let's get loud

photos Kelly Kollar

Today's post is all about the neo-Hawaiian print, or the "post-Hawaiian" print. It's only Hawaiian in that I don't know what else to call a leaf motif on a shirt. The print was actually hand-done by my friend Patrick, who'd screenprinted the pattern (dubbed 'Eat Yer Greens') onto a cotton sateen a few years back and wasn't sure what to do with it. I saw it and thunk to myself, 'Hey, I love me a loud print' (see this post) and love showcasing the work of friends (see Thomas Dean's work here and here) so why not turn that bad boy into a...what the f*ck am I going to do with a neon-leaf print? I initially tossed out "anorak" and "cape thing," and if memory serves me it was Patrick's pragmatism that brought me around to "shirt." Which is perfect, because it really is just like a Hawaiian shirt on acid. I took the fabric to my other good buddy, Coogan (maker of this clutch and denim wunderkind), and worked with him on refining the cut and fit until the sucker looked like the best Opening Ceremony collaboration that never was.

Click through to continue reading this post!

PARTING SHOTS

Because I'm boarding a train to New York in an hour, but am pretty sure a force field would bar me from entering if I didn't first blog these...

01 Chelsea drew an impromptu portrait of me eating a cookie. It's pretty accurate.

02 From my "last supper" with my family at C&O.

03 My last lil' pillow project from work! Not to toot my own "taste horn" (is that a thing? and do I want to be tooting it?), but writer Zadie Smith has a chaise lounge upholstered in this same GP & J Baker linen in her dressing room, as seen in Vogue, and elements of the print climbing the walls. It's pretty awesome and I'm damn classy, is my point.

04 Me with my cousin's lil'un's! A sweet visit right before I hit the road.

05 And I can't help but share the almond tart Chelsea made me, topped with self-churned (is that right?) lavender-chamomile ice cream and garnished with mint. Damn!

06 A goodbye toast with friends...bon voyage!

DIGITAL BY DESIGN

Having the chance to support local artists through this blog is always a treat, so I was excited when my friend Todd approached me about a new undertaking - excited, but wary. Why? Part of this new project, he told me, would involve transferring a photo of a mural he'd painted in his dining room onto a t-shirt. So you understand my trepidation? Well, trepidatiousness be damned! The line, branded RTH Designs, is a digitized treat. Using dye-sublimation printing (it's complicated), Todd was able to have the mural as well as a few other original designs (I'm seen here wearing my favorite) blown up and transferred onto performance polyester t-shirts. The material's sheen adds a trendy neoprene-ish element to the shirts' outsized prints and is damn comfortable to boot!

Todd is having a launch party for the line this Friday, June 1st, at his store Artifacts. Click here for more information and be sure to swing by! Tell him you saw "some fruit on the internet" wearing his design - he'll get it ;)

RTH Designs t-shirt paired with my faux leather leggings from Urban Outfitters, a cotton sportcoat from Zara and my combat boots from Low Vintage. Shot "on location" at McIntire skate park; photos by Fareine Benz.

LE SHAN, C'EST CHIC

I had the luck to meet Shannon a few weeks ago when she modeled for Get Low. The Irish-Lebanese beauty and I quickly bonded over how we're both bodacious boho-babes (read: she is tall and gorgeous and I am a level three elf lord with big dreams) and how much we love vintage. Her collection of rings is pretty damn impressive, and look - she wears hats too! Shannon's working at Low now, dispensing beaucoup styling advice and being infinitely bubblier and more helpful than I have ever been in a retail setting - be sure to pay her a visit!

AT HOME WITH SARAH OWEN

We now take a break from our regularly scheduled programming...as a last little treat for my Virginia readers I'm sharing some photos of Charlottesville-based artist Sarah Owen's home. Owen and I discussed at length her most fitting job title, since she's fluent in so many creative pursuits. For the purposes of this post, I shall declare her an official Purveyor of Awesome. Aside from her work as an artist she also does interior design and curates a distinctive selection of objets d'art. These were previously available at the shop she opened with her designer father John Owen, JohnSarahJohn (see that space here), but many of them now populate the varied surfaces of her charming bungalow.

The living room is as inviting as it looks...the best-lit room in the house, Owen's mix of found objects and unexpected floral alternatives (dried seedpods #forthewin) provide the perfect complement to the artwork and layered textiles.

The desk is actually an industrial cart with hammered steel on top (I think...that at least sounds right), a compelling space for a tableau of framed family portraits and artful finds.

A salvaged sign letter is given pride of place above the kitchen sink; the dining room showcases a traditional lighting fixture around which Owen wove twigs to get it in line with her organic aesthetic.

Owen is lucky enough to have an in-home studio where she can paint, sculpt and modify everyday things into beautiful objects. I'm incredibly grateful Sarah asked me to help capture the essence of her space and hope you've enjoyed getting a peek into the home of such a talented creative mind!

All photos taken in natural light with my Canon Rebel t1i.
To contact Sarah Owen, click here.

DRESSING A VINTAGE VIXEN

Jenn and I got together the other week to shoot some photos for Vintage Vixen using my little ol' Holga, just for fun. I'd seen her working at the C&O bar and fell in love with her hair and general bodaciousness. Here she is just blazing in vintage Versace, Mugler, Givenchy, Dior...names, darling, I want names! You can check out the full sized images over on ma Flickr, if that excites you, and hit up the store if you see something you like!

Vintage Vixen
300 East Market St.
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434) 244-0778

BELL IS THE NEW BLACK

Or, an alternative post title might be, "Trucker Lovechild." The bell bottoms are vintage Mudd ladyjeans that I picked up at Ike's Underground - I know I said bell bottoms were a trend that wouldn't be coming back into fashion...but I lied, as they are obviously f*cking awesome. I paired them here with my vintage Ralph flannel and an army surplus jacket I had customized last year by my darling dearest BFF, screenprinting wunderkind James Anthony. The boots and bracelet are from Low Vintage and ma sunnies are from Bygones Vintage in Richmond.

I'm crazy about these wooden beads and the "summer of love" vibe they lend to my wardrobe, drawing inspiration from this previously blogged editorial. So what's the consensus? Are we all on board the bell bottom bandwagon? Or am I alone on the Ashton-Kutcher-circa-That-70's-Show express? Photos Joel Codiamat.

QUEENS OF THE NIGHT

Join Low Vintage and I for a fashion spectacular next Friday night, Get Low, co-hosted by drag queens Florence Marie and Helen Killer (seen here working it at UVa's drag bingo.) The runway portion will star a bevy of local babes (and dudebabes) wearing the hottest Spring/Summer fashions, not to mention select photographs from The Low Lookbook will be printed up real nice-like for your viewing pleasure. On top of all that there will be champagne and Shirley Temples, plus cheese and bread and dips AND hot DJ action from Three Witches and DJ Tyler Magill. It should be a lot of fun, so I hope to see all local readers out that night! (FYI: you can drop by anytime within the three hour window of the event.)

Low Vintage + Sean Santiago present Get Low

Friday, May 4th @ 6:30-9:30pm

105 5th St. SE

Charlottesville, VA 22902

(434) 293-9082

SPRING COLOR BLOCKING

I asked my friend Lucy to help me with a project I'm working on for Vintage Vixen (more to come on that later), but it took a conceptual turn and I found myself with a model surplus. Lucy was still game for playing dress up, though: here she is wearing a gorgeous silk blouse by French label Equipment and vintage Escada trousers with vintage accessories. The red with fuschia feels very current and a high waist + gold = never better. Consider this post a trend "how-to" piece, if you will! I shot Lucy last year as well and have included some snapshots of that action below...

Follow me on Instagram @xoxofruitpunch

CEREMONIAL

I fell in love with the sculptural shape of this cup and had a set of four flown in from Japan – probably not the most eco-friendly purchase I’ve ever made, but a boon to the local economy (he tells himself). It takes tea drinking to a whole other level, and thanks to my indulgence they've now got sets of four in three other colors. If you don't drink tea, they'd be great for potting tiny plants or storing shorter makeup brushes!

Available at Oasis, (434) 244-9667

GOOD OLD FASHIONED

They say God is in the details, right? Well, the details here are my favorite thing - the red piping on the pockets, the high rise, the wide leg! These are my vintage Boy Scouts trousers, previously seen here, that (sort of) reference the silhouette at Kenzo I blogged about the other week. They look very old fashioned here, like it's 1923 and I want to sell you a newspaper, although last week I paired them simply with a crisp white shirt and felt very Euro. My favorite detail you can't see, but only find out if you ask me who I'm wearing, like it's the Oscars or you've run into Joan Rivers on the street. "Oh, these?" I'll say, "These are Randy Wards. His name is literally printed inside my pants because they used to be his when he was eleven." It's fun, no? Paired with a Steven Alan-esque shirt from Low and a skinny belt and faux-Sebagos from China.

photos Joel Codiamat

O-CHECK YOURSELF

How do you keep your thoughts organized? I’ve started carrying around a little notebook so that I can jot down random musings and things I read about that I want to look into later. I used to have one of those Field Notes notebooks, but they’re just not cute enough. Enter O-check Design Graphics, a Korean company that's been on my stationery-dar since last year.

O-check makes the world’s cutest notebooks. They’re so cute that I’m pretty sure the design directive is just a looped video of a kitten riding on the back of a rabbit riding on the back of a baby pony that trips over its own feet, with the words “cuter than this” above it. The entire product range has a vintage vibe and a predilection for French, and would look great Instagrammed next to some latte art. O-check notebook from Artifacts, pen from Muji. Some of my favorite places for notebooks: Artifacts (434) 295-9500, O’Suzannah (434) 979-7467 and RPS (434) 979-6366.

Need more organization inspiration?

Check out my post on the best binder for tear sheets here.

THE BREAD BOX

Rick Easton's artisanal supper club, Bread and Salt, held a brunch in collaboration with restaurant The Box yesterday. It was cleverly titled, "The Bread Box" - so cute! There was even a heart in my cappucino and then Chelsea and I instagrammed ourselves holding her espresso cup in a fitting tribute to this Portlandia sketch. I got the French toast and it was c'est fantastique! Yes, that's it in the lower left-hand corner - it's as giant as a steak, no? Incroyable!

Follow me on Instagram @thisfruitsnaps

UP AGAINST THE WALL

I've started shooting street style for print again! It's been almost a year and a half since I was last combing the streets, albeit on the other side of the world (see some of my previous work here and here), and this is my very first published print work in the States. Woo!

These are some favorite snaps so far...mmm, texture and contrast. The top lady's bag is Michael Kors and the bag below is Fendi, from an outtake that didn't make it into print. And yes, of course, I now expect you to strike a pose every time you see me. Work it!

BURBERRY CROPPED TRENCH

This is a woman's cropped trench, available now at Vintage Vixen. Since it's technically for the ladies, it fits my elfin frame really well. I like that it's a twist on the traditional trench - it's more my style, no? *pine*

Follow me on Instagram @xoxofruitpunch

THE LOW LOOKBOOK

It's here! (here here here!) The Low Lookbook is finally live. Read it, love it, share it! And now the backstory...

Model Chan and I got together about a month ago and bonded over our twin passions for Korean men (let’s find husbands!) and fashion while discussing The Low Lookbook. The seventeen-year-old stunner is le total newcomer to modeling, but more importantly she’s my neighbor whom I babysat this one time. (Chan’s mother, Jill, was my journalism teacher in High School and I’m guessing she was desperate that evening.) I’ve seen Chan as my numba one stunna since the baby days of conceptualizing this lookbook and was so thrilled when she agreed to the project. We got together over Christmas break to shoot in her parent’s dining room, the shoes and jewelry strewn about the couch and floor of the adjacent room and our rack of clothes tucked up against a bookshelf. I’d been unsure of the perfect location for much of the planning process and was getting nervous after ruling out two or three different options according to my not-exactly-strict criteria (indoors with LOTS of natural light, white walls and hopefully a pinch of character). I realized the dining room might be perfect thanks to a couple of Instagrams that proved the light in there to be wonderfully flattering (and plenty). Here are a few outtakes from the shoot that I think attest to the fact that we made the right call…

A BIG thank you is due to the ladies of Low Vintage for supporting me in this project. They indulged my every request as I worked through the weeks to get all of my proverbial ducks in a row, from my first trip pulling options to the Saturday Chan and I took over a dressing room for three hours straight going through every outfit, pulling new pieces from the floor now and then to make sure we created as many looks as possible. Later, I pulled a bunch of jewelry and other accessories to bring “on set” so we could mix and match on the fly (and here I need to make a special shout-out to Bree, because I think it was on this trip that she directed me to the Lanvin skirt in look 9!) In between I made a few trips back in to try on new things for myself – oops! The before-and-after shots are pretty awesome…(keep in mind that if you run into Chan on the street she will be in natural light and look more like the “after” photos rather than the washed-out, fluorescent “before” photos – yeesh)

I’d been contemplating a few different styles for this project, but was really guided by Chan’s natural grace and sophistication. She’s very at ease with herself for a teenager! When it came to the photography, I found myself mentally referencing the work of Patrick Demarchelier and Steven Meisel and was particularly inspired by their work with Caroline Trentini and Natalia Vodianova for Vogue (combine Trentini and Natalia with a dash of 80’s Brooke Shields and there you have Chan). As for the styling, Low carries of a lot of pieces from the seventies, that decade in constant war with the fifties for all of my luvin’, so I rolled with it and crafted looks that reference my current passion for Marina Munoz’s style (hats!) and the easy French chic of Claire Courtin-Clarins. It was important for me to have these women in mind as individuals who are making Fashion now! and not to steep myself in a bunch of old movies or idiosyncratic photos of Kate Moss from the 90’s when looking for inspiration. It’s already old clothing, so I needed the looks to feel fresh and current! Since this post is already so long, I'll be posting a moodboard separately, later in the week!

I really feel this is the most important post on the blog yet, so please share this with everyone you know and help spread the Low love! They don’t have a website but you can find them on Facebook here, or give ‘em a call at (434) 293-9082. If you're in the mood to shop, drop in on 'em! They're off the downtown mall on 5th street, around the corner from Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar. Like the lookbook? Lemme know! Feedback for this is much appreciated, since it's my first time doing anything of this sort. Beaucoup besos,

~Sean