bohemian like meadow

she’s a dreamer, a soul-searcher and a wanderer.  drifting along, deep in thought, her eyes tell tales of mysterious adventures.  meadow is our bohemian girl who wears loose, flowing tops and dresses that catch the breeze as she roams the earth in search of inspiration.  she mixes patterns and prints and piles on jewelry with a handmade, natural touch. on her feet are moccasins or sandals but she’d rather be barefoot.  she hears music wherever she goes – at one with nature, she’ll often pause to smell a flower, pet an animal or just to take in the beauty that surrounds her.  little trinkets and memorabilia like leaves, stones, a matchbook with thoughts strewn across it, fill her pockets and then the pages of her journals when she eventually returns home.

here are some picks that I could see meadow wearing:

1. lonicera tunic; 2. stitched boho tank; 3. desert maxi dress; 4. vlatava convertible skirt; 5. lucy loves charlie tunic; 6. medina sun hat; 7. quogue feather sandal; 8. vintage bandana; 9. woodstock beaded necklace; 10. dipped feather earrings; 11. suede medicine bag.

another place where you’re likely to see a ton of meadow girls running around? music festivals! shop our featival picks, which meadow would surely love, here.

thursday poll – edition 92

one of our favorite trends for spring and summer are crossbody bags! they’re the perfect size and definitely a music festival necessity. which of these crossbodies is your bag?

croft crossbody:

leather basket weave bag:
leather basket weave bag

lexi crossbody:
lexi crossbody

perforated bow crossbody:
perforated bow crossbody

screwed chain clutch:
screwed chain clutch

suede medecine bag:
suede medecine bag


the winner of last week’s short poll was the denim carpenter short with 27% of the vote!

down in new orleans

yes, some of you are probably still recovering from the madness of coachella but this weekend another huge music festival begins  – the new orleans jazz festival!  this isn’t your typical festival though — it spans 9 days and is all about celebrating the incredibly rich musical heritage and culture of new orleans. there are some pretty impressive musicians playing this year- including dr. john, the black crowes, the funky meters, simon & garfunkel, my morning jacket, the allman brothers, widespread panic, aretha franklin, pearl jam, jeff beck, van morrison, b.b. king and richie havens…just to name a few :) in addition, there will be arts and crafts galore, and all of this is on top of the mysterious, voodoo tinged atmosphere that already exists in one of the most fascinating cities of the united states.

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highlights from coachella

we’re so glad you all enjoyed the coachella coverage on the blog this weekend! for tunesday i wanted to share a few videos of some of the festival highlights, including performances by muse, jay-z and my love, thom yorke. he is a genius.


the absence of the rest of radiohead is almost made up for by the presence of flea. almost.

were any of you at coachella? what was your favorite performance of the weekend?

Coachella The last Day :( :( :(

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Coachella is done and dusted and yes I am so sad. Nothing beats the epic adventure of a Festival, it’s like you morph into another world for a couple of days then your transported right back into reality.

Our last day started off again, with another amazing cooked breakfast – french toast!
A guy was staying with us who was out of this world ( he’s the one that has been making us 5* feasts every morning) – A nut bag at night/incredible host by day ( he’s the one dancing like a crazy fool above with the head band on).

We tend to take it easy in the day and head into the festival @ 4 because we know for sure alot of energy is going to be needed. So yep Yogo and lazing by the pool were the activities that took up most of our afternoon.

We got dressed up and headed to soak up the last evening of Coachella. The girls of Sunday were very relaxed, denim shorts, cute tops and loose dresses. My favourite looks of the day were the two girls wearing dresses, wayfarers, Dr Martins and Converses and yep there was hundred girls wearing Free People again.

Headliners of the night Thom Yorke and aaaahhhhhhhhh GORILLAZ!!! didn’t disappoint, as you can expect from Gorillaz the animations were on another level and Thom Yorke really made us dance our souls away.

At the end of the evening everyone stampeded to the exit, cheering with little sad faces as Coachellla has yet again proved to be an awesome festival.

Coachella I want you every year!!!

Thanks for following my news feeds and I hope Free People can bring to you more Festivals in the future.

Coachella Day 2

 

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Only one more day left, and im already feeling a little blue, its going to be hard to leave this fun land.
Saturday was one of our Fp girl’s birthdays and of course we celebrated in style. Woke up to a champagne breakfast, which after a night of heavy dancing was the best thing ever!

We chilled out on the patio soaking in the sun rays then headed into the festival giggling to cheesy pop in the car. Parked in VIP then snap happy me got to work. The look for Saturday was definitely long dresses (the Meadows were out in full force) loads of girls were wearing feathers tied in their hair too, which i thought was pretty cute.

An inspirational idea i had from the girls here was to wear the cute lingerie slips with denim shirts an idea i might just steal!
It was so nice to see a lot of people recycling their Free People shopping bag too and using it as a great festival bag, i was also choked to see a guy sporting one and still managing to look cool!

The music of the night made me so proud to be British…
Hot Chip, The XX ( oh oh oh Jay-Z came on and collaborated with them, which was beyond amazing) and headliner of the night MUSE. Geeeezzzzz Louise the MUSE was incredible – a great performance that blow me off the face of the earth. A visual masterpiece with the sickest light show ever!

Got back to the villa feeling pretty dazed – an amazing day!

Coachella day 1

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It was a long drive from Santa Monica to Indio where Coachella is held the traffic was crazy but worth it when we finally arrived at the La Quinta resort. Wow Weeee it was beautiful like a little Mexico getaway. We threw our bags in our room and headed into the Californian Sun drenched music land
The festival was like a free people summer camp, I couldn’t believe my eyes so many girls were wearing Free People and looking adorable in it too J
The most seen items were the; Ends in Sequin Dress, the long maxi dresses and the Bag for Coachella was no doubt the studded side sling bag!
My look of the day was the girl above in the yellow crochet dress; she had the look spot on!!!
After stalking the Style Savvy crowd we headed to see Passion Pit perform and yes we danced so hard, the warm desert breeze came as the sun went down ready for LCD Sound system and of course headliner of the night Jay-Z who finished off the night with a storm, bringing Beyonce onto the stage wasn’t a bad idea either everyone went wild.
Happy thoughts-àsleep
Stay tuned!

it’s coachella time!

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)

castles made of sand…

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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!

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coachella this weekend!

to get you all in the mood here are some beautiful images taken by hedi slimane at last year’s coachella festival. i’m used to seeing festival images in color, and i think seeing them in black and white really adds to the emotion and starkness of the images.

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cherry blossom cheer

the girls who work in our virginia stores sent me the following writeup on an event taking place in their area that they love – the national cherry blossom festival!

on march 27th, people began to flock to the DC metropolitan area to witness a breathtaking event – the flowering of the cherry blossoms along the tidal basin! in 1912, japan gave the cherry blossom trees to the citizens of the united states a gift of friendship.  the cherry blossom festival is held every year – this year from march 27th until april 11th, and is located just 5 minutes from our free people store in clarendon, va, and 20 minutes from our tyson’s corner, va location. throughout the two-week festival, customers who visit the stores are inspired by the cherry blossoms, which symbolize the fresh, bright renewal that spring delivers.  the free people girl loves venturing into DC to enjoy the colorful blossoms blooming in her path and to fulfill her love of nature.

read more to see some stunning photos and a selection of free people items that evoke the spirit and beauty of the cherry blossoms!

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woodstock handmade houses

before woodstock became known worldwide for the most famous music festival of all time, it was a quiet town in rural new york that artisans, painters, musicians and freethinkers called home.  they lived off the land and made things by hand- even their homes.  they used local stone, wood and scavenged materials to create shelters that are as unique as they are impressive- ranging from the cave-like dens and teepees to cabins and stone structures.  these homes are documented in the book “woodstock handmade houses” and turning the pages is like stepping into one hidden world after another, imagining all the stories each sanctuary holds.  it is a constant source of inspiration that will never age.

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