Waiting for a Streetcar

Tee Clotilde had a brief exposure as a clothing model, if I may use a pun in doing so.  Anyway, it convinced her that modeling involves an instinct to perform the right, correct pose even under conditions of improbability or discomfort.  It's hard to look like you are enjoying being in the water if it's cold!

Let's face it: most candid poses are staged and stilted; the direction to say "cheese" only goes so far.  This is why those models on the runway strike those bitchy poses: I can guarantee you, if I was wearing a $5000 designer dress and being "oohed and "ahhed" by people while on a catwalk, I'd have a silly grin on my face!  For Tee Clotilde, it was no problema; her blank look reflected her mental vacuity.

This was the deal:  she was to model stockings.  And the setting was, for God's sake, on St. Charles Avenue.  After much discussion the photographer finally decreed the proper pose:  she was to lean against a pole that indicated it was a streetcar stop!  So Clotilde was directed by the photographer to go the full Monty:  in her lingerie!

So she was there, at 9 A.M. on the classiest street in New Orleans, in her bra, panties, and stockings, to be seen by all streetcar riders going from downtown or to Tulane or Loyola!

The motorman of the passing streetcar didn't help things:  he repeatedly rang his bell!

It was hard for Tee Clotilde to look sultry.  It came out a cross between looking embarassed and amused.  And those are not accredited poses for models.  But few do pose outdoors in their undies on St. Charles Avenue in the middle of the week.  Anything can happen on weekends, though.

 

The motorman's take on it, as he told Al Gautreaux, Action News reporter:  "Poor Cajun supermodel: she was just not lucky at strip bourré!"