dressing like paul newman

I'm resurrecting the semi-weekly "Dressing Like" for a little Paul Newman love!  I feel like there's a really good (awful) joke in there somewhere with "dressing like" and Newman's Own salad dressing. Whoever comes up with the best one wins my eternal affection.

Aside from packing a hell of a lot into his life as an actor/racecar driver/philathropist,  Paul Newman fit my number one requirement of a style icon: looking stylish in a plain white t-shirt.  Bonus points for looking badass in loafers, which is another direct route to my  heart.

 

 Bass loafers in Washington Black

These shoes were totally on my wishlist towards the beginning of summer (even creeped into a Polyvore set) when I happened to come across them in my size while thrifting in Boston.  One of the greatest sartorial anxieties I've experienced in my life occurred a month or so later when I was wearing them through torrential downpour while catching a show on the Williamsburg Waterfront.  I was pretty bummed out as I was sure my dream loafers wouldn't make it...but they came out of it looking brand new! Plus they're the comfiest shoes I own.  Totally would recommend buying these shoes, even at full price if you have the means.  So yeah, I hope you enjoyed that entire paragraph about one pair of loafers. Blogging!

APC sweatshirt / Acne white jeans /  J Crew striped shirt 
Madewell socks  / Keds canvas shoes

sarah julia clark

 If Sarah Julia Clark just drew pretty pictures, we'd still like her a lot, as she is quite the talented illustrator! However, take a closer look at her art and you'll find that it champions a message of equality, which makes us downright love her work. I mean, I don't think anything could be more up our alley than a feminist book with a felt cover and stickers (not even the stuff we make!), so it's only natural that we're fans.

Sarah answered a few questions for us about researching for her work, feminism, and her upcoming exhibition, which you should put on your calendar if you're in London! Check out her website and blog for more.

Where do you draw your inspiration for your art? Are there any artists, illustrators, or films in particular that have influenced your work?

At the moment I’m finding lots of inspiration in Trade Union Banners and the history of protest, in particular regarding women’s rights. Most of my projects begin by researching background material with the visuals normally developing through reading. I wouldn’t say there is anyone who has directly influenced my work but I have a lot of admiration for other designers. My internship at Agency Rush this summer exposed me to the wonderful Jess Wilson and Kate Jenkins.

Can you elaborate on your creative process from the idea of a project to the final piece?

Most of my projects are research based. I begin with lots of reading and visual research if relevant. This is followed by many late nights of painting and drawing, then busy days of screen printing and making. I spend half my life with a bad back! I’m known for being the most productive between 10pm and 4am, which is something I really need to change.

One of our favourite projects of yours is your Ladies First zine. How did you come up with the idea? Was feminism always a theme in your artwork?

I had been thinking a lot about “gentlemanly” behaviours and the ridiculous gender etiquette that people still play up to even today. I find it really interesting how we accept so many things in this culture as the norm without questioning or challenging them. Traditions such as opening the door for a “lady “are of course acts of kindness, but also reinforce gender stereotypes, viewing women as passive. This idea is more evident in examples such as changing the wheel of a car, DIY or paying the bill at dinner which are traditionally roles of men. I refuse to accept this.

“‘Woman’ is not a derogative word. I am always a woman, but there are time when I choose to sit without holding my knees together.” ~Sylvia Dickey Smith

Feminism has always played an important part in my life and after attending several discussion and consciousness raising groups I feel compelled to try promoting positive feminist messages through my work. The word feminism comes with a lot of baggage and I’m constantly trying to represent it in a fresh way, for what it really is - empowering, positive and forward thinking.

You have a variety of items available in your shop such as brooches, tote bags, and coasters. If you could print your work on any surface or product, what would you choose?

I’m still exploring screen-printing, recently printing on kitchen tiles, which was great fun. I tend to print on quite a small scale so I’d love to work on something larger. It would be great to transform one of my designs into a rug or a duvet cover or print my own fabric and create garments. I have a textile background and used to make a lot of my own clothes, I’d love to get back into that.

What projects do you have planned? Do you have any dream collaborations or projects (however unlikely!) that you would like to accomplish in the long-term?

I’d love to work on some large-scale campaigns for women’s rights and try to contribute creatively to moving the feminist movement forward. I’m slowly expanding my range of products and it is probably unrealistic, but I’d love to run my own shop selling my work and using the back as my studio. Although it’s fantastic to have other shops selling my things, there is nothing like doing it yourself. I love doing art and zine fairs and it’s great talking to my lovely customers. 

At the moment I'm working on some illustrations featuring a variety of truly inspirational women, ecofeminists, abolitionists, professors, activists and authors. These will form part of an exhibition called ‘UP To Now’, featuring the work of Brighton Illustration and graphic design students as we enter our third and final year. The exhibition runs from 30th Sept- 2nd Oct at RED Gallery, Shoreditch, London. Check out our website and blog to see some of the work progressing.

 

Thanks, Sarah!

Vampires & Kittens

We are happy to (finally!) announce a new zine available for order right now! Caroline has been working on some super creepy art featuring vampires and kittens working in blood-thirsty union, and you can order it now and get it in plenty of time for Halloween, which I'm pretty sure lasts the entire month of October.

There's also a twin vampresses cardstock print available in the shop if you want to get your home all spooky for the holidays and beyond.  

Use the code VAMPIRE to get free shipping for the rest of September!  

Pleet is Neat

Covering fashion week without actually being at fashion week is one of the more gratuitous things a blogger can do, so I'll limit it to sharing with you a favorite collection of this year that I haven't seen plastered all over yet - Samantha Pleet Spring '12.

Pleet's collections always make me want to go exploring, and this season probably more so than ever. I mean, check out that tropical bird caped swimsuit! Raddest (and possibly most impractical) thing I have seen in a while. I'm into the cool cutouts, knots, and braids, but my favorite thing has to be the colors she used. I just want to look like the Grand Canyon all the time if I can't go there right now.

images via Founders & Followers on Facebook

Crowns Clothing

A (relatively) cool weekend in Austin has got me dreaming of chunky knits and ankle boots, but the release of the Crowns Clothing Spring Summer 11/12 lookbook has convinced me to go picnicking in sundresses with great frequency while the weather still allows in this hemisphere. 


When Morgan told me a couple months ago that she had booked Louise Hatton (whose work for Twenty Seven Names I was already in love with) for the shoot and brought perennial favorite Georgia on board for styling, I knew her clothes would be in good hands. Dream team, right? Not living 
anywhere near New Zealand bums me out on a regular basis and I blame these girls!
 

 Photography: Louise Hatton Photography
Model: Daisy @ Red11
Makeup: Grace Margaret Howarth
Hair, Styling: Georgia Rose Munn

Check out the whole lookbook here and keep your eyes on the Crowns Clothing Etsy for preoders of this collection and previous seasons on sale!  Plus, we'll have another exciting Crowns Clothing related bit to share with you soon! 

faye moorhouse

After a mini-hiatus from our weekly artist interviews, we are finally back with a few new interviews with some very talented ladies. Our first interview is with illustrator Faye Moorhouse based out of southern England. Although kind of embarrassing to admit, I found her work through one of my late-night "cat zine" searches on Etsy (which as a side note, there really aren't many of...) and came across her epic artist's book, The Cat Ladies of Czechoslovakia. Her Etsy shop is bursting with original paintings, zines, prints, housewares - all of it a little creepy but as I've commented on a few of our previous interviews, my favorite art always is. Faye answered a few questions for us about the inspiration behind her different series of work & her self-publishing process.  


You can find more of Faye's work on her website and purchase her zines, prints & original paintings through her online shop. 

Where do you draw your inspiration? 

My main form of inspiration is stories. I’m particularly drawn to tales of strange things, conspiracies, mysteries, murders etc. I’m a natural born pessimist and I love all things
gross and shocking, I like to think this oddness shows itself in my work. 

Are there any artists, illustrators, or films in particular that have influenced your work?

Taxidermia, A Zed and Two Noughts, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Lars and The Real Girl, Blue Valentine. These are all really influential films for me, I’m not a great film watcher, I get very distracted and lose concentration quite quickly, however these films really engrossed me. I tend to be more of a documentary and reality-tv kind of person, and I think this tendency towards all things trashy and shocking has a definite influence on my work.

Are there any specific themes in your illustrations and projects you find yourself continually returning to? 

At the moment I am really trying to build up my online etsy shop, this means that I spend  less time than I should on creating new work. I am really enjoying painting naked  swimmers and people having sex, I also keep returning to my cat ladies; I think they have  further to be taken; I would love to animate the cat ladies!

And do you have a favorite project that you've completed?

Three Very Gruesome Love Stories was a really fun project for me, it was my minor  project at Uni, and our first self-initiated one, so I took the opportunity to do something I could really stick with and find personally intriguing. It was fun to work on 3 short stories as it allowed freedom to flip between them, meaning it always felt very fresh. 

Do you find yourself tending to complete your work in series? Or, can you elaborate on your creative process in terms of a piece from start to finish? Is there always a narrative  in mind?

When I begin a new project I start with a general theme or more often than not, a specific story, either one I’ve found or one I’ve written myself. Then I start putting my ideas straight into little mock-up books, (made by stapling 4 bits of a4 folded paper together) I’ve tried working straight onto paper but I find it restricting, I love being able to work out the pace and flow of a book. From there I just keep re-making these mock-up books until I have one which works well, then I will create the final images, scan, edit, put into book format, print and bind. Some of my books/zines also require hand-colouring, this is quite a lengthy process! 

After I’ve created a final book / books for the project, or in fact whilst I am making books, I will start to think about how I can translate the narrative into single images.

If you could collaborate with any artist or individual on a project, who would it be and what would you produce?

I have no one in mind in particular, but I would love to do larger wall mural pieces or set  design for shops/ magazines. Actually one just came to mind! I would love to work with a  publisher, I’ve got my eye on Nobrow at the mo, they publish gorgeous screen-printed  short runs of artists/ illustrators books. Although I love self-publishing it does get  frustrating at times when I don’t have the equipment to do larger runs and with better  quality colour output, so I do secretly fantasize about getting my book spotted by a  publisher.

Thanks, Faye!

new things

Yesterday was an exciting day for us, we finally got hot water and the internet. Now our only major roadblock is figuring out how to calm down Tricia's devil cat who likes to use our bodies as scratching posts and chew on the sides of our laptops.

Here's just a few tidbits from this past week. Once we finish decorating and clearing out all the empty boxes, we'll give you the grand tour of our house!

Thrifted boots that remind me of the Rachel Comey Hitch boots I could never afford

Bodkin swimsuit via eBay

My room so far - the string lights make it the most whimsical room in the house. The two prints on either side of the window are by Kaye Blegvad.