Jan 29

2016

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I ♥ Your Style: Isabella Cawdor

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Isabella with her daughter, her husband, and the gamekeepers all in Cawdor tweed.

I first met Isabella Cawdor when she was a guest at my wedding. Her husband Colin was an old friend of Christopher’s and they flew over from Scotland to celebrate with us. I noticed Isabella because of her romantic, dark purple velvet dress with floral cutouts, and she had a fuchsia rose tucked behind her ear. She was the very first one out on the dance floor, twirled around by Christian Louboutin, and I thought “Who is that gorgeous girl?” We didn’t get to know each other properly until a year a half later when Christopher and I were invited, along with one year old Coco, to visit them at their shooting lodge in the highlands of Scotland. That’s when I was really taken with Isabella. Everything about her life – her house, her kids, her clothes, her posture – was beautiful, but done natural ease and warmth. These days, the Cawdors are perhaps best known for their supermodel daughter Jean Campbell – who stars in the current Louis Vuitton and Burberry ads – but it is Isabella’s down to earth, chic country style that has me reeling every time I see her. ..

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Dec 16

2015

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I ♥ Your Style: Beatrix Ost

 

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These colours are irresitible. And I love the mixture of formality in the architectural details and individual expression in her hair colour and shoe choice.

“I had to have the taste of city in order to appreciate the country.” – Beatrix Ost

Naturally I am drawn to any woman who leaves a thriving life in New York City to raise her children on a farm in the countryside. Artist Beatrix Ost (along with her husband) did just that in 1982, decamping from her creative and eccentric city lifestyle and re-creating the rural version of it in a 19th century Edwardian home on 500 acres just outside Charlottesville, Virginia. What I personally respond to most is how little her style – both in fashion and interiors – has changed in her evolution from city to country life. The turban remains in place, the leopard is ever present, and she wears skirts and dresses like she is on her way to a perpetual cocktail party. Her home has many elements of country life – a relaxed coziness, depictions of farm animals, and a kitchen right at the heart of the house – but also it is infused in each room with her signature color palette and evidence of an artful life throughout. ..

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Nov 24

2015

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I ♥ Your Style: Laura Ferrara

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For the last two years, every time I came across a photo of Laura Ferrara and her amazing farm Westwind Orchard in upstate New York, I have been so overwhelmed by what she’s accomplished that I have to look away. I first spotted photos of her farm-based pizza restaurant on Instagram, and then I noticed her homemade jam and honey with its perfectly designed packaging on Pinterest, and then Garance Doré was blogging about apple picking at Westwind and EyeSwoon was hosting a harvest supper there, and the whole thing just made me so impressed and inspired but also intimidated and terribly inferior. That was when I decided I had to avert my eyes. How on Earth did she manage to maintain her day job as a fashion editor, while her husband maintained his job as a photographer, and raise a child, and run this amazing farm with all these products and services and also have it open to the public?!? Just when I was starting to feel settled into my quiet, happy life on the farm and getting the feeling that I was finding a balance between work and pleasure and family and my occasional visits to NYC and my writing and my photography, Laura comes along and suddenly I feel that I am accomplishing absolutely nothing at all!!

Isn’t it awful how we beat ourselves up in this way?

Well, this little story I was telling myself about how she was doing everything and I was doing nothing lost some of its power when I found out that they actually bought their farm nearly 15 years ago. Somehow that made everything more relatable and achievable. Not that I see what they have as something I want for myself exactly, but it is my dream to resurrect the productivity of the farm. There are empty fields and abandoned barns dating back to 1860 that have long lost their purpose, and my ultimate goal for living here is to find a reason to bring them back to life. I don’t know what that actually means yet, but I am toying with many ideas, and have given myself until Zach is at boarding school a year and half from now to figure out what the vision and the goal is and to start to slowly work towards it. In the meantime, I am trying out every farm activity possible to identify what I most enjoy doing and how I would like to best use my time. And I am also envying Laura and holding her on a pedestal and admiring her for setting the bar very, very high. ..

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Nov 17

2015

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I ♥ Your Style: Florence Arthaud

Screen Shot 2015-11-17 at 12.31.22I was looking at my friend Didier Malige’s instagram earlier in the year and I noticed a photograph he posted mourning the tragic loss of Florence Arthaud, the french sailor who, among her many accomplishments, broke a world record in 1990 as the first woman to sail solo across the Atlantic. At first it was her most excellent tomboy style, her athletic body and her natural beauty that caught my eye. But as I sought to learn more about her, her character and female pride impressed me equally.

VOILE - 1986 arthaud (florence) - (fra) - fonds n/b April 1979, France --- French sailor Florence Arthaud during preparations for the Double Transat boat race, abord the boat Biotherm at the Port Camargue. | Location: Port Camargue, France. --- Image by © Henri Bureau/Sygma/Corbis arthaud

After her epic trans-atlantic crossing a reporter said to her, “Florence, you’re a real man” to which she confidently responded, “I don’t feel like a man at all. I’m sure I am more delicate in my navigating, more sensitive. I think women project in me their desire for liberty. I have always sailed in order to be free, to feel completely free; on the sea I am totally independent, alone.” ..

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Oct 26

2015

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I ♥ Your Style: Vita Sackville-West

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Now that I spend much of my day doing chores in and around the garden on our farm, I’ve been seeking a new style icon: a woman whose personal take on dressing for the outdoors can take me away from the pure practicality of wearing just corduroys, a wool sweater and wellies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that look, but sometimes I just want to feel a bit more inspired.

When I first came across a photo of novelist, poet, and gardener Vita Sackville-West, I was at first mostly attracted to her fantastic canvas and leather lace-up boots. Why doesn’t anyone make those anymore???? But as I dug a little deeper, I found inspiration in not just her English countrywoman-meets-swashbuckler clothes, but also her legendary house Sissinghurst Castle, her chic all-white garden and her iconic book covers. I even love the style she has inspired in others – like her granddaughter’s hand-painted 18th birthday party invite and a collection of white flowers assembled by a fellow blogger. VSW had style for miles.

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Oct 09

2015

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I ♥ Your Style: Anthropologie x Fairgreen Farm

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I did a little collaboration with Anthropologie the other day. I have always loved their home things – I recently bought the Italian Campaign canopy bed for my daughter’s room – and then discovered that their clothes also suit my life on the farm so well. So in celebration of my London launch of Always Pack a Party Dress with Anthropologie, I chose my favourite things from their store and worked them into my life here at Fairgreen. Since then, I’ve found myself checking their website regularly so I don’t miss good things that come up and then go quickly – like a set of copper colanders I bought last week. I’m into it!

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Sep 28

2015

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Snapshot: The Girl Who Won Fashion Month

The endless parade of street style looks isn’t even over yet (Paris is still to come!), but I’m going to jump the gun here and crown model Emma Oak the winner. I love everything about this look – the combination of rich burgundy and red are so unexpected but work so well; and the overt sexiness of the unbuttoned shirt combined with the nerdiness of the flared high-water trouser and the school girl charm of the penny loafers; the anonymous tote bag that says I’m cool enough that I don’t have to carry a brand new Céline bag...

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Aug 26

2015

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I ♥ Your Riding Style: Jackie O

I know. As chic as she is you probably feel you don’t ever have to see another style icon pic of Jackie O as long as you live. I’m with you on that. But now that I have gotten so into riding, and what to wear when riding, Jackie O’s style on a horse has rekindled my awe of her chicness. These days, riding gear has gotten very technical and branded. I am constantly cutting off visible tags, blackening out logos with sharpies, and trying to find the most classic and pared down jackets, jodhpurs and boots while still keeping an eye towards practicality...

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Mar 21

2014

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I ♥ Your Farm Fashion

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There is nothing Christopher loves to do more than an outdoor chore. Whether it’s spraying stinging nettles, strimming the edge of the garden, planting trees, removing a hedge, mowing the grass, tending to the compost heap, moving a large animal or even just weeding, he’s in total heaven. He equally loves having the right gear for the chore. He spends hours in the farm supply shop and in the hardware store staring in awe and desire just like I do when I’m in Isabel Marant. Sometimes I walk outside, or round the corner towards home on my walk, and when I catch sight of him, I just can’t help but burst out in laughter. His look often reminds me of a HAZ MAT inspector or Mr. Green Jeans from Captain Kangaroo or even, sometimes, when he gets overheated and unzips his white jumpsuit, of Elvis. Despite the hilarity, I thoroughly enjoy witnessing the pleasure Christopher takes in wearing and doing what he loves.
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Mar 14

2014

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I ♥ Your Country Style: Amanda Harlech

 

We’ve all seen and admired Amanda Harlech in her Chanel. As Karl Lagerfeld’s muse, we see her at every Chanel event wearing the most enviable dress with her hair just messy enough to be cool but still look chic. For the most part, this is her Paris life where she spends her professional time. But what really intrigues me is her England life, her private world that she has graciously shared with us through Vogue, Vogue Living, etc over the years.
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