our reader lea sent these beautiful photos and wrote:
“i’m so inspired by your blog…two days ago my friend and i shot these photos with my yashica and the flowers remind me so much of you. greetings from zagreb, croatia!”
thank you so much for sharing, lea! these are lovely.
“maybe it’s good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, i think that the only perspective is to really be there.”
“even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have.”
“so, this is my life. and i want you to know that i am both happy and sad and i’m still trying to figure out how that could be.”
lou is our guy’s girl – a tomboy with a feminine side who can be sexy without losing her rough and tumble, rock n’ roll edge. she’s the type of girl who can roll out of bed and throw on cutoffs and a t-shirt and walk out the door without any makeup. the key to her style is being ready to hop on her skateboard or bike at a moment’s notice and disappear in a cloud of dust, because she’s always moving – with the wind in her hair and her beat-up sneakers or boots on her feet.
to capture the gritty style and energy that is lou we went to FDR park in philadelphia, a perfect location with its mix of grunge and beauty. it winds around a scenic lake with ducks and blossoming trees and ends under the highway with a skatepark, where the sound of wheels grinding on concrete made our ‘lou’ right at home. here are some of our special shots to give you some insight into the spirit of lou!
more photos below!
“don’t walk behind me; i may not lead. don’t walk in front of me; i may not follow. just walk beside me and be my friend.”
– albert camus
the house where our team stayed in essaouira (and shot several images in the book) was so special it deserved its own post. named “atlantic,” the house is located right off of essaouira’s medina and looks so cozy and relaxing i would never want to leave. wooden stairs climb towards the sky and rooftops fade into mountains on the horizon while the atlantic ocean laps against the shore. an opening in the roof allows natural light to flood the space, and even an occasional sprinkle of rain. when the heat of the sun is replaced by a cool evening breeze, there’s a fireplace to curl up next to and a cozy nook awaits to fall asleep and dream about what the next day will hold.
from the rooftop
when you wake up in the morning head to chez driss for some coffee, orange juice and potates! they might look like potatoes and the name sounds like potatoes, but these are potates- one of our team’s favorite things to eat in morocco. these little almond flavored pastries are not easy to find- they are actually unique to essaouira, where you can find them at a bakery located on the place moulay el hassan called chez driss. another neat fact – orson welles filmed several scenes for the 1952 film othello in essaouira, and it is said chez driss is where he would sit and have his morning cup of coffee at a patio table.
continuing with our exploration of morocco, today i wanted to share some of the work of moroccan artist, andre elbaz. i was first drawn to his landscapes…they have such amazing texture and color that capture the energy and spirit of morocco. the use of cubism gives them a surreal quality but the varying sizes and colors make them appear to sparkle like a living, breathing city. the second one reminds me of looking down at urban landscapes from an airplane, seeing only clusters of light, thinking about all the tiny ant-like people that are down there going about their everyday lives.
more below…
We’ve landed in California and are ready to hit one of the best Music festivals around.
The anxiety was unbearable @ the airport… so we thought the best way to beat this before the 5 hour flight was to wash it away with crabby fries and Blue Moon beer. My did it work… followed by a blast of our pre Coachella playlists on our iphones!
We packed light as we figured there will be no time for 5 hour dress ups. Denim shorts, crop tops neon lingerie and yes an array of the free people bandeaus. Oh, and one must not forget the leather jacket and wayfarers. You can’t do a music festival without having that little touch of rock ‘n roll to your attire.
We landed in California and packed up our SUV and drove down to Santa Monica (where we were staying for the night) with Jimi Hendrix vibrating the air around us.
We arrived at our destination tired and nauseous. However, the flood lit pool that welcomed us was enough to perk our spirits up again. Spag ball and red wine followed with chats of our next day plans.
Heads hit pillows at 10.30 with dreams of Coachella…
Now we are up and ready to go eeeeeee the excitement is unbearable.
Stay tuned for Day 1 Coachella!!!!
(via fp jemma)
about a three hour drive through the desert to the west of marrakech will bring you to the seaside town of essaouira in morocco. from the pictures you can feel the laid back vibe of a quaint fishing town, but essaouira also has an artistic culture that is very much alive- its medina houses several arts and crafts businesses, the beach is an ideal location for kite and windsurfing, and for the past 12 years the town has hosted the gnaoua festival of world music. often referred to as the “moroccan woodstock,” the festival lasts four days and attracts close to a half million spectators. one of the city’s most famous landmarks is the castle made of sand- said to be the inspiration for the jimi hendrix song, although he hadn’t yet visited essaouira when he wrote it. several images from our april catalog were shot in essaouira, and in looking through these photos i can certainly see why our team was drawn there.
more photos below!
our topanga, california, store is turning two! to celebrate they are having a tea party tomorrow and if you show up in your favorite free people dress you have a chance to be featured right here on the blog! there will also be a professional model in-store to give styling advice. sounds like fun! if you’re in the area stop by and say hello!
the girl above is wearing our dazzling ditsy dress and triple rose headband – she looks adorable and definitely ready for a tea party!
“you see things. you keep quiet about them. and you understand.”
“so, i guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. and maybe we’ll never know most of them. but even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. we can still do things. and we can try to feel okay about them.”
“and then patrick started running after the sunset. and sam immediately followed him. and i saw them in silhouette. running after the sun. then, i started running. and everything was as good as it could be.”
one of our visual display team members is heading to california (where she’ll be working on displays for our west-coast stores) and to send her off they took advantage of the nice weather to have a festive outdoor gathering. check out more great pics from the party below!
the morocco catalog was shot by photographer dan martensen – he also shot our february catalog – we love him. the team also worked with morocco-based producer fred fantun, who has worked on numerous fashion editorials, and his familiarity with the area saved our team on multiple occasions. one obstacle? the lack of cars- our team had to use three carts to carry all of their shooting equipment, but luckily their porter was awesome and had a huge smile on his face the entire time as he helped them maneuver the narrow streets and alleyways. our team shot the catalog in several locations, including marrakech, essaouira, the house where they stayed and on the balcony of the villa maroc hotel. they did an amazing job and found some truly beautiful locations for this shoot…next time bring me along, please!?!
see more behind the scenes pics below!