her. 'We'll Take Manhattan' is the story of how that all began.

Here is the just released trailer for 'We'll Take Manhattan':

The Shrimp & The Big Day

The inspiration

Wedding day 

The look that inspired my recent wedding was inevitably that of Jean Shrimpton. I had bought the film "Privilege" years ago - and in it, discovered my 'wedding look'. It was one of Jean's dresses, a perfect, simple, strikingly beautiful long-sleeved mini her character wears in a party scene.

Look I was originally going for from 'Privilege'

When my actual wedding day approached, I came across this other look of hers in a photo (shown above) and was struck - yet again. I worked it out in my own way. Seems I would have been inspired by The Shrimp on my big day no matter what, and regardless!

And here is a little video I made, sort of to capture the mood I was going for on our simple wedding day - and in our life together so far. Without footage of our own, I used some people I like. Enjoy :-)