Culture Clash

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wow, finally a new post! Thank you all for the sweet comments on Camilla’s photography, we loved reading each and every one. It has been a very long week so far. Tuesday, I finally under went my eye surgery for that blocked tear duct and the recovery time has been a bit longer than planned. Lets just say I’m a lightweight and anesthesia mixed with pain meds don’t work well for me. Thank god for my loving family.
Last Sunday Camilla and I headed up to Chinatown to do a shoot we’ve been talking about for a while. The Asian culture has always been a fascination for us and with the Chinese New Year approaching on February 14th, we thought it would be good timing.  We talked about mixing colors, patterns and layering, and then shooting in the middle of bustling Chinatown as a celebration to the new year of the Tiger.
So much of Asian culture we find inspiring, from the vibrant colors, intricate textiles to the fine arts. But of all our reasons, their love of nature and family has to be the top of the list. I have always been a follower of the Japanese designers since my introduction to them in the 80′s and have collected many pieces from Comme des Garcon, Matsuda and Yohji Yamamoto.
Here is some visual imagery from some beautiful movies where the costume design and scenery is awe inspiring.
 
“She paints her face to hide her face. Her eyes are deep water. It is not for Geisha to want. It is not for Geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances, she sings, she entertains you, whatever you want. The rest is shadows, the rest is secret.”
Sayuri- Memoirs of a Geisha

The Last Emperor  1987
Camilla is wearing a Vintage skirt, Virgin Mary tee shirt from Lucky Brand, Fuchsia silk wrap blouse from Calypso, Vintage boys school blazer, Vintage scarf from Hermes, Gladiator Heels from Forever 21, Various necklaces from Anthropologie and cuff from India. Fuji Polaroid Camera. All Polaroids are shot by Camilla.
XX Valerie and Camilla
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Drift Away

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
 
 
 
 
“I think I’ll just drift away to that island of my dreams.
Live in total fantasy
Closes my eyes and drift away.”
The Kinks
The Other day My mom and I went down to the beach so I could shoot photos of her for my portfolio. She had recently gotten this Jimmy Choo dress from the H&M collection and I have been wanting to take pictures of her in it. The dress was actually a return at our local H&M so it was a great find, considering the store near us never carried the line. I haven’t shot fashion that much before and figuring out the lighting was a little hard because the sun was going down fast so the light sometimes was a little blinding for our eyes. But I am really excited about these few shots I did get. Looking at the pictures now I feel like shooting the dress in this location was perfect. I like that the structure of the dress and the boldness of the shoes are set against the unpredictable waves and tiny particles of sand. The softness of the beach itself makes the dress stand out. I like the contrast the setting creates with the outfit. The pictures to me tell a story and give me a mysterious, magical, dreamy and romantic feeling. My favorite is the first one because it reminds me of the ending scene of “The Little Mermaid” where she is in the sparkly dress coming out of the ocean except softer and a bit more elegant.  These are my first real attempts at fashion photography but I plan on doing more in the future because it was so much fun. I hope you like them.
We also received this award from the blogger Strawberry fields forever

Thank you so much Lia and we would like to pass it on to some of our favorite bloggers for being such talented, stylish girls and who continue to inspire us.
 Refuses to Label 
Style bird
Cosmicaroline
Ostyle
My Floor is Red
Fascinationdrop
Clothes, Cameras and Coffee
Hope you have a wonderful weekend
XX Camilla and Valerie
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Polkadots & Moonbeams

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
Saturday Camilla and I went to visit our friend Wendy at her two stores Polkadots & Moonbeams. One is a Vintage store while the other sells new designer clothing and accessories.  I hadn’t seen Wendy in a while so when I bumped into her at a friends holiday gathering we had a chance to catch up.  She told me she was really into her Vintage store at the moment, she had recently found some great pieces but what she was really into was taking vintage dresses and shortening them into minis. She said they were selling like crazy and the girls loved them. Plus she was loving picking out the right dresses to alter into the new mini look. I told her about Camilla’s and my blog and that we vintage shop all the time but most of the time end up altering the pieces we buy. I thought the idea to be able to shop vintage and have the dresses already cut to fit was brilliant. Wendy also keeps a seamstress on hand at the store to alter what ever you like. Ms. Moonbeam herself as an incredible eye when buying vintage or new so her stores are merchandised impeccably. You defiantly can’t walk out without buying something because she covers it all and has prices points to suit every level. Camilla and I loved so many things in both of her stores we had a hard time deciding on what to get and ended up buying two dresses and the cutest little hat ever. So if you are ever in LA you need to stop by Wendy’s store, she also has quite a celebrity following like Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon and Demi Moore to name a few.
Welcome to Polkadots&Moonbeams 
 
 
 
 
 
 
All clothing and accessories are from the vintage store. Boots are Camilla’s own.
After a few hours in the vintage store we headed up the street to Wendy’s  “Modern” store where Camilla found this adorable hat.
 
As you can see the stores are so fun and worth the trip.
Thanks Wendy you are awesome!
 
Don’t worry we haven’t forgot about the give away and we are also playing with  the idea of a shopping site so we will keep you posted.
XX Valerie & Camilla
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Bella Musa

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin

Camilla and I often talk about fashion, style and beauty. About what it means to have style, who we think is truly beautiful and so on… We have both always tried to move away from major fashion trends and have always felt if you see too many people wearing the same old look then it’s time to move on. Although I truly believe that two woman can walk into the same store buy the same dress and both walk out looking completely different. One woman a stylish beauty and the other a hot mess because we all know that fashion and style does not always go together. As Yves Saint Laurent once said ” Fashions fade, style is eternal” Well, with all that said we have come up with a compilation of the woman we feel have amazing style and sense of purpose. They are the woman we continue to be inspired by and when we see a photo or editorial of them from now or the past we stop and take notice. The first being Style Icon Jane Birkin and second her daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg. We love Jane’s other daughter Lou Doillon too as well as Ines de la Francese, Chloe Sevigny, Kate Moss and of course Dree Hemingway. Dree’s ancestral background is enough to make her a style icon before her time.

Jane Birkin

Charlotte Gainsbourg
 
Lou Doillon

Ines de la Francese Photos from The Selby
 
Chloe Sevigny
Kate Moss
Dree Hemingway
 “‘Style’ is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style” John Fairchild
What are your thoughts on style? Who are your muses or inspirations? Let us know we love to here who inspires you.
XX Valerie and Camilla
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Eye See You!

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin

Lately I have been obsessed with glasses mainly because I have to wear them all the time now due to a tear duct problem I have been having and the fact I am as BLIND as a BAT without them. I actually have to get eye surgery soon and I’m not looking forward to it. But since I have been stuck in glasses every day for the past 3 weeks I have been trying to get inspiration from other fabulous fashionable women who wear them. I have mostly been inspired by the blogger Louise from PANDORA because she is so beautiful and wears her glasses better than anyone I have ever seen.

 Well, I still have about 2 more weeks in only glasses but i have to say I have been getting quite used to wearing them.

Camilla and i have been coming up with a give away that we will post soon. We have a few ideas to sort out so until then…
XX Valerie and Camilla

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Brave New World

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
 
 
Camilla is wearing a dress, head muffler and over the knee socks all designed by A Butterfly by Day! Shoes by Jeffery Campbell, tights by American Apparel, Bracelets by J Crew and Anthropologie.
Hat is mens Abercrombie and Fitch, Ring from Anthropologie

Shoes Tick bootie Jeffery Campbell

WOW, It’s been a long time since our last post! Hopefully you all have been enjoying your holidays. We’ve been wrapped up with spending time with family, going to movies, shopping, gifting, baking and sewing. I can’t believe it’s soon going to be 2010! We wanted to get in our last shoot of the year so today rain or shine we were going to do it. It just so happened to be raining when we awoke but we ventured out anyways in the mist, over wet rocks with umbrellas in hand down to the beach. It was actually fun and peaceful, not too cold and it never really rained that hard so I guess I’d have to say it was a success : )

We also wanted to say thank you to Jessica Wu from the blog Fascinationdrop for the beautiful drawing above and write up on her blog. Go check her out she is a very cute stylish girl who is also a talented illustrator. We are sure you will enjoy her blog as much as we do.
 
Wishing you all a safe and Happy New Year filled with Love, Peace and wondrous possibilities.
Happy New Year Paris!

Happy New Year London!

Happy New Year New York!
Happy New Year Dubai!

Happy New Year Las Vegas!

And Happy New Year to everyone else :)
XX Valerie and Camilla

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RODARTE hit Target!

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
I was told Rodarte was arriving in Target stores on December 20th but today I was at Target to return something and low and behold it was there! I asked a girl working if the line was just put out and she said it was, and they were allowed to put it out anytime between the 18th and the 20th. So that means check your nearest Target to see if they put Rodarte out early. I wondered if that was really the case or if the store was trying to get more holiday purchases, but who cares right? Anyways, here’s what I came home with, basically all for Camilla an early Christmas present. For myself I just got the sheer cardigan it’s really cute on and I ended up getting it in two colors so Camilla and I can share:)
 
 
 
 
Camilla has on the xray sequin dress and the sheer mustard cardigan
tights and socks are Free People and boots Jeffery Campbell.
 
 
 
 
Camilla is wearing the mustard Rodarte dress with the bows at the shoulders which is also so cute in the blush color it was hard to decide which was better.
We also wanted to give a BIG Thank you to the cute blogging team from San Francisco REFUSES to LABEL for the Beautiful blogger award and anyone who is reading this must check out their blog because it is wonderfully fabulous and I am sure you’ll thoroughly enjoy it.
 
I think we are supposed to give this out to more amazing blogs but, we love so many that it’s hard to pick just a few. So, to ALL of our readers we appreciate you SO much and so many of you have the most inspiring blogs that we read faithfully please paste this to your page and know that it is from us to you :)
One last thing before goodnight I received and email from a Jewelry design team
and it has some really cool stuff and they said they would give 20% off to all our readers all you have to do is go to the site, shop and enter the word “holiday” when checking out in the promo section and you’ll get 20% off!  That even includes their new collection. It is now until New Years! so check it out
 Digby & Iona
These are just a few of many beautiful pieces. Hope you have fun shopping :)
WOW! what a long post! Hope you all made it to the end!
Happy Holidays to you! May you all have the most wonderful season filled with love and peace, spent with family and friends!
XO Valerie and Camilla
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New York Dreaming…on such a winters day

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
Every year at the Holidays I get Nostalgic for the days of living in the city. As the Holidays approached there was excitement and anticipation of what Barney’s and Bergdorf’s would do for their Holiday windows. During the time we lived in NYC Barney’s was downtown in Chelsea on 7th ave, which was just down the street from our apartment. Their windows became a tradition to see if they could top themselves from the year before. Living in California is just not the same as New York at Christmas time, so I’ve had to resort to the internet every year to get my holiday window fix. Thanks to Racked.com and Zimbo.com I found what I was looking for, Hope you enjoy!
 
 
Barneys Celebrated SNL’s 35 years with their Holiday windows

 
Bergdorf’s Windows were a fantasy of beauty! I’m not sure of the theme maybe you New Yorkers might let us know, they are amazingly beautiful!

“Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas time”
Here is Santa’s Helper an Illustration I did for the holiday.

XO Valerie and Camilla
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Stone Fox

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
 
 
 
 
 
We just received our first winter storm which means tons of rain for Los Angeles. Thank God we did this shoot on Saturday well before the storm hit. But with the Holidays now in full swing we have been busy, busy, busy and that’s why we are finally getting around to posting.  When we came home and looked at the photos I immediately recalled Sophia Coppola’s movie Virgin Suicides, Which explains the name of the post. I am not sure if it was the light in the photos or just Camilla who seemed to resemble the young Kirsten Dunst but, we both loved the movie.  Sophia Coppola did a wonderful job of capturing the mood of story from the original novel written Jeffery Eugenides who we think is brilliant.
 
I am so happy the holidays are here and Camilla and I have decided to make most of our presents this year so hopefully we will get around to shooting holiday photos. Hope you enjoy the shoot it was at our new favorite Emmett spot again.
Camilla is wearing a vintage dressing gown as a dress with a tube top and leggings from Free People and boots by Miss sixty.
XO Valerie and Camilla
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Cindy Lou…WHO?

Posted on April 28, 2020 by admin
 
 
With the Holidays upon us Camilla and I have been talking about doing a holiday shoot. We’ve been coming up with lots of ideas but one that keeps popping up is redoing a shoot I did with her about twelve years ago. In the nineties I had my own children’s line that was completely inspired by both Camilla and Emmett. These are a few pictures we did for a Holiday advertising campaign. Camilla and I thought it might be fun to recreate it so stay tuned to see what we end up with. Can you guess which one is Camilla?
Also, our friend Robin is a fashion editor for SELF Magazine and she posted on her blog about the Tee shirt Camilla and I designed and are selling to raise money for little Jasmina. We did a post a few weeks back but you can also go to her blog to learn more.
XO Valerie and Camilla
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