It’s midday in LA and Mosh is talking to Bizarre via Skype, from her apartment in the San Fernando Valley. She usually sleeps through the morning, but today she set an alarm and has called in five minutes early. “Hello!” she exclaims brightly. How is she? “I’m OK, I’m a little tried – I was working late last night...”
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It’s been nine months since we spoke to the Russian-born, LA-based alt.model, who told us her ultimate ambition is “to lead a well-lived life and complete all of my other non-ultimate ambitions within it”. A glance at her online calendar shows she’s been fulfilling her wishes, from ‘working on my art deco bedroom’ to collaborating with some of the most exciting photographers and artists in our world.
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A sign of Mosh’s rising status is that she modelled for award-winning artist and author Molly Crabapple at the art gathering Babytattooville last October. It wasn’t the first time she’d posed for Molly’s alternative art class, Dr Sketchy’s – she did a session in New York a year ago – but this was in front of the who’s who of the lowbrow art world, and she left a lasting impression.
“I had the pleasure of meeting artists like Michael Hussar, Gary Baseman and Travis Louie, and they were great,” Mosh says. “Travis took a couple of snapshots during my posing, and I then ended up sitting for him at a gallery in Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. He wanted a younger-looking girl, in a Victorian Lolita outfit, with special posing of the hands. I love his work, it was an honour.”
Ex-gymnast Mosh is known for her bendy poses, where she makes near-impossible positions look effortless, and this training put her in good stead for the gruelling task of being a life model. “Usually in photoshoots you just snap off each pose and then you can switch,” she explains. “But at Dr Sketchy’s you need a lot of self-control because you have to hold your pose for hours.”
Despite being under pressure and on display, however, Mosh took it all in her stride. “I wouldn’t say it’s awkward or anything: everyone’s focusing on you, but this is to draw out the details,” she says. “I love seeing the final pieces. Even Molly Crabapple did a naked sketch of me. She emailed it to me – I should frame it!”
After getting used to being the centre of attention, Mosh became a temporary art installation at Three Apples, a three-week celebration of Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary. She wore a PVC maid’s outfit by Artifice Clothing and spent a day in a Hello Kitty apartment, filled with branded chairs, bags, toys, pans, televisions, tea-towels and furniture.
“It was interesting. You’re like an animal in a zoo – people poke their heads through the glass to take pictures, and some of them wave!” she giggles. “But I met a lot of interesting people. I didn’t take any of the products home, but I did get an incredible book signed by the creator, Mama Kitty (Yuko Yamaguchi) herself.”
Heart at work Aside from high-profile events, Mosh has been quietly working, shooting countless sets with amazing snappers. You might remember seeing her lying on her back in fishnets on the cover of fetish photographer Christine Kessler’s stocking book, Nylon Girls. Christine has also shot her with delicious Bizarre Cover Star Competition winner Skin, and sophisticated New York model Darenzia.
“I love working with Christine Kessler, she always gets great stuff,” Mosh enthuses. “The shoot for Nylon Girls was set up last-minute – I didn’t know where it was happening or what I was going to wear! But anything we do last-minute seems to be the coolest, we get these great results.”
Mosh has also shot extensively with RedRum, who took the ‘Lovedoll’ pictures on these pages. Her description of a day with the renowned snappers is typical of her routine. “I drove down to Vegas and shot for 10 hours,” she says. “We arrived at 3pm, started shooting at 4pm and didn’t stop ’til the following morning! I pose fast so we can knock out double sets in that time and change outfits almost completely, but it was tiring. It was worth it, though.”
You can see many of the sexy sets at paysite Themoshroom.com. It features over 5,000 pictures of Mosh, along with videos and styling tutorials, and it’s her labour of love. “I launched it in May, and it was hell!” she laughs. “The web designer didn’t work out, so a friend helped me finish it and I got about three books about HTML. I’m not exactly a pro, but a new version of the site will be out early this year.”
It’s all part of Mosh’s plan to build an empire – make-up, shoes and latex-wear are next on the agenda. And, as with the rest of her career, she’s figuring things out on her own.
She got the idea for a range of lipsticks after she struggled to find a red one with gold sparkles, and then set about learning how to make them. Her first range will have a 1950s Soviet Union theme – the red one will be ‘Cosmonaut’, while ‘Sputnik’ is a purple and silver shade and ‘Space Race’ will be blue and red.
“I thought making lipsticks might be hard,” she says. “But it’s like making a cake in little tubes. The only difficult part is getting the colours right, and quality consistency. If someone else can’t produce something for you, then I feel that you should step forward.”
She’s applying the same philosophy to her shoes, which she hopes will meet new heights – literally. Artist Tyson McAdoo has given her permission to reproduce the severe, 6in heels pictured in his work, which features rockabilly, vintage and burlesque girls in fetish poses. “I know those shoes exist already – I think Marquis sells them – but I’d like to produce them on a more affordable scale,” says Mosh.
“The problem is, we can’t find anybody to make them. There was one person in China who claimed they could, but they hadn’t been able to find proof and they wanted to charge me a grand! Now I’m thinking I should try to do them myself. I’d need to make a vacuum mould, then fill it with acrylic and hope it doesn’t snap. I’ll figure it out. I figured out how to do the lipsticks...”
As for latex, she already knows how to make clothes and says she’ll pass on her secrets to making a “very simple dress, nothing crazy” in an upcoming web tutorial, along with a design for a men’s wallet. She also has plans for a 1950s-cut, low-buttoned, long latex men’s cardigan and “something I think no-one else has done”, but she’ll be passing on the production.
“I’ve sketched stuff out and I’m trying to work on the patterns, but I want to hand that over to someone else,” she says. “I enjoy it when the garment is finished, but I don’t like the process and I haven’t got the time!”
You get the feeling there are plenty more things Mosh could do if she had the time. She sometimes appears at private events and reveals that, in April last year, she performed burlesque at a magic show party where she dressed as a bunny and came out of a giant hat.
“My prop fell apart because I constructed it myself, using nail guns and heavy-duty cardboard!” she laughs. “I pop in and out of the hat, and then disappear. It’s a bit cheesy, but people have fun. I’d like to perform it elsewhere but I guess there are plenty of burlesque and showgirl acts out in LA, so people don’t really care.”
But there are thousands of people who care about Mosh the model, and thousands more who’ll care about Mosh the designer. Her plans for the future? “A latex line, the shoes, the lipstick, trying to get the new version of my site out… basically everything I’ve been concentrating on for the past year. It’s a long process – but I’ll get there.”
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