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Opera Singing Flowers (sneak peek…)

Juilliard trained opera singer and florist, Betany Coffland, often uses music as inspiration in her floral creations. Her business, Chloris Floral exclusively uses local and seasonal flowers grown with organic practices. For our photo shoot, Betany wanted to create photo stories for two special operas. Here is how that happened…

Her email:

The first bouquet will be inspired by “Ah Chloris” by Reynaldo Hahn, the piece that inspired the name Chloris Floral. Completely romantic, rich and full. Here’s me singing the song with guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw8IN97J1zo

Our result:

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Her email:

The second bouquet will be inspired by Pierrot Lunaire- it’s piece I’m performing this week. Themes are puppets, commedia dell’arte, moon inspiration. I want to be elegant here and not so literal, but still a bit off kilter. Here’s a link to the crazy music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KyKdLv2gro

Our result:paigegreenBetany04122016-107

It feels like magic when a group of people come together for the first time, share their talents and create art. We are so in love with the results and we’re ready to do more. Thank you to the incredibly talented team:

Floral Designer/Opera Singer: Betany Coffland of Chloris Floral

Stylist: Alysia Andriola of Grace and Gather

Chloris Model: Vero Kherian of Miss Cheesemonger

Pierrot Model: Alexa Eisner of Babachic

Assistant: Laura Schneider 

And thank you to the local flower farmers who sustainably grew these gorgeous opera singing flowers.

 

My new home studio…

If you move enough furniture and hang up a black sheet in my living room, you get this…

fibershed120714And if you take down that sheet, and add a cute baby, you get this…

fibershed-allyI am very slowly (10 years in to this career) realizing why people have studios.

paigegreenFibershed120714-0410Just think… no commute, no schlepping stuff, predictable light all the time… sounds pretty dreamy.

paigegreenFibershed120714-0449What do you think, 2015, could it be time?

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All of the beautiful clothes and accessories featured here were created by the talented Fibershed community. Look for these products and more on the Fibershed Marketplace.

544A5318Huge thanks to everyone who made this photo shoot happen… especially Tessa Watson, Debbie Wilson, Dan K, Lindsay Riddell, and all the baby holders… I couldn’t have done it without you.

Fibershed Fashion Gala 2013

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Fibershed is a project that is very close to my heart.

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I have been documenting Fibershed since Rebecca Burgess first started her personal challenge in 2010.

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I clearly remember the conversation Rebecca and I had in 2009 while we were sitting in the airport waiting to board a plane to one of our Harvesting Color adventures.

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She told me she wanted to do so much more than teach people about natural dyes.

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She was so deeply concerned about what the fashion industry was doing to the environment and to the people working in the factories that she needed to do something more.

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So she decided she wanted to challenge herself for a year to only wear clothes that were created, start to finish, within 150 miles from her home… within her Fibershed.

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But she told me how one of our mutual advisers had completely dismissed her idea saying that it would never be of interest to anyone outside of her small community… so Rebecca was feeling very discouraged.

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I told Rebecca that she had to do it… at the height of the local and organic food movement, now was the perfect time to bring attention to the fashion industry.

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But, I said, she had to make the clothes fashion-forward… otherwise she would be dismissed as just another hippie from Fairfax wearing strange brown clothes.

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So we agreed it could be cool… but I don’t think either of us had any idea how cool it would become.

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Four years later, Rebecca’s personal challenge has become a full fashion movement that is spreading across the country and internationally.

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Rebecca’s vision has evolved in to a non-profit, a Fibershed Marketplace, and most importantly lifelong friendships between farmers and designers.

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And at the Fibershed Fashion Gala, on Saturday December 14th, 2013 at Jacuzzi Winery, the “coolness” was unstoppable.

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Originally I was supposed to be out-of-town on the 14th… and I was supposed to miss this event.

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But my schedule changed at the last-minute allowing me to go… and the moment I walked in to the event space, I knew that there was nowhere else I was supposed to be.

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It is so inspiring to see what the passion and determination of one person can lead to.

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Rebecca Burgess, I am so incredibly proud of you, and I can not wait to see where Fibershed goes next.

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Congratulations to all of the talented designers, the hardworking farmers, the beautiful models and the event planners. It was a fantastic event and I hope I get to work with all of you again in the future.

My new favorite day of the year…


For a photographer, there is almost nothing more fun than getting to spend a day with people you really like and playing dress-up in a beautiful location. Over the years, starting in middle school, I have had several hilarious “fashion” photo shoots staring myself and my friends… which would be a funny blog post someday if I can find the prints… and if my friends won’t disown me after I share. But last year I experienced my first ever (paid) fashion shoot with a real model (and dear friend) for Susan Hayes Handwovens and I was giddy the entire day.

So I was very excited to get the email from Susan Hayes that we were going to do it again this year. Our day of fashion fun was yesterday… the first not-a-cloud-in-the-sky or fog-on-the-horizon day in Tomales in months. I was a little disappointed because I do love photographing in the fog… but the sun was pretty nice too, and it helped that we had access to incredible locations including an Audubon Research site and the Marshall Store.

Now my only problem is editing… when everything is so beautiful it is so very hard to choose just one…

Thank you Susan, Jack, Aimée, Mariah and Josh. I had so much fun and I can’t wait until next year.

To see more photos from this photo shoot please visit my Paige Green Photography facebook page.

Green Gala Goddesses…

The University of California Botanical Gardens at Berkeley had their Green Gala Fundraiser today. The highlight of the event was definitely the fashion show of sustainable and local designs held in their stunning Redwood Grove Amphitheater. The eco-chic designers used inspiration directly from the Garden’s uniquely biodiverse plant collection to create two original designs that feature natural fibers and plant-based dyes.

The UC Botanical Gardens are a wonderful Bay Area resource, so I was happy to come and support their event. But really who doesn’t love running around in the redwoods photographing beautiful women in amazing clothes? To see more photos of the event click here.

My only regret is that I didn’t have more time to play. Because as it turns out, I think I am secretly falling in love with fashion photography… well, maybe not all fashion photography, but at least local sustainable fashion photography.

So if you are a local designer and you want your fashion photographed… I am inspired and ready to play.

What Happens Next…

One…

Photo…

Isn’t…

Enough…

Because I always want to know what happens next.

The same is true in life. I always want to know what is going to happen next. And what happens after photographing a ballerina on a roof top overlooking San Francisco? Hopefully more photo shoots with ballerinas on roof tops overlooking San Francisco. It was a photo shoot that I needed. A photo shoot to recharge my creative batteries. A photo shoot that was fun. Thank you, Terez, for sharing your incredible talent, and thank you, JC, for making it all come together.

And I really hope more of this…

…happens next.

Local Wisdom…

Local Wisdom is a research project by Dr Kate Fletcher that aims to gather examples of clothes that are used in ways that save resources and give us satisfaction.

The Local Wisdom process involves documenting the stories of clothes, through image and word. Photo shoots are advertised in local press, community notice boards and within established local networks.

 

Volunteers are asked to bring along something that fits into one of the following categories:

  • Garments that are shared between people
  • Garments that are regularly worn and have never been washed (and aren’t leather!)
  • Garments that show or tell the story of how they have been used
  • Garments that are made up of interchangeable pieces that can be worn in different ways
  • Garments that are worn the same in different situations
  • Garments or elements of garments that make for easy repair
  • Garments enjoying a third, fourth or fifth life
  • Garments that catch your attention each time you wear them
  • Garments worn in ways that reinforce or defy the producer’s values
  • Garments that connect us to others and/or remind us of our potential
  • Garments worn in response to changing economic and environmental concerns
  • Garments that are adapted over and again to meet changing needs
  • Garments that are perfect for you

To learn more and to see more images from the day, please visit the Local Wisdom website.

Thank you to Rebecca for introducing me to Lynda. Thank you to Lynda for introducing me to Kate. Thank you to Kate for giving me the opportunity to document your project. Thank you to all the volunteers who became fabulous models, whether they wanted to or not. And thank you to Bridget for staying by my side all day and for helping make the photos even better.

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