How it All Began...

     People ask me how I started being a designer, or got into this strange world of fashion and design, how the jewelry thing started etc. The answer is, it's a long story... it began with my family, before I even existed and it's an adventure from that point on. 

     The first time I thought I really had something in terms of a style and mood, I decided to attempt to actually create what was in my mind, and start to make it into something tangible. I think it was around summer of 2008ish? I was just starting to sell my first pieces of jewelry. I got some props, a studio, a photographer and a model to bring things to life and maybe have some photos to use, if I was lucky. 

    My friend Cielle The Supermodel, agreed to work with me that day and let me play out some ideas I had been imagining.  CTS and I go way back to Montana days, we went to high school together and became good friends. CTS, was perfectly imperfect, just as I knew  her to be. It was awesome that she also had some amazing art direction ideas (huge bonus when you are shooting, styling, designing and art directing all at once). I realized, as much as I love working with "agency models", sometimes it's cool to mix it up. The thing is, photo shoots are exhausting and it was more fun to hang out with someone who was really smart and would eat snacks with me, instead of just watching me eat all the snacks by myself, and staring at me vacantly, while I  ramble about "my ideas". She even helped me track down the black and baby blue balloons I had been dreaming of. I'll never forget how awesome she looked carrying them through the streets of Portland, and how excited we were about the shoot and  just the whole thing in general. It was an awesome day. 

   The shoot lasted hours and by the end I threw myself and another friend into the mix and there were circus masks everywhere, feathers, jewelry, props, everywhere. It's kind of a flurry in my mind, but there was a lot of creative energy flow and it was kind of magical.  I was using a tiny tourist camera that I bought mainly because it was a shade of pink that I liked, to shoot behind the real photographer,, just because. It makes for some interesting quality. I think it's kind of charming, but that's just me? Here are my two favorite shots from that day. Hopefully, I can book her again and do a new shoot soon, this time with a slightly better camera and some more time for planning, probably outside?  

Model-Cielle Taaffe, Jacket designed and constructed by Brehan Todd, Shoes by Miss L Fire for Anthropologie, Fabric Anna Sui, Suitcase, vintage, Knickers (model's) Styling and and photo by Brehan Todd. Soundtrack-Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam.
 *No sweatshops, inflated salaries, high performance budgets, annoying permits, animal cruelty,  human starvation, or terrible dance music soundtracks,  were used in this shoot .