Every girl needs to feel glamorous, and photographer and make-up artist Nicole Klein from The Hourglass has set out to make every girl she photographs look and feel like a glamour-puss for the day.

Behind The Scenes If you've been to The Hourglass' website or Pin-Up Parade, you will have seen Nicole's work. But what goes on behind the scenes? The shoots are usually done at the girl's home. "We have a tea or coffee and a chat to ease up and get to know each other a bit. When the girl has got the heated rollers in, I do the make-up and when that's done we have a look through her lingerie, shoes and accessories collection she has put out for the shoot. I find a nice spot in the house or sometimes the garden and set up the lights. Then I finish the hair, the girl slips into her lingerie and we start with warm-up shots if necessary. After half an hour, almost every girl eases up completely and I usually know what her best features are. After several hours, everybody is quite exhausted!. I should mention that all of this involves an awful lot of laughter and fun!" After a week or so, each girl gets a cd of photos, and some might be published on the website's gallery.

The Making of The Pin-Up Make-Over Queen Nicole's background is in special effects make-up. She had wanted to be a make-up artist from childhood. "I remember that one time when I emptied everything out of my mother's make-up bag and misused it for 'special-effects'. I must have been 11 or 12. My mum was brilliant, she just looked at me and said, 'Girl, you should become a make-up artist.' Guess she was right. It fascinated me how much you can change a person by putting make-up on them. There were so many possibilities. You can make them older, prettier, nasty or cute, even really horrific. It is also amazing to watch the change that goes on within the person you are 'making-up'; they become a completely different character."

"In Germany, where I grew up, you have to train as a hairdresser first to become a make-up artist. I always wanted to do that rather than 'just' hairdressing." The formal hairdressing training was to prove very handy for the vintage look Nicole creates in her photos, as she had to learn how to do pin-curls and barrel rolls. But because she wanted to be a make-up artist, she pursued every opportunity for training that came along. "I picked up everything that had anything to do with make-up, like courses, competitions and work experience at a local Theatre. I was even awarded with a bronze medal for third best make-up of a trainee in Germany."

After years of training, finding a full-time job was "much more difficult than I thought." However, Nicole had a stroke of luck: "I had a phone call one day from a guy I used to work with at the hairdresser and he was working as a make-up artist at a musical by then. He was planning to move on to another production and asked me if I wanted to take over from him. So I said YES before I knew what I was doing."

Nicole had to do make-up for photoshoots as part of her training but, "I didn't get to do it quite as often as I liked as I mostly worked for theatre and TV, but every time the theatre needed new posters or pictures for advertising, the photo make-up was needed again. I did a lot of photo stuff just for my own portfolio because I didn't want to specialise in just one field of make-up."

But multi-talented Nicole did photography before The Hourglass. "I needed photos for my portfolio and I didn't have the money to pay a photographer for it every time I did a new make-up, so I had to learn how to produce good portrait shots on my own. My dad gave me my first SLR when I was about 16 and nobody could get me away from the view finder for the next two years... apart from when I was trying new make-ups. When I was 25 I finally went on a photography course just to learn the technical side of it properly as well."

The Hourglass Has Landed So with the photography, hair and make-up skills all in place, it was only a matter of time until Nicole was zapped by inspiration and created The Hourglass. "The actual idea was born about a year ago, I think. Over a period of time all women I met were complaining about their looks, their shape or something about themselves they simply hated. The media had gone mad about super-thin models so badly that any woman presented in adverts or similar over a size eight stood out as being really curvy. The effect it had on most girls I met was devastating. I just couldn't stand it anymore!"

"Somewhere along the line my partner, John, took some pin-up style photos of me. I was quite surprised how much I liked them and how positively different I looked from what I thought I saw in the mirror. I suddenly thought; why not show women how beautiful they actually are by turning them into pin-ups? Glamour and beauty is something that's created, with make-up, hair, light and the right poses and I had already learned how to do it. I wanted to make a point that no woman needs to feel bad about anything, neither a size 8 nor a size 20."

"So at first friends and family were my 'victims', just to try it and to have something to put on the website. But even the effect it had on them was very encouraging. The actual name for The Hourglass for the idea was a team effort between me and John. We thought it reflects the idea of a curvy figure as well as going back in time."

Vintage Inspirations So which photographers and artists have influenced Nicole's work? "Bernard of Hollywood and Vargas are probably the first ones to mention. I love the art of Olivia de Berardinis, so I guess she would be another influence. There are so many amazing artists out there and I keep seeing new ones that I like, so naturally they inspire new ideas for photos."

Vintage style flatters the female shape much more than any other style. Vintage pin-ups concentrated so much more on the beauty of the whole woman, like her face, her shape, expression, legs etc. That is something that modern pin-ups in lads' mags often lack, they simply concentrate on sexual features. I also find the tease so much more erotic than a full-on nude photo. Nothing against nude photography, but if you hide a bit there's more space for imagination. Just think of the difference between a well-wrapped present and something that's just given to you in a plastic bag."

And They All Lived Glamorously Ever After... With The Hourglass being born out of Nicole's frustration with the way women are portrayed in the media and the negative impact this has on women's self-perception, Nicole is really pleased that her work has had an incredible, positive effect both on her own body-image and the girls she's photographed. "I have learned so much about self-image and about how women perceive themselves in the last year. I met so many wonderful people through this, it is simply stunning. It has changed my own self-image a lot. Even though I knew about the 'illusion' of beauty, I had enormous hang-ups about myself and how I was seen by others. I thought I was fat, ugly and just not what I should be. Through the Hourglass, I got the chance to stand in front of the camera as well... and that made a lot of difference. I got so many good comments on my pictures, it was fantastic. I also learned that every woman has something ten other women admire her for. So I try to think of the good features I have when looking into the mirror instead of the few things I don't like."

"As for the girls I have worked with so far, I think it has made a difference for them as well. Most of them are horribly nervous when I turn up and are on a big 'high' when I leave. If the pictures are then published on the site, it just keeps getting better as they then get feedback that's always more than flattering. I get emails from so many women who love the site and all the girls that have already done an Hourglass shoot stay in contact with me and tell me how much more confident they feel about themselves. That is the best reward I could ask for! Some of them even went on posing as pin-ups and quite a few are coming back to me for more." Some girls have found themselves indirectly modelling for burlesque costume manufacturers because they looked so great wearing their items in their shoots, and others have charmed Koolsville magazine enough to appear in their pin-up gallery and forthcoming calendar.

Dressing The Divas Despite Nicole's hard work transforming each girl with her make-up and hairdressing talents, the photos wouldn't be the same without the vintage-style outfits the girls wear. So where does Nicole shop? "I have found clothing in the most unlikely places. For bargains I love markets, as they usually surprise me with something I hadn't even thought of and ebay, where you can find almost anything. For lingerie I love 'What Katie Did' of course and also 'Stockings HQ'."

"Looking for retro dresses I usually turn to the States. 'Stop Staring', 'Mode Merr' and similar. I am desperately looking for a good retro-style shop in the UK, one that has their own dresses maybe and import from those American retailers, but with reasonable prices. If anybody knows one... mail me! What I love about all these places is simply that they have what I am looking for. Shipping from America can be a bit of a pain so that's the down side of it."

What Next For The Hourglass? This is only the beginning. By the end of this year, there will be an Hourglass calendar featuring the girls who Nicole has worked with, and not only that but a photo-book. Nicole's birthday in August is going to be turned into an Hourglass party for all the girls, so expect high-heels and seamed-stockings by the dozen. As well as continuing to photograph "ordinary" girls, working her magic on them - which is the spirit and driving-force of The Hourglass, Nicole will start working with professional models and performers "who want to start or update their portfolio, as I have been asked so many times." She plans to branch out from shooting in the home and work on locations as well, and has begun to do themed shoots with the Hourglass Girls, from a landgirl in wellies to Marie-Antoinette, which involved a heart-shaped sequinned merkin. "Otherwise I like to be surprised by everything that comes my way. It has been amazing so far!"

Find out more about The Hourglass and see Nicole's work by visiting the website: www.thehourglass.eu

Models: Miss G and Claudia Atlantis