High seventies summer

Glamour Spain August 2012

Photography: Sasha Eisenman

Model: Alana Greszata 

Stylist: Mapi Vidal

via Oracle Fox

Well, the days are getting incrementally longer, the sun has come out more than twice in the past week and the temperature crept up to 16 in the past few days. I'm thinking we might have survived our first Melbourne winter... it's time to start looking forward to summer up the coast, on the beach and in the sun. 

Love+Light: SH+LS X Penabranca

The most natural collaborative evolution... the girls from Sugarhigh + Lovestoned X Penabranca. If you haven't checked out Penabranca's work yet, do so... it's unparallelled.

Photographer: Amanda Smith 

Edited by: Penabranca 

Models: Skye Sengelmann, Sarah Peinado, Chance Welton and Brandon Anderson
Stylists/ art direction: Chloe Chippendale and Tami Snodgrass

Clothes: Sugarhigh + Lovestoned
Jewellery and moccasins: Heyoka Leather 

Crystal necklace: Torchlight

Frames

Weather the storm

Alexandra Valenti and the girls from Sugarhigh+Lovestoned inhabit another world... A Texas summer-storm world where everything is enchanted and eerie, windswept and whiskey, light-leaked and light-hearted. 

And, after the mercury dropped to three degrees this morning in the southern part of the southern hemisphere, I really, really want to join them. 

Alexandra Valenti Photography

Model: Lauryn Holmquist

Stylist: Chloe Chippendale

Clothing: Sugarhigh + Lovestoned

Jewellery: Heyoka Leather and Torchlight

Accesories: Laced with Romance

Champagne skies

I know everyone gets up to the same thing at around 4pm on a workday, or when idle at the train station, or when waiting for someone to get dressed to go out -- the mind starts to wander. 

If I'm lucky, my mind wanders into a sketchbook. If my wallet is unlucky, my little clicking fingers wander into online shopping worlds of indescribable delights. And Wilmington, NC-based boutique Edge of Urge is definitely one of those online shopping worlds... 

Just check out the effortless, serene lookbook above.  

And not only that, they stock Blood is the New Black, a new favourite of mine... my favourite piece here, and the absolutely bangin' Joshua Tree dress seen above here. 

And not to forget, those shoes....

Along for the ride...

Lovecats. Erin Wasson for One Teaspoon

via Oracle Fox

Ode to Patti

I'm often making people uncomfortable because I desperately want to talk about the book I'm reading at the time -- regardless of whether they've read it or not -- and it's like an embarrassing compulsion that I cannot get a handle on. I can tell by the blank, fifty-yard stare that comes on that people don't want to hear about it, but I've got to let them know about the genius of whatever-book-I'm-currently-reading.
Just Kids by Patti Smith was, by far and justifiably so, one of those books that I awkwardly pushed on people in conversation. For me, it opened up a whole new level of Patti Smith as an artist, as a performer, as a person. I think it also genuinely changed the way I think about a lot of things, including art and the importance of those we love and loving what we do.
That said, how's this tribute to the 'Godmother of Punk' herself?

Helmut Magazine
Model: Anna Albrekht
Stylist: Bex Sheers
Photographer: Darren McDonaldvia fgr

Summer somewhere

Novella Royale
Photographer: Zoey Grossman,
Stylist: Ashley Glorioso
Model: Abby Brothers
via purse n' boots

Soak city

Photographer: Graham Dunn
Stylist: Wild at Heart
Models: Kelley Ash, Leore, and Chebo

via Girl Habit

Scratching ink

Just some bits and pieces and a thousand works in progress... Hopefully I'll have more finished projects to share with you guys soon -- I just seem to cross things off my to-do list only to write something else in its place. 

Hectic days. But productive days.

Desert blooms

This morning's quick pre-work sketch... My smudgy graphite hands ruining everything.

Featherdust

I have bought some good, eagle-related shit lately. And one hat that just absolutely makes me lose my mind....

@raychponygold

Freebird

"Think all-American girl in the great wide open, bejeweled with turquoise, silver, and rusty velvets."

 Another killer shoot from Zoey Grossman and Ashley Glorioso... these girls are on a hot streak when it comes to pulling together super-stylish lookbooks that simply breathe summer in the southwest.

For Love and Lemons Fall 2012 lookbook Freedom Reigns.

More here.

Photography: Zoey Grossman

Model: Shanay Hall

Stylist: Ashley Glorioso

For bandits...

It's not really fair that jewellery designers The 2 Bandits post these kind of images when, here in the southern hemisphere, we're in the depths of winter and I'm trying not to keep blowing all my cash. All that crisp sun and tanned skin and absolutely perfect jewellery (I want all of it, twice). I'm especially fanning out on the concho wing chokers and the concho-and-leather bracelets... ohhh and all the sweet silver bowties and crescents set with moonstone.
Dammit. More expenditure.
 
The 2 Bandits jewellery, latest lookbook.
Photographer: Zoey Grossman
Stylist: Ashley Glorioso
Model: Liza Yermalovich

All over the shop

Some really lovely people have been taking an interest in my work lately... not the least of which are Kate Samson (Ember Magazine) and Elsa James (Taste the Times blog). Both girls are extremely talented and are curating some amazing media, featuring great stories and interesting people.

Check out Ember Magazine issue 2 here. (There's an interview with the ever-amazing Charmaine Olivia in there too...)

And be sure to swing by Elsa's blog to check out her posts on Johnny Abegg, Pamela Love and me.

Moleskine III

Spell & the Gypsy Collective

I've been a bit of a patchy blogger over the last few months, and it can be put down to a few things: living in a city, working a full-time job plus the nightmare commute, and being super busy with personal and commercial projects. 

So I thought I'd share some of the commercial work I've been doing... my favourite project so far was playing around with Spell and the Gypsy Collective's logo... Not only are the Spell ladies immensely talented and creative, they're also very kind, generous and understanding of the work that goes into anything made by hand. 

Fun times, more work to do.

Dig x

Hey...

Emman Montalvan for Ben Trovato

Misty mountain hop: A. Leigh Smith

Spell and the Gypsy Collective just posted this absolutely amazing shoot from the always-killin'-it girls at Sugarhigh + Lovestoned. Shot by A. Leigh Smith (more here) and styled by Tami Snodgrass, this collection of images is hands down the best I've seen lately... Sugarhigh + Lovestoned has rapidly ascended to being one of my favourite brands -- they just seem to holistically nail everything.
But here it is... the perfect dose of optimistic inspiration for a rainy Melbourne Friday afternoon, when the clouds are just breaking up over the horizon... ready for a sun-filled weekend (please).

Moleskine II