Badass Frida

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you."
Frida Kahlo

So I've been taking this awesome class called Photographing People at New England School of Photography and we have assignments every week based on a different theme. I couldn't help but do a self portrait for this particular assignment where we had to reinterpret an iconic image. I have always been very intrigued by Frida, the way she expressed through clothing and art and also because we share similar names! I knew right away when we got the assignment I wanted to do Frida. I started doing some research on her to just get a better feel for things and ended up spending days reading about her life. I was in awe at her ability to channel pain and raw emotions into self portraits. I was also fascinated with her transformation into the iconic image we know of her today. I found out Frida was half German and born Frieda, later changing her name to Frida. As a teen she actually experimented with men's clothing and wore modern clothing of her time period up until she met Diego who influenced her to reconnect with her Mexican roots. In many ways she dressed that way for him because he loved seeing her in the cultural clothing of Mexico. After their divorce (later remarried him) she cut off all her hair to spite him. The styling I did was inspired by the masculine and feminine traits she explored both in her clothing and spirit. I feel like if she were reincarnated she would be pretty ‬bad ass so I did a black lip to show a modern take. I stripped the color out of the flowers and clothing and wore a men's button up shirt (Thanks Anthony!). The background color was inspired by an image I love of her in front of a dark turquoise wall. I really love how it came to life. Channeling her into a personal self portrait was pretty 😎

I wanted to put this up as I haven't posted in a while! If you follow me on Instagram (which you should!) you may have seen it already. I've been editing client work and keeping busy in a good way with some fun shoots I can't wait to share! I hope to get back to documenting some of my outfits on here though.

XO
Feda/Frida for this post at least :)

Gypsy Blues: Snow snow go away

It's been a bit quiet over here. I'm working on a few projects at once trying to finish things up and release them. Until I finish those, I thought I would put this outfit post up that I did last week. It's been incredibly cold and snowy in Boston. Not the pretty, let's go frolic in the snow, kind of snow. The kind that stays piled up on the sidewalks for days. I actually took these on the front steps because there was nowhere to stand without seeing the yucky brown snow piled up.

I figured I would brighten up the muckiness with this gypsy, black and pink ensemble featuring my friend Jean's beautiful upcylced sweater creation! I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow blogger Jean from drossintogold a few weeks ago when she was visiting Boston from Georgia. It was soo refreshing to meet such a beautiful soul. She found me through another amazing blogger HijabRevival who featured me on her blog some time ago (thank you girl!!!). If you haven't checked either of them out, GO!! The internet amazes me. It is thought of as this evil entity but like anything in this world it can be used or abused. In this case it brought together amazing souls with a common love for fashion and self expression.

Jean has been such a source of inspiration and friendship to me, and I'm so grateful for that. I was so amazed at her sense of style when I browsed through her blog. You can tell when style comes from within, an expression of who you are. Her blog is also full of thrifted outfits, which I love, but what elevates it is her craft of up cycling and personalizing things to make them her own. The shawl I'm wearing above was created from different cashmere sweaters. It has such detail, and seriously kept me warm during this cold winter day. Thank you Jean for the gift! I feel like I'm wearing a piece of her which is so beautiful :)

Keep shining whereever you are and keep tuned in to catch some of my new work up on this blog! I will be releasing an editorial called Fall Vibes and a self portrait series called Grow a Garden (if you follow me on instagram or facebook you have seen some images from both already).

Much love,
Feda

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. Aristotle Onassis

When I did this series I was in a defiant mood. I was feeling down about a lot of things at the same time. I happened to be missing a project life image for the theme black so I decided to play around and see what I came up with. I draped a cloth backdrop on a shelf, stuck a chair in the middle of my living room, brought out a speed light and a small umbrella, put some black eyeliner on my lips and had it out with the camera. It was the greatest feeling when i finished. I edited these with a really old Incubus cd playing in the background which added to the whole kick ass mood. I felt like I took a bunch of crap emotions and turned them into gold! GOOD TIMES! Moral of the story, if you're feeling down, create, write, paint, draw, go hiking, take a walk, take some pictures, do something where you can let that energy out in a positive way. I think that when you DO, you FEEL, in that moment, and not any other. The doing helps to clear your mind and make room for some light. More light is always a good thing in my eyes.

Much love,

Feda