New York Mad Tea party honoring DrossintoGold and Style Crone!

If you read my last post, I talked about attending an amazing tea party honoring my dear friend Jean from DrossintoGold and Judith from Style Crone (pictured above). The tea party minus the tea ;) was cp-hosted by artist and designer Carol Markel of Femme et Fleur and Debra Raporport.

These are some pictures from the afternoon with the backdrop of Carol and her husband Richard's beautiful apartment which is a work of art in itself! Thank you Carol for making everything edible and visual so beautiful!

If you don't know these ladies I recommend checking them out! You will be in awe looking through their blogs and seeing their magical outfits! They are all a part of a growing movement of women over 40 that have truly mastered the art of self expression through personal style. You may recognize them from the blog/documentary Advanced Style run by Ari Seth Cohen. I had a blast being around such amazing ladies and I left feeling so inspired!

Left to Right: Jean and Judith in their gorgeous outfits!

I consider Jean a soul friend getting to know her over the last year or so. We instantly clicked when we met and have so many similarities (She has been on the blog before here :) She is so GENUINE, kind and a breath of fresh air. She has such unique taste for mixing prints with layers of jewelry, usually toping it off with an amazing hat! What makes her even cooler is that she makes and up cycles so much of her clothing. It doesn't get more personal than that!

Judith and I met on instagram and her fabulous blog Style Crone. Meeting her in person was wonderful. You can tell Judith has a lot of fun with her clothing. It is extravagant, whimsical and classic all at once. She is famous for her gorgeous and unique hats that she pairs with her outfits!

LtoRight: Fashionista Anne Balcer, Jeff (Judiths partner) getting treats from the beautiful food table.  Some close ups of the table details below.

Along with running her lifestyle blog, Carol designs hats and now clothing. It was so nice to see her artist space full of her inspiration. Real life pinterest hehe. Her style is colorful, geometric and whimsical and so is her space! It's also extremely organized which I envy (inspired to get organized!).

Artist Elke Kuhn and her fabulous red hat!

Carol's home decor was so colorful! Loved it all! Below is her closet full of her handmade hat art!

Stan Satlin trying on a Carol Markel creation.

I loveee this one!!

Judith trying her hat out on top of one of Carol's hats.

Anne Balcer with artist Richard Cramer (Carol's husband). He showed me some of his recent work featuring birds and places he has been shown below that had me in awe! I really enjoyed hearing about his life as an artist and teacher at the Tyler School of Art in Philly. Check out his amazing artwork here: RichardCramer

Richard and Carol both having such amazing style and they've been featured on Advanced Style many times. I recommend reading about them here and here.

Left to right: Carol Markel, Marsha Carlin, Jean Barrett. Obsessed with Marsha's necklace mixup. My favorite colors. 

More of the fashionable crew!
Left to Right: Marsha Carlin, Jean Barrett, Carol Markel, guest, Debra Rapoport, Judith

Loved getting to know Debra Rapoport who has taught workshops on turning trash into wearable art! Most of the accessories above are made out of waste, believe it or not. Her hat is made out of paper towels! I really want her to come to Boston and teach a workshop. Check out her website and blog here. She's also a regular over on Advanced Style, read about her here and on Styleliku here.

Debra explaining to the ladies how she created this necklace!

Also loved meeting the elegant Joyce Carpati. I just love her braids and class, I was honored to be complimented on my outfit by her because I love her style. She's also a regular on Advanced Style. You can see more of her glamourous outfits here and here! 

Had the pleasure of meeting the Jean and Valerie (L to Right) of the duo Idiosyncratic Fashionistas. They were 2013's most stylish new yorkers and run their amazing fashion blog. All I can say is WOW! Loved their style and personalities, fun and down to earth. We were all gifted Frida socks by Jean that I had to put on right away!

Frida was in the air!

Jean's amazing shoes!

Hope you enjoyed! If you missed it, I shared the outfit I was wearing in my previous blogpost here. Seeing women be themselves and being around women that love to express through clothing just as much as I do was really surreal. Very grateful to have had this experience!

Much love,
Feda

Home made Love: Red Abaya and Tassel Earrings

This past week I traveled to New York City for a lovely tea party honoring two amazing bloggers, my beautiful and insanely stylish friend Jean from Dross Into Gold and the adventurous and eclectic Judith from Style Crone. I was so honored to be invited by Jean for this amazing party hosted by designer and artist Carol Markel of Femme et Fleur.

This is the outfit I put together for the party.  Photos were taken by my husband Anthony in New York at a park near where we were staying. Love looking at these and remembering the aura of New York (miss it!!).

I had been contemplating making this linen dress that has been in my head for months and I finally had an excuse to go ahead and make it. I was trying to decide on a color before I found out about the party and once I knew I was going I had to go with red. Red is just a color I am always in love with, my couch is red and I love red lipstick! The color of passion. My mom sort of held my hand throughout the process of cutting out the shape and how to put it together because I only ever made one thing before this dress. The design was simple enough though, and I just had to put in the time. It came out pretty well for my second ever creation. It's interesting that I made it with my mom because it almost felt like a Abaya or Kaftan arab dress inspired by her motherland Lebanon. The head wrap style and accessories echoed the feeling. I felt amazing in it and it kept me cool in the heat without sacrificing the more modest look I feel most confident in. I styled it with some earrings I also made on the bus ride into New York. I started making these tassel earrings last summer but it felt like the perfect time to finish them up to go with this dress. Talk about last minute, but I'm happy I went ahead and made them. I missed the feeling of creating things you imagine in a more tactile way. Hope you enjoy this summer look!

I will post some pics from the party up next. I had an amazing time and loved seeing Jean, meeting Judith, Carol and the many fabulous women I will gush about in my next post. Stay tuned!

Linking this post with Judiths June Hat Attack on her blog Style Crone. Happy headwear art!

XO
Feda

Outfit Details:
Headwrap: White Tassel Scarf from H&M  (recent purchase so you should find it there)
Dress: handmade
Earrings: Handmade/Upcycled- silver piece was from an earring set I was gifted- from Spain
Rings- all collected over the years.
Afghan large stone rings are from Avizeh Jewelry
Silver Filigree ring from Zamarut Jewel
Bag & Shoes- TJ Maxx a few years ago

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 :)

Papaya! Collaboration Photos!

SO happy to finally share these on here! I was so honored to collaborate with Papaya! on this creative adventure. It was an experiment on both ends coming together and seeing what happens. These self portraits are inspired by the colors and positive affirmations that I resonated with in Artist Anahata Katkins beautiful artwork. I played off the teals, pinks, reds mainly in the pieces when styling this shoot. Of course I had to add flowers which I love and see floating everywhere in her artwork. The beautiful leaves were added by Papaya for their lookbook which you can check out on their site called Temple Rose! Love how it came together in the end and hope you enjoy them too!

XO

Feda

Papaya Collaboration: Creative Process, Color, and Inspiration

The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color.

Hans Hofmann 

A few months ago I was sent a beautiful box of goodies by Papaya as part of a fun collaboration. I shot a few self portraits inspired by the beautiful colors and women created by artist Anahata katkin. I have been a looong time fan of her work and Papaya so this whole thing was surreal for me.

I was given creative freedom with what to create so initially I had no idea what direction I would take. I was most inspired by the COLOR and positive vibes throughout the pieces. The quote above is one of the many beautiful and inspiring quotes that run throughout Papaya. In terms of color I was really feeling the pinks and teals surrounded by a darker backdrop. From there I started playing around with different shades in my makeup collection, and the patterns and textures in my clothing and accessories. I was also really inspired by the flowers in her work and wanted to incorporate those as well. These images show some of the initial play time I did. I will be sharing the final portraits in the next post!

XO
Feda

Mountains

“I sit before flowers hoping they will train me in the art of opening up 

I stand on mountain tops believing that avalanches will teach me to let go

I know nothing but I am here to learn.”

Shane Koyczan

"As you change your point of view, your views bring about a change in you." George Alexiou

"Wherever you are, you're in the right place. So let yourself enjoy the view." Unknown

Mountains have a way of putting you in your place. It's amazing how seeing from a different view can put things into perspective. You feel quite small and humble in the scope of things. They take my breath away while simultaneously giving me the exact breath of fresh air I need.

I took these on the way back from a mini vacation we took to New Hampshire a few weeks ago for our anniversary. Most of them were taken driving by but some were also taken at stops along the way to take it all in. We had a great time exploring, skiing and enjoying each others company in a different environment. I often crave seeing with new eyes and I always feel a strong pull towards mountains so this hit the spot. Hope you enjoy a small piece of what I brought back with me :)