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Vikki Blows as Queen Victoria

A themed glamour feature casting model Vikki Blows as Queen Victoria, a concept that plays neatly on her first name.

Not every glamour shoot is simply lingerie against a white wall. A good share of the genre ran on concepts, and one of the most reliable was the costume theme: a familiar character, a historical figure or a period setting, reworked as a modern photo set. The headline here leans into that tradition, crowning Vikki Blows as Queen Victoria and making the most of the obvious wordplay between Vikki and Victoria.

Regal themes give a stylist plenty to work with. Shoots of this type typically borrow the visual shorthand of royalty, such as crowns, rich fabrics, ornate chairs and deep jewel colours, then mix it with the lighter touch glamour readers expected. The contrast between formal, historical styling and a contemporary glamour pose is usually the whole joke, and the best of these sets play it with a wink rather than a lecture.

Why themed features worked

For magazines and blogs alike, a theme solved a practical problem. A model who appeared often needed fresh angles, and a concept gave each feature its own identity and a headline that was easy to remember. It also gave photographers licence to experiment with sets, props and lighting that a standard studio session would never use.

The original photographs belong to their publisher and are not reproduced here. This page keeps the feature on record as a written note: Vikki Blows, a royal theme, and a reminder of how much of the era’s glamour photography was built on a good idea as much as a good location.

More: Models A–Z · Vikki Blows in CKM · Vikki Blows in Feature Girl