We’re hooked on Instagram!

Free People now has an Instagram account where we share our visual thoughts and daily activities in pictures.

We’re all addicted to this smart phone app and can’t stop capturing all the cute little things that happen in our office.

If you have a smart-phone, follow our visual journey — our username is “freepeople” — if not we will give you a weekly update of beautiful snap shots taken throughout the week;

from our home pets to our favorite restaurants, pretty mood boards and on location look book post card shots. We invite you into out postcard world!


Gluten-Free Nut Bread

I don’t personally follow a gluten-free diet, but I have friends who do, so I like to mess around with recipes once in a while. This nut bread is one I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Normally, the thought of making bread kind of scares me a little. I feel like you need skills I’ve never tried out before, but with this bread it turned out the toughest part was gathering all of the obscure ingredients I needed to make it gluten-free. Once I finally got around to making it, it turned out to be nutty and delicious. It works great for toast in the morning with a little bit of jam =)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups almond flour
¾  cup arrowroot powder
¼ cup flax seed meal
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 teaspoon agave nectar
1 teaspoonapple cider vinegar
¼ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
¼ cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
½ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup sesame seeds

Instructions:

Chop up all nuts that need to be coarsely chopped, and mix all seeds/nuts in a small bowl.

Combine almond flour, arrowroot powder, flaxseed meal, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.111

In a large bowl, beat eggs well. Then add agave nectar and apple cider vinegar.

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Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet.

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Stir in nut/seed mixture

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Pour into a well-greased 7.5” x 3.5” bread pan

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Bake for about 35 minutes. (You should be able to stick a toothpick/knife into the center and pull it out cleanly.)

Saturday DO

DO: take a cold shower.

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It’s that time of year again. The air is already so hot that a simple walk outside is enough to leave your body coated in sweat, but don’t let it scare you! Summer is meant for being outdoors. Let the lure of sunshine, warmth, and living life overcome the sterile cleanliness of air conditioned spaces. Explore the outdoors, lay in the grass, attend festivals, plant a garden, just go outside and GET DIRTY. Afterward you’ll have a chance to jump in the shower and clean off. But don’t just let it be any ordinary shower-turn the knob to cold, and let those capillaries open up. Feel the chills all over – the way your hair gets so extremely silky with cold water. Nothing says summer quite like the alive feeling you get from a cold shower.

click on images for sources

Office Style: Fp girls are Rock Steady this week!

This week we are feeling a little grungy – the weather hasn’t been too great, so to give some attitude back we’ve pulled out our vintage rock tee’s and our grungy boots to help us get through the grey rainy days.

Our web merchandiser is a huge fan of Motley Crue and has a great selection of vintage concert tees. She makes them hippie cool by teaming them with Fp bohemian necklaces. I also wanted to dedicate this office style to a lovely intern we have here. She wears Fp most days and looks adorable – she’s quite a stylist too.

And of course all these outfits are worn with leather jackets when we head outside in the rain. Hopefully the weather will brighten next week :(

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Here’s the second addition of RAFW from Mandy at oracle fox. She sent images from the Alice McCall’s collection, which was beautiful. The colour scheme was soft – jet black juxtaposed and gave it that hard edge when needed. Soft light shapes seemed to flow down the runway items that were interpretations of familiar volumes and forms. I loved the billowing backs of some of the garments and the intricate cutout details that was featured on some of the oversized tunic dresses.

Australia Fashion week looks like so much fun, I’d love to get my hands on one of those goodie bags!

First two images are from the Alice McCall show, 3rd images decoration, and 4th 5th and 6th from the Nookie show.

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Fashionable Fringe

Fringe has been everywhere lately – it’s definitely a trend we’ve fallen for here at free people. I love how the look can be interpreted differently depending on the garment or material. Sometimes it takes on a light and airy ethereal look, while other times it looks tough and edgy. No matter how it’s used, fringe gives off a great bohemian vibe that I just can’t get enough of.

Here are some of my favorite examples of fringe I’ve collected…

photo by alexandra valenti

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photo by alexandra valenti

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At Free People we’ve always loved fringe & our collection contains some really great pieces. I’ve had my eye on a few that I want to pick up for spring. Here are three of my favorites:

shoreline binetti bag

The Shoreline Binetti Bag

beach comber cardigan

The Beach Comber Cardigan

wink fringe sandal

The Wink Fringe Sandal

What do you guys think about fringe? How would you wear it?

All inspiration & magazine photos taken from mariediena (tumblr)

Wall Art

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I was inspired by these wallpaper designs sold out of the Greenwich Village shop, Secondhand Rose. The owner, Suzanne Lipshutz, has devotedly sought out vintage wallpapers since the 1960’s. Today her neat store boasts a collection of over 2,500 vintage prints from all around the world. Interior designers, magazines, set designers – you name it – they are all flocking to her one-of-a-kind store to find exciting wall decorations. I personally stumbled upon the collection one day while I was looking for inspiration and fell in love with the selection she offers – each one is so unique and beautiful! Just imagine the crazy rooms you could design with some of them…

Going sheer, is it you?

The transparent look is all over the spring 2011 runaway shows – Items that showed off what was being worn underneath, A bit controversial? Yes!

The looks on the runways are not necessarily meant to be worn as-is in everyday life. They’re artistic presentations of a designer’s inspiration, presumably to give you inspiration for ways to wear the pieces yourself. Obviously, the completely sheer ensembles are too extreme for most people’s taste in day wear, but perhaps as inaccessible as this trend may seem, mixing in pieces to suit your personal taste would make it more wearable.

We played around in the studio yesterday to see what works under such sheer items.

We toned down what could be very provocative to the eye by making them a little tomboy; Sheer maxi shirts worn over bootie shorts with a relaxed shirt pattern, bodysuits under sheer tops to add a bit of interest, and lace trimmed bike shirts worn under those adorable chiffon slips.

Would you go sheer?

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Mesh maxi half slip embroidered mesh crop we the free long sleeve burnout baseball tee crossover stripes bandeau skinny stripe bodysuit.

thursday poll – edition 130

it’s that time… for a lookbook poll! jemma gave you a little peek behind the scenes of the lookbook shoot the other day, and now i want to know which outfit is your favorite!

click on each image to go to our website and view details on the outfit.

look one:

look two:

look three:
3

look four:
4

look five:
5

look six:
6

look seven:
7

look eight:
8

look nine:
9


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i made my first vintage loves purchase the other week and i was so happy when it arrived in its lovely little tie dye bag! i totally forgot about them! i adore the colors and i want to be able to use it as a tote bag this summer, so i decided i’d add a handle!

this is super easy. all you need is a needle and thread, and whatever you want to use for the handle. i used a fabric belt that was part of an old coat i don’t even have anymore, but for some reason i kept the belt.

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i sewed the strap onto the inside of the bag, below the drawstring – i wanted to still be able to pull the bag closed with the drawstring.

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and that’s it!

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in case you missed it, check out our post from this summer when we showed you how we make the tie-dye bags!