Lavender & Twill : collaboration

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Friday, November 30, 2018

༺ Teacup Chat with Tanith Rowan Designs ༻

The “Teacup Chat” series on Lavender & Twill is a short and sweet spot where we take a glimpse behind the scenes of a brand’s creative process. I am very inspired by all the talent I see building a corner in the world to showcase their work, and also making it available for others to enjoy. So without further ado, let’s get to know some more about the artist behind Tanith Rowan Designs!

As we found out in the previous post, Tanith Rowan Designs is the work of the talented milliner, Tanith. She’s a hardworking mother of two little ones, who still finds time to pursue her dreams and creative interests. She recently released her own hat pattern, which is super cool and I can’t wait to hear more about her creative background and how she got to where she is now.

Hello Tanith, welcome to Teacup Chats! We can’t wait to learn more about you. So let’s jump right in! What first drew you to creating hats, as millinery seems to be sort of a forgotten skill these days?

I've always loved making things and I sort of stumbled onto hats as I was dabbling in historical costuming. I was just playing around at first, but the more I started to learn, the more I really loved the process and wanted to make more hats. The millinery world is quite active in Australia thanks to the races so I was lucky to be able to take a lot of workshops and keep learning all the time.

How do you go about finding the inspiration and the patterns for your creations or do you make them up yourself?

Inspiration is very easy to find! With vintage books, films, magazines and genuine vintage hats, I will never run out of ideas. I love curling up with a book and sketchbook and drawing up possibilities. I've had good training in pattern drafting so when a pattern is required for a hat I start from scratch, but a lot of hat shaping is free form or on blocks. Sometimes the fun is in the challenge of working out how to make the sketch a reality.

How do you figure out techniques to create vintage styled hats ~ is it easy to replicate them by pictures and visual details?

It's usually not tricky to work out how to make a hat look right for a vintage style, but some of them can be very perplexing and I'm left wondering how on Earth they've done it! I read vintage millinery books and magazines to learn more traditional techniques. The ones from the 1940s and on are easy enough to understand as the terminology and materials haven't changed a lot, but they are harder to interpret the further back you go.

{Those with sharp eye might be able to recognise the beginnings of the beautiful straw boater from this post! It’s so fascinating to see the process of creating something like that.}

It’s been very interesting to find out more about your business, but we’d also love to know a little more about the creative mind behind these beautiful pieces.

What is your favourite thing to do beside create your delightful hats?

I love all kinds of making really. I do a bit of sewing for myself and the kids, I'm learning how to knit, and I like cooking and gardening too.

And finally, what are five quirky things about you that not everyone might know about?

1. I wanted to be a zoo keeper and did my school work experience at the zoo

2. Plucking my eyebrows or pulling my hair makes me sneeze (anyone else afflicted with this??)

3. I listen to Christmas music at any time of year (just a little)

4. I genuinely enjoy solving mathematical problems

5. I was once at a meeting where a man in a business suit was hit with faeces (see point 1)

Oh! Christmas music! I totally agree Tanith! Sometimes I just want to sing along to a carol, and some of my favourite lullabies to sing to my children are carols. I think being in a Christmas choir helped a lot with my love of all Christmas music.

Thank you to Tanith for sharing her time with us, it was wonderful to have the chance to learn more about her and her inspiring creative work! And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out Tanith on Instagram and Etsy.

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻
Find me:

Monday, November 12, 2018

༺ Within A Dream ༻

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes,
Within a dream.

Ernest Dowson - 'Vitae Summa Brevis'

If there was a soundtrack to these pictures it would be ‘The Silk Road’ and ‘Alba’ by The Sidh. But even though I am sure I could have music playing along thanks to the technical genius of The Mister, there’s no way I’d subject you to that horrible moment when a website randomly starts blaring out music and scares the heck out of you! Haha!

However, the celtic inspired tracks do meld beautifully with the magic of this amazing winding road into the sunset…

I finally found my golden hour, the treasure of light and location that transports you to a distant world when you find a place that feels like you stepped into a dream.

Where the misty beams of glittering light transform the deeply overgrown road into a place of wonder, a scene from a fairy tale…

But the reality of it was that I had to be so careful not to twist an ankle as I trotted down the rutted track as fast as humanly possible over terribly uneven ground, in heels no less, to beat my camera timer! Haha! Whew, I was “glistening” by the time I finished that shoot, that’s for sure. Romanticism has it’s place but nothing beats a cool lime popsicle from the restaurant next door after an hour of shooting in tropical heat!

Still, I was so thrilled to be able to shoot at a dream location with a dream dress and a dream chapeau.

It’s such a fantastic moment when unicorns land on your doorstep!

This Tatyana Flower Cart Dress is one that I immediately loved when it came out years ago. But I also had to admire it from afar as it was way out of my budget. Fast forward several years and it pops up in a BSS at a decent price AND in my size!

It was meant to be!

Just in the same way this darling hat dropped into my lap…

Some months ago, I saw a notice pop up in my Instagram feed that Tanith, a talented and lovely friend of mine, was giving away some of her old millenary work for the cost of postage. I don’t think I breathed a single second when I posted to put my hand up for this amazing raspberry pink straw boater hat with cherries!

You see, I remembered this hat!

Tanith had posted about this particular boater when she’d made it, and I completely adored it back then. I gasped aloud when I first saw this delightful confection. That’s how much it spoke to me, I felt like it had been made from the stuff of my dreams!

I have always told myself that one day I’d save enough to purchase one of her amazing pieces, but I thought there was no way that the cherry & raspberry boater would still be around because it was {is} STUNNING and I’d just have to accept it would be snatched up in a heartbeat!

And honestly, I have no idea how this one wasn’t whisked off immediately, but I’m so grateful because it’s allowed me to own this dreamy chapeau and I couldn’t be happier!

Tanith’s work is so impeccable. I love the way she’s paired the pink straw with red cherries, and the how the rim of the hat has straw that goes inwards rather than it being simply coiled around in a circle. It’s those little details ~ such as a tea rose pink satin lining and loops for bobby pins to secure your hat to your head that make this such a special piece.

Of course, it came carefully packaged in it’s own hat box, and that is so great for storing your hats away from the evils of dust and sun fade. I have footage of me unboxing the package in my Instagram stories, so feel free to check it out if you want to see it in live action!

I’m sure it will be back on the blog as well, as I’ll have to force myself not to want to wear it constantly. And if you want to see more of her awesome work, she has Instagram, a blog and an Etsy shop so be sure to check those out!

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻
Find me:

Sunday, October 22, 2017

༺ Poolside Pineapples ༻

You guys! I’m so excited! It was my birthday this Monday past, and I was so lucky to get a new camera lens for my present!

I’ve been longing for a new lens for years, but never got around to upgrading from my kit lens {trust me, I’m seriously kicking myself that I didn’t do this sooner, but oh well…}. Darling Mister gave me the Cannon STM 50mm f.1/8 lens ~ for people that don’t speak camera speak ~ it basically means that the lens lets in a lot more light, creating crisper colours and clearer details. That is balanced out with a very shallow depth of field which gives you a bokeh-licious effect in the background by essentially blurring it out!

I could go on and on about why I love this lens, but mostly it just comes at the perfect time as I was really struggling with my current lens and the lighting situation here in Thailand. I’m not sure if it’s because everything is so lush that the light is absorbed more and might also reflect more darkly than it did at home ~ here in these photos it was so bright there in person, yet they actually turned out quite dark compared to what I saw!

As well as that, those lovely high mountains surrounding Chiang Mai also affect the low light a lot. Because they are so high, when the sun starts to sink, it disappears much faster and you loose most of that “golden hour” because all of the delicious light is blocked by the hills.

So you can see how my new lens is so exciting ~ it deals with low light situations so much better and I can’t wait to thoroughly test it out.

The second exciting thing I want to write about is that Sisjuly is having a big sale on tons of their summer dresses, and this gorgeous tropical pineapple dress is one of them!

I have never been a big pineapple girl in the past ~ don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love eating fresh pineapple! And those pineapple lollies in the Starburst party mix are my favourite of all the Starburst lollies ~ second favourites are the “cherry grapes” and the strawberry jellies…

*ahem!*

But back to the dress ~ I like the simple cut of this frock as it allows this awesome pineapple and tropical leaf print to shine. The fabric is really light weight and breathes well, but it doesn’t crush easily which is always a giant plus in my books. It paired beautifully with my peach double rose from Daisy Jean Floral, and also matched the giant checked tote bag I had with me.

I really enjoy this dress, it’s easy to wear and comfortable ~ perfect for travel or a day out. One of the great things we are enjoying in Thailand is this gorgeous swimming pool in our Moo Baan, so right after we took these snaps I changed into my swimsuit and jumped right in! Ahhhh… It was so good!

A perfect end to a lovely day, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

In the mean time, don’t forget to hop over to Sisjuly if you want to pick up some great end of season bargains. I know it’s autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and everyone’s obsessing over knits and pumpkin spice {Man, if there’s one thing I am sad about missing out on autumn besides the gorgeous leaves, it’s my knits! I really miss wearing chunky cardigans and knit tops… I didn’t know this could be a thing, but it apparently is for me!}…

However, I do really love a good sale, so maybe you will too!

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Signature Double Rose in “Peach” | Daisy Jean Floral Designs
Pineapple Blues Dress | c/o Sisjuly
Rose Check Tote | Local Thai Craftsman
Black Strap Clogs | OPERA, Malaysia

༺ ♡ ༻
Find me:

Monday, June 12, 2017

༺ Vintage Girl Around the World ༻

Today I am so happy to be showing you some amazing dresses from Sisjuly, a new retro and vintage inspired brand.

For the first dress, we were out at Royal Old Town on the East Coast of Koh Lanta. We had a lovely time exploring ~ I’ve been there a few times now, but every time I love it!

This particular day we got to take a closer look at at the Chinese Shrine that has been standing in the heart of Old Town for well over a hundred years. Koh Lanta’s Royal Old Town is such an interesting place ~ once a major port for boats running the China and Arabia to Malay routes, Old Town became a busy place of trade.

Many of the original structures and Chinese long houses can still be found in the area. When the trade increased, further settlers came too and this is the reason for why Koh Lanta has such an eclectic mix of cultures on such a relatively small island. With Chinese, Arabic, Muslim, Thai and Sea Gypsy influence, it is a melting pot of rich traditions.

The Western side of the island wasn’t developed until much later, and the middle of the island is mostly untamed jungle!

You can get a lovely taste of wild life down further south on the island, with monkeys and more! Which brings us to the next location ~ the lighthouse at Koh Lanta’s National Park.

Fairly old and crumbly, I honestly couldn’t tell if the lighthouse was working at all except that there still seemed to be some sort of generator outside with cables running into the top of the lighthouse.

And yep, that’s a giant hole in the concrete platform! Also, there was no real way to get up to the lighthouse without scrambling up a rather steep and rough cliff hill!

So imagine me in my white dress, climbing up that hill super carefully so I didn’t slip or get dirty… Haha! ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧

But I must say, the dress handled the hike very well, I was so happy to get up there without any incidents!

Between the two dresses, I can’t really decide which one I like best ~ the cherry print is super fun, but I’m also such a fan of the white and navy nautical print… And both styles are really nice, I love the 50’s feeling of the cherry dress and the 40’s impression from the second frock, so??

I have been really impressed with the quality of the Sisjuly pieces, as I hadn’t heard of the brand until they reached out to me last month. When I went to have a look at their shop I was so excited to see a huge range of retro and vintage inspired pieces!

The dresses come in all kinds of prints and styles, and I was keen to try them out and see how they looked.

The fit has been good for the pieces I ordered ~ I think that it is as it has been as described in the sizing charts, which is always important when purchasing online. It’s probably exact, so if you were to fall in between a size I would definitely suggest sizing up to allow for wearing ease, or if you like a looser fit.

The fabric also comes in a variety of finishes. Some of the dresses have very thick fabric, which is perfect for cooler months, and others have been lighter. As we are traveling through tropical countries at the moment, obviously I am a huge fan of the light weight fabrics! But even while the two dresses I am wearing in these pictures are on the thicker side, they still where quite comfortable to wear on cooler, cloudy days.

The quality of the make is great ~ I absolutely love the longer, vintage appropriate lengths of the skirts, and when they are designed as a full style, they come as a full style which is very important to me!

I get so excited when a new clothing brand comes onto the scene that has a wide range of vintage inspired pieces, and it’s great when they are super affordable!

I have found their customer service to be really friendly and helpful, as Sisjuly are passionate about their vintage and retro style, and their service reflects that. I was also very pleased to hear that they really care about how the dresses are made ~ from dedicated in-house designers to fair pay for all their workers.

If you want to find out more ~ Sisjuly have a Facebook page where you can follow along for more updates on their latest releases and vintage inspiration. In the mean time, I hope to share more from this brand in the future, so keep look out for further vintage inspired styles!

Also, can you help me decide which dress I like best? Haha, such a problem to have ~ I think it’s a good one… ♡ ~(○゜ε＾○)

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻
Outfit 1:

Vintage Polka Dot Scarf | Thrifted
50’s Cherry Dress | c/o of Sisjuly
Tan Virginia Leather Sandal | Miss L Fire

Friday, March 17, 2017

༺ Candyfloss Station ༻

This weekend we took a trip back to our old stomping grounds ~ Queanbeyan! We lived there for three years or so, and I have so many good memories of our little family there. Not only that, there are many lovely old sites that have a wealth of character and history, making it one of my favourite spots to visit.

One such site is the old Queanbeyan train station. A small stop on Australia’s Sydney to Canberra line, this station was built in 1887 and has some absolutely lovely art-deco vibes about the construction. Combining my love for iron fret work, dusty mint and cream ~ it’s everything I adore about historical Australiana architecture ~ in style and colour palette! (灬ºωº灬)♡

And, speaking of colours ~ what better place to début this amazing “Mariana – Lee” dress by Miss Candyfloss?

It’s the first time that I’ve had the honour of working with this Swedish vintage reproduction company, but they have been on my radar for years! I really loved the jumpsuits they came out with last winter season, and I am grateful to have the chance to try one of their pieces.

The “Mariana” house wife dress is a superbly tailored, 1950s inspired frock. The navy shade is perfect for all seasons and the fabric has the most delightful hand to it. Thick, but not winter weight, the drape in the skirt provides a perfect swish when walking around, and the fabric lays smoothly over any unforgiving bumps as well as providing a nice level of stretch.

I was in between dress sizes, so I went with my waist measurements and sized down, and the dress fit like a glove, with plenty of room to move around comfortably. The cut around your shoulders and arms is generous, which is a great bonus. I often find that reproduction dresses can err on the tight side with sleeves, so I was really happy that the sleeve fit so well, and looked great with the cute cuff detail.

Of course, the scalloped neckline is instantly a favourite with me as I am mad about a good collar {this one is a *fantastic* collar if you ask me!} and the pleated bodice and matching belt add those perfect vintage touches that polish the final look. My one tiny complaint would be… a lack of pockets. I think pockets really take a dress {or skirt} to the next level, and though it would be hard to improve this dress as I do love every detail of it; I just ask for one thing ~ pockets!

When creating my ensemble, I decided to stick with really simple styling to allow this fabulous frock to shine. It’s a really versatile dress that can be accessorised to glam it up, or kept simple for day wear. I also really like how it could swing to either a 40s or 50s look depending on how you choose to style it.

This time around I went with a 1950’s feel, as my 1950s vintage hat and scallop-edge gloves echoed the navy hue and scalloped collar of the dress perfectly. I completed the ensemble with my trusty Miss L Fire shoes in nude for a twist of something unexpected!

And what vintage lady travels without her beauty case and purse? ☆(*ゝω・*）

I picked up the white beauty case when I was first finding my interest in vintage, and I’m glad I did because it’s proven to be a great hat box, as well as looking fabulous. Sadly, it won’t be coming with me on our future travel adventures, but more about that later…

I’ve been playing around with video as I would like to do more on my YouTube channel, so I’ve filmed a little outfit snippet and I’ve put a few of these all together in one “Adventures in a MINI Lookbook” video ~ so here’s this lovely dress in action!

..Half of the time I don’t even know what I’m doing here… (=⌒_⌒=)'

So what do you think of my film production skills? Haha! Do you like seeing outfits in motion? If you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see in a video, please let me know so I can make these better! ೕ(•̀ㅂ•́ )ᵒᵏᵎᵎᵎᵎ

xox,

bonita

Disclosure | This post was created in collaboration with Miss Candyfloss and the dress I have reviewed was sent to me, but all views and opinions expressed in this review are solely my own. ❀

Pages

Friday, November 30, 2018

༺ Teacup Chat with Tanith Rowan Designs ༻

Monday, November 12, 2018

༺ Within A Dream ༻

Sunday, October 22, 2017

༺ Poolside Pineapples ༻

Monday, June 12, 2017

༺ Vintage Girl Around the World ༻

Friday, March 17, 2017

༺ Candyfloss Station ༻

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