Portrait of Benedikte St.Pierre - The Fashion Bandit
Photo: Elsa Gabo

 

The Fashion Bandit Benedikte St.Pierre is ready for winter
Photo by Benedikte St.Pierre.

“The name “The Fashion Bandit” was perfect: I never liked the fashion police. I wanted to do my own thing; creating outfits from my own head and heart, not from their rules and regulations. So what better than to be a Bandit?” 

– Benedikte St.Pierre

 

THE FASHION BANDIT

 

Benedikte Saint-Pierre

TV Presenter
Fashion Art Director & Stylist
Visual Designer
Actress

Background – in my own words

Acting, TV and design

Having discovered at 19 that following the academic career staked out for me was actually extremely boring, I made a complete U-turn, moved from my home town of Narvik in the north of Norway, and trained as an actress in London. After years of acting in both Norway and abroad I moved into the realm of TV as a TV presenter. Alongside this, with a lifelong interest in graphic design, I also studied Mac design – and threw in a bit of web design for good measure.

Presenter for TV8 Norge

For several years I was one of TV8 Norge’s profiled presenters and reporters. I presented TV8’s main program Studio8, a daily studio infotainment program with guests raging from Norway’s top celebrities, politicians and party leaders to experts in various fields, some 500 interviews in all.  As part of Studio8 I ran two series of in depth studio topics; Health and Exercise. I later also presented TV8’s Friday show Weekend, as well as presenting the sports competition Mestermøtet and cookery shows.

As I worked in TV8 it was a delight to realize my TV audience truly enjoyed my work,  knowing me for my bubbly enthusiasm, feel-good humour, curiosity and ability to connect with guests and interviewees as well as to engage my viewers.  My style and not least signature hairstyle – which I thought would have alienated the more conservative viewers – turned out to be a hit with both young and old . So much so that my hair soon came to be synonymous with the name of TV8, and I was often referred to simply as “that TV8 presenter with the hair.”

 

WORK SAMPLES – TV

Interview in English (introduction in Norwegian) with Judymay Murphy for TV8 Norge.

Interview in English (introduction in Norwegian) with bestselling author John Gray for TV8 Norge.

Interview (Norwegian) with Norwegian Prime Minister for TV8 Norge.

Interview (Norwegian) with Norwegian musician Bjørn Eidsvåg for TV8 Norge.

Interview (Norwegian) with Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen for TV8 Norge.

Benedikte Saint-Pierre being attacked by the Dunderly monsters in Oslo

SAINT-PIERRE’S

BEAT THE BLUES – THE VIDEOS

Videos made winter and spring 2021 during the pandemic and 3rd lockdown – upbeat videos with practical tips on how to keep the spirits up when times are hard – or just how to stay happy in general.

FASHION BANDIT VIDEOS

High spirited, rather high energy mini fashion shows showing The Fashion Bandit’s own outfits
– with a broad smile, of course. And when did you last see THAT in a fashion show, eh?! 

Myself AND FASHION

The Fashion Bandits Benedikte St.Pierre is indulging in luxurious chocolate
Photo by Photo Bandit Kristian Jøraandstad

 

Fashion – my great passion

As a child I was that nerdy-geeky-head-in-the-books-child branded “very boring” by my peers. And in the brutal world and regime of schoolchildren, geeky-nerdy-head-in-the-books boring children are not supposed to dress the way they want. At all. So having “suffered” all through childhood by not being allowed to wear my own choice of clothes, say all the rococo dresses I really felt like wearing, and then, scared off by bad experience, not quite having the courage to face further sneers from my peers by wearing what I really wanted to wear, that all changed as I moved to London. All of a sudden, because of London’s vast number of different styles and people, and because of the wonderful London tolerance and appreciation of this diversity, I felt free to be myself and freely show the world, through my clothes and style, who I was, and this shaped my philosophy and approach to fashion and style. 

Why The Fashion Bandit and all our photos?

For years I wondered – and I’m still wondering – why wearing clothes and sporting styles not even hugely differing from everyday styles should prove to be such a thing of disapproval from people. Even more puzzling do I find the whole concept of “The Fashion Police”: experts telling us what’s acceptable and what’s not in terms of what to wear. Also I was bored by bored-looking models in predictable fashion photography.

So I decided to do something about it, showing the world you could play around with different styles, leave out the self-consciousness, just be yourself, add some humour, some laughter and have fun – and create fashion photography along the same lines. So this is my “something” – this is my way of telling my story.

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The Fashion Bandit Benedikte St.Pierre in a highly fluorescent, reflective dress...
Photo by Photo Bandit Elsa Gabo
The Fashion Bandit Benedikte St.Pierre is out hunting - but certainly not blending into the background!
Photo by Photo Bandit Elsa Gabo