Which city?

Some time ago Vintage Girl announced a styling, metropolis-inspired contest  (condition: the look is to include a minimum of two H&M accessories). Not easy, since - although I own quite a few H&M clothes - I don't have many of their accessories, and as of yet the chain has not opened a store in Oxford (why not? why?? they'd be raking it in with all the students around!). Using whatever I had at hand, I created two looks, inspired by...

Jakiś czas temu Vintage Girl ogłosiła konkurs na stylizację inspirowaną miastem (warunek: minimum dwa dodatki H&M). Nie mogłam przepuścić takiej okazji! Musiałam się niestety mocno nagłowić, jako że o ile ciuchów z H&M mam całkiem sporo, o tyle z dodatkami już gorzej; a w Oksfordzie jak na razie ta sieć nie otworzyła sklepu (czemu? czemu?? obłowiliby się na studentach!). W każdym razie przy pomocy tego, co było pod ręką, stworzyłam dwie stylizacje. A inspirowane są...

... Los Angeles, and more specifically the Hollywood district, and even more specifically - old Hollywood...
... Los Angeles, a konkretnie dzielnicą Hollywood, a jeszcze konkretniej to powojennym Hollywood...



...and...
...i...

 

... interwar Berlin. Have you guessed correctly? It wasn't too obvious.
... międzywojennym Berlinem. Zgadliście? Wiem, że nie było łatwo.

Photography: Marten Collins.

In Hollywood, Joanna is wearing:
- a black dress made by Marten's friend Vivien
- a H&M belt
- a H&M hair clip
- gloves from Reserved.

In Berlin, Joanna is wearing:
- a black dress from Oxfam
- a H&M hat
- a H&M flower.

El Pollo Diablo

Welcome back, and apologies for the long break; Adrian has been having a bit of a photo-crisis recently, so please keep your fingers crossed for next shoots.
Anyway, animals seem to be a running theme in this blog, and here we have a little black hen, so tame that she has been banned from outdoor lunches at Joanna's workplace for snatching people's sandwiches. Since we like accessories that match in colour but clash in style, we contrast our black and red chicken with a burlesque red hat and a black corset.

Witamy ponownie i przepraszamy za przerwę w pisaniu. Adrian ma obecnie kryzys fotograficzny, prosimy o trzymanie kciuków za następną sesję.
Ponieważ Joanna hołduje zasadzie "najlepszy przyjaciel człowieka najlepszym dodatkiem do stroju", przedstawiamy Wam czarno-czerwoną kurkę, która (mimo kontrastującego stylu) pięknie współgra kolorystycznie z czerwonym kapeluszem i czarnym gorsetem. Kurka jest na tyle oswojona i pozbawiona skrupułów, że ze względu na karygodne próby podkradania kanapek ma oficjalny zakaz wstępu na pikniki w grupie badawczej Joanny.

 

Na zdjęciu po lewej El Pollo Diablo (kto grał w The Curse of Monkey Island, ten wie, o co chodzi):

  

 And below are a few images by Marten Collins (Joanna poses with El Pollo Diablo junior):

Joanna is not wearing anything special - just two findings from second-hand stores.

Meanwhile in Oxfordshire...

Londoners are rioting, but here in Oxfordshire we are working hard on a series of new shoots. I had to put this picture as a spoiler - it's so beautifully eclectic that I can't help but smile when I look at it!

Londyńczycy demolują miasto, a tymczasem my w Oxfordshire przygotowujemy nowe sesje zdjęciowe. Nie mogłam się powstrzymać przed umieszczeniem zdjęcia - spojlera, jest tak cudownie eklektyczne, że uśmiecham się jak tylko na nie spojrzę.

Joanna, Adrian, hat, chicken and camera.What a set.
Photo: Marten Collins

An Asian bride

Joanna: Pokazuję wyniki gościnnej sesji z Jamiem Torrancem i Amną. Zdjęcia zrobiliśmy w przepięknych ogrodach Rousham, zaprojektowanych przez Williama Kenta, jednego z inicjatorów angielskiego stylu ogrodowego. Ogrody Rousham wykonane według jego projektu przetrwały w prawie niezmienionym stanie do dziś. Sesja jest zupełnie inna od tych prezentowanych do tej pory, wszystko dzięki Amnie, która pożyczyła mi swoje cudowne ubranie i namówiła na kolorowy makijaż. Naszym motywem przewodnim była "azjatycka panna młoda" - udało się nieźle, prawda?

Below is the outcome of Joanna's guest shoot with Jamie Torrance and Amna. Our theme was "Asian bride" - I daresay we got it right!

Trzecie zdjęcie wygrało w indyjskim konkursie Annyanny.

Where are you Joanna?

I don't know where Joanna's gone. I really don't, I've lost her somewhere. She hasn't been on g-mail chat for ages now and we haven't spoken for weeks. I'm sure she had told me she was going for a holiday or somewhere and in my mental clumsiness I forgot :-/ However, this gives me an opportunity to post some of my favourite pictures from our last session. They are very different to the sunny-Italian ones and they are all black and white, just how I like them. To be honest, Joanna asked me to prepare some of them in colour, but I'm very reluctant. B&W just suits the mood better and I don't think that adding colour will do anything good. It's just irrelevant. Probably I won't be able to assertively resist though and a few colour ones will appear in the future (posted by Joanna). Probably.

I was trying to emulate some of the old films (Tri-X, T-Max), hence the grain and all "imperfections" are left. I also played with filters to enhance and blunt various colour ranges.

It is really time to think of another session. Isn't it Joanna? As soon as I find you.

 

 

 

And below are two of Marten Collins' images from the same shoot:

The hat and the hound

A week ago we have had another joint shoot with Marten Collins; this time we were joint by His Highness the King of All Whippets - Zebedi. Zebedi (who usually resides with his humble subject Marten) makes one of the most elegant photographic props available out there. Beautiful, patient and very well-behaved - a mini greyhound is a must this season.
As is orange.

Podczas ostatniej sesji dołączył do nas Król Wszystkich Whippetów - Zebedi. Zeb (który na codzień mieszka ze swoim skromnym podwładnym Martenem Collinsem) jest zdecydowanie najelegantszym  dodatkiem kreacji Joanny. Piękny, cierpliwy, dobrze wychowany - w tym sezonie obowiązuje chart. 
I kolor pomarańczowy.

 

Joanna is wearing:
- Hat - Reserved
- Dress, scarf - charity shop
- Bag - charity shop, originally Per Una
- Heels - Ryłko
- Earrings - own production

In the shade of a giant pancake

Joanna:
I have just returned from travelling, and will add a few words on Canada before whipping out the fashion photos. My conference in Toronto was awesome, but apart from that...
- Canadians are incredibly friendly and polite. It's a bit of a shock to the system after living among the (mostly) frigid Brits. Canucks are talkative, helpful, and have a nice American air to them (while at the same time being more civilised than those wild Americans).
- Canadians love tattoos! I was in Toronto Zoo on a hot day and saw more tattoos than I wanted to. In fact, it was easier to find a person with a tattoo than without.
- Canadians make good dads - plenty of them take their kids to the zoo. And apparently there are baby changing facilities in men's toilets (haven't checked that though).
- Canadians love their huge portions of food. A portion of maple syrup pancakes (with bacon - why???) lasted me for two meals.
- Canadians are very proud of their flag and display it everywhere. Again, a nice change after ostentatiously unpatriotic Britain.
I also saw the ROM, AGO, Bata shoe museum, monster trucks, a musk rat, a car with cojones (literally!), and a guy carrying a hockey stick and wearing a moose t-shirt. Sweet!

And Brussels - with its great beer and wonderful couchsurfers - was just cool.

Below are photos of a hat I bought last year at the Gloucester Green market (8GBP - bargain!), seen through the lenses of Adrian and Marten Collins.


Dzisiejsze zdjęcia znów wzięte z archiwum, bo Joanna bujała się po Kanadzie i Belgii. Kapelusz z czwartkowego rynku na Gloucester Green w obiektywach Adriana i Martena Collinsa.

Adrian's work:

And Marten's work:

Joanna is wearing:
- A hat from a vintage market
- An ancient corset
- Gloves from a bridal shop
- Mum's pearls.