9.14.2010

In the Schoolyard


Hello! This is Anja from Clever Nettle, bringing you what I believe is the last guest post for Starr before she returns home from big ol' NYC. It has been fun seeing the fashion week coverage start to appear on friends' blogs, so I'm stoked to see what Starr got up to as well, especially since she was rooming with Annie, another Portland friend! She and I may not be going back to school in a big way, but we are starting a sewing class together at Portland Sewing tomorrow. I'm excited! I haven't taken any kind of class in a really long time, I'm a bit anti-school but learning to sew is totally worth it! Rachel and I shot these photos in my neighborhood at an old elementary school, when I moved here it was empty and a little spooky but they started using it again for classes, which takes away the spook factor but it is still quite beautiful with the red bricks and big evergreens. 


Rachel is wearing one of my favorite dresses, a printed organza 1930's frock that I bought at an antique mall for around $25. It had a lot of sweet hand-mending on it, and I also mended some holes, but the last time I tried to put it on I tore the back of the sleeve in a huge way. Total bummer! Luckily Rachel is tiny so she could wear it without damaging it more, which was great for these photos. It's a really special dress, eventually I'd like to put it up on my wall somewhere. She's also wearing a trusty pair of vintage shoes and a fabric hair flower that I think she made. The old French poetry book was sent to me by my family... did you know that my schooling from kindergarten to grade ten was all in French? Mais oui! My dad's side of the family is French Canadian. Unfortunately I don't remember much of it and was always terrible at verb conjugation, but I still understand some things! My favorite thing about living in Canada was always the French versions of product/movie names on packages.


I'm wearing a 90's polka dot dress with opaque tights, a pom pom necklace from a trade with The Vamoose and my equally trusty black suede fringe flats. These shoes have gone a lot of places with me! The book is an old collection of stories that were published in the children's section of a newspaper in the late 1800's, sent to me by my old roommate from Vancouver. It's actually responsible for the name Clever Nettle, which is the title of a story printed inside! I'll have to dedicate a blog post to show the rest of it. I honestly didn't put a lot of thought into my outfit, I just wanted to wear something that would compliment Rachel's red dress! I also had a navy felt hat with rusty red grosgrain ribbon (seen here!) but the breeze kept sneaking it off my head on our walk to the school. 

Thanks to Starr for giving us an excuse to loiter and page through some dusty old books! And also thanks to the Rose City Park school for being rad looking, being relatively free of funny stoner skaters while we shot these photos, and also for not letting any spiders creep down onto our heads while under the trees!



18 comments:

Myriam said...

Ah, lovely photos! And your friend Rachel is adorable. I also can't wait to hear all of Starr's stories from NYFW!

♥ ♥ ♥
Myriam

BaronessVonVintage said...

fantastic! that 30s dress is darling (even moreso on Rachel).

Maria Confer said...

You and Rachel both look so wonderful.

This is what I picture back to school outfits from the late 30's would look like!

Lulu Letty

Amber said...

Lovely photos dear. I wish I could understand French, its such a pretty language

Q's Daydream said...

too cute!

Anonymous said...

These photos are really lovely and I like the red dress.

Melanie@UnravelledThreads

Annalise said...

The red and blue printed dresses are just adorable. Great post!
XOXO

KristiMcMurry said...

oooo love the red dress. That's so cool that most of your schooling was in French. I think that is the most beautiful language!

Tamara said...

Gorgeous photos. Sewing is going to be super fun, I'm sure you'll have a blast.

--Tamara
http://crayola4kids.blogspot.com

Bea said...

You and Rachel look so good, Anja! Very class but cool back to school looks. So inspiring

Bea from A plus B

Anonymous said...

Love the dresses. Great Photos!:)

Unknown said...

you brought me back to the 1930s with this post...love it.

cheers.

Victoria / Justice Pirate said...

what a great entry. I really love Rachel's dress.

jordan said...

wishing I was there ladies!

Shelby said...

how adorable

Carissa said...

this looks so vintage <3 lovely.

Ancilla said...

nice photos
your school is great!

Cheers and hug,

Natalie's blog

Lydia said...

Anja and Rachel are so cute! Amazing amazing shoot lady :)