What’s inside a girl?

Things have been a little quiet at http://www.fauveandhunter.com but that’s only because I’ve been immersing myself in a grand project which you’ll all get to see really really soon! I’m releasing 3 (three!?) vintage capsule collections (the last one we released was RollerGirl, a year ago which was so fun!) this spring, all inspired by women, namely three very different, but amazing women.

The first collection is Paler Shades of Whimsy, it will feature feminine shapes with whimsical details and notions. Pastels often get a bad rep for being infantile, I refuse to accept that, so I’ve been curating a mini pastel collection to celebrate the childlike wonder in all of us. I drew inspiration from Hsiao Ron Cheng’s Portrait Series, Rococo art and Hollywood Regency furnishings,  Saturday Morning Cartoons and vintage silk squares. This collection is sweet, but not saccharine!

The 2nd is 29 Palms

Inspired by the California Desert Cities and it’s vivid mark on music and art, this collection is all sun bleached cotton gauze, crochet details, dusty leather boots, long fringed suede jackets, faded denim and embroidery. The 29 Palms Girl escapes the city lights to renew her heart under the stars of Joshua Tree. She’s wild and she’s wise. She doesn’t pay attention to trends, her way of dressing is almost accidental, effortless. She shops her local thrift stores and makes her own floaty dresses from crochet tablecloths, she hasn’t read a fashion magazine in who knows how long because she’s too busy painting and reading the stars.

Last (because I save the most sentimental for last, always) is Et Dieu Crea La Femme.

This mini collection is a homage to my memories in the south of France as a child. Watching my mother with her impossibly tan skin and white blond hair looking glamorous whether she wore ripped 501s or knit summer dresses. Always in tiny chain ankle bracelets and coral rings and forever in bare feet with wayfarers and a cigarette. My grandmother with her wasp waist and linen dresses, leather sandals and coral lips. All the beautiful olive skinned women in dark dresses and “panniers de marchées” that smelled like amber and coconut sun tan oil. They all had this warm glamour echoed in this collection of warm colors, black silk frocks, worn with strappy flat sandals, beach bags, hair scarves and huge sunglasses.   This woman is my first idol of femininity, she is the spirit of Mediterranean cities.

I hope you’ll love these collections as much as I do! They’ll be released this April on http://www.fauveandhunter.com and somewhere else, which I’m keeping secret for now 😉

xoxo Elza

Mes Livres

Someone asked me what I would do if I had a fortune to spend, without much thought I said I would spend my life acquiring great books, great wine and great memories. Not much different than the way I live today, without a bank account that looks like a telephone number.

As a child I think I saw more of the world through the written word than my own eyes. I would wake up with my hand reaching for the book I had fallen asleep reading under the blankets. I ate breakfast with one hand relaying a spoon to the cereal bowl and the other turning pages.

As I got older I read less, but not less passionately. No matter where my life had taken me I always ended up with a book at my side to keep me company, even if it took me a month to finish it, even if weeks would pass without a glance at its pages, I would still have it there, like a lucky charm. Often the book in question had been bought absentmindedly at a market, one of those “I should have already read this by now” tomes that had slipped by me..

More time passed and I realized that I was having difficulty reading without distraction. The phone will light up and I spend the next twenty minutes scrolling through Instagram, absentmindedly reading images, forgetting the book at my side. One day I realized that I had the same book on the side of my bed for the past three months and I still hadn’t made it through part 2 of 3 and it certainly wasn’t because the author was uninvolving. I just couldn’t pay attention to anything for more than five minutes. My attention span has turned static.

I think a lot of us can relate to this problem. I have good news: All is not lost. With a little focus and sometimes just leaving the damn thing at home and going for a walk or a cup of coffee for a while, it’s just you. Anyway, These are my favorite books I’ve read in 2015, I’ll keep updating this list, I hope it grows large enough to overwhelm a shelf.

Blaise Cendrar’s Moravagine

I love Blaise Cendrars (Née Frédéric Louis Sauser) because he is a master of self invention and has the vocabulary of all the men he claims to be. He re-named himself Blaise Cendrars which is a blend of “Braise” (embers) “Cendres” (ashes) and Arts. His writing is quite fiery as well, especially in Moravagine which tells the tale of an aristocratic mad man released from the asylum by his admiring psychiatrist who is studying what happens when madness is set free. I won’t go into much detail because it’s worth the read, but it made Henry Miller laugh, from joy and anxiety.

Anthology of short stories by Dorothy Parker including character studies of spiritualists.

“I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things.”  -D Parker

I love this book because it speaks of one thing only: people. And I love people. Parker captures the bittersweet in life and with her magic, offers it on a page in a perfect anecdote as dry as the champagne she drank. She describes people in these amazing, two word terms that paint a vivid picture. “Useless romantic” “Vicariously tearful” are some of my favorites but her stories are full of them. I brought this book on a trip two vacations.

Clarice Lispector

I was at Stories in Echo Park with a couple dollars and no clear idea on what to take home with me, when Alex said ” Waiting for a book to call out? I think one of these should be the one” and he placed four books by C.L. in my hands. The four covers create one face and I asked Alex if I was supposed to start with the left eye first. He said they weren’t in any sort of order.

The Collection.

I picked The Passion According to G.H. because… it was the thickest and they were all the same price. (I know.. I know) but the summary was intriguing. It doesn’t read like a novel, it reads like a first account of someone having an epiphany and I won’t go much further than that. It has some truly remarkable sentences and the translation is stunning.

“But I was realizing, in an immemorial effort of memory, that I felt this astonishment before: It was the same one I had experienced when I saw my own blood outside of me, and I had marveled at it. Since the blood I was seeing outside of me, that blood I was drawn to with such wonder: It was MINE.” 

I think it’s interesting that the four books all have different translators, which make me wonder how they’ll differ. (Translators can destroy a book, the way that Gerard Hopkins liberally added his own southern flair to Sartre’s Troubled Sleep was really distracting and weird.)

I’m unsure what to read next. I still haven’t finished Octavio Paz’s Labyrinth Of Solitude even though it’s stunning, so maybe that one will be next. I wish I had a long plane ride to read it on, it needs that kind of space because it’s easy to get distracted..

I’m very in love with…Ax+Apple’s most recent collection, sleeveless shearling coats, cozy knit outfits and radical babes, and the most recent shoot I worked on with Ax+Apple happens to have all of the above!

One night over drinks we were marveling about all the raw talent this city has to offer, every day new people move here with their pretty faces, their passion, cameras hanging from their neck, ink stains at their fingertips and ideas falling from their mouths. The interesting thing is that usually when you find a winning team, you kind of stick to that, which is fabulous because they become your family, but once in a while you should open up and let some new talent in!

We invited Jenna Russell who was new from Salt Lake City and who is a fashion/ music editor for Ugly Magazine and who is also just stupidly stunning; and Nicholai (Harvy Moon) who had also just moved here and whose portrait work was really striking, to work with us to put together a simple look-book for A+A’s new collection.

With Fall arriving we seized the chance to showcase the season; warm earth-tones, cowhide rugs, feather hatbands, knit ensembles from For Love and Lemons (thanks guys<3 ) cozy turbans and wooly socks were the universe we wanted to dwell in. A world of fallen leaves, peppermint teas and leather hats…

 

I hope you like it as much as I do!

All photos by Harvy Moon, Modeled by Jenna Russell, Styled by Elza Burkart, All jewelry by Ax+Apple ( http://www.AxandApple.com ) and all clothing by For Love And Lemons (www.forloveandlemons.com)

We’re setting up shop at….

 

One thing I’ve been really asking myself, is how to grow a business that takes place in a small room (who am I kidding, a small room and often with piles tumbling all over the house) is how to grow. How do I take it beyond a website? The daily tug at social media which sometimes feels like Im pulling on a sweater sleeve trying to get noticed. Sometimes social media feels contrived. I crave organic relationships, I want to give people beautiful things. I want these people to have a fond memory, I want to create a family. That’s the dream.

Travel, meet strangers, embrace the family, find beauty, give beauty, go home, and embrace my family at home.

Wash, rinse, repeat…

I want to do regular pop up markets in Los Angeles and the rest of the country. We started in Austin TX, and taking the shop to Austin for SXSW was such a rad and important experience, I knew then that festivals and pop ups was the way for Fauve&Hunter to grow.

My next one is at the legendary New York market, Artists& Fleas, which has opened a Los Angeles market! It’s every third weekend of the month, and it’s free! Amazing artisans, food trucks, DJs, vintage and decor! I’m really excited to take part in A&A regularly and the first one is next weekend!

don’t know

I’ve found myself at an impasse. A deep swirling fog, seeping its uncertainty into my nose, my mouth, seeping into my hair like the ashy parliament aroma that remains from the cigarettes I try to not smoke… Yet they’re there, in between my index and middle finger, ever present, just like my heavy leeriness.

Uncertainty: It’s a necessary episode to have in one’s life, but to make it a long running, multi season series, is another issue altogether. I try to focus on the unfailing facts of life. I wake up and assess what I can count on.

It goes something like this:

***

I open my eyes, they see the room around me.

I have a room around me, walls and a ceiling.

I am in a bed, there are sheets and blankets enveloping me.

My lover, husband, is beside me, sleeping.

Light is coming through the window, outside is a quiet tree lined street in East Los Angeles.

The trees that line the street are bougainvillea, the flowers are papery and often fuchsia, orange and sometimes lilac.

I stretch my limbs, my shoulders ache, I crack my knuckles, 1-2-3-4 little pops

and turn to Brandon and observe his chest, or back, depending on which direction he is facing

he is breathing.

I breathe in his scent.

I think of strange things sometimes;

If he weren’t alive, would he still smell like this?

Before the body starts to decompose, do scents and laughs and personalities

evaporate with life?

I haven’t gotten out of bed yet and the cat arrives, demanding affection.

Cat is black and white, with green sweet eyes and he is soft.

He always finds the sensitive spot on my chest to trample.

He pushes his head into my hands for caresses.

He meows incessantly while doing this.

***

These presences are cherished. These are the unconditional reminders of the grace in my life.

My uncertainties are a cat’s cradle pattern, tangled up with vocational existentialism.

That’s quite a mouthful, yet it is what it is.

It’s one thing to have a passion, and another to make it a walk of life.

My uncertainties are here:

How, can I take a passion, and make it a trade?

Some days I think I’m on that path, other days I fear I’m at a dead end.

I won’t know until I get there, and that, is another damned

uncertainty.

new arrivals and wearing the clothes vs them wearing YOU.

   

Some of my favorite arrivals at Fauve&Hunter! The first is this amazing lavender silk skirt with gorgeous beadwork that is SO unique and dreamy! The second is actually a 1930’s bias cut silk skirt that has the most amazing fluid movement, anyone wearing this looks like they are just floating by, and with cool turtlenecks and berets it has a total film noir vibe! The third is actually this cool foulard print super soft top that buttons in the back and looks perfect with any and everything..

As a girl you always grow up with funny, completely bizarre “rules” The whole “short girls can’t wear long skirts” thing is absolute bull, I think little ladies look amazing in long gowns and skirts, does it make you look like you’re 6 feet tall? no, because you aren’t. However it can make your silhouette REALLY graceful and make ankles look really cute and tiny.

Black and brown? They look great together, really, they do. I know “you’re not supposed to” but honestly.. it’s velvety and pretty. Clothing is frivolous art, you can express yourself with the tiniest details (clothes really do tell a story, between coded pocket bandanas and political pins and band patches…)

Here I took three really different skirts, (since I’ve been really into them) and styled them for three really different personalities. The first is a wooly, pleated southwestern number that seems really bohemian and cozy. It’s bordering on heavy and loud, but with a little attention could be a really striking piece, theres a tiny bit of teal in the pattern so a cool coat in that teal would be really beautiful, and since a coat and that wool is so bulky, sharp well tailored shoes and simple tops would seal the deal…It’s bold and adventurous like Diana Vreeland so I added her book of memos and a marvelous hat, because good hats are never too much.

#2 is a leather tulip skirt that I think would look great with a really cozy, pale knit sweater.. I still love turbans and staying in light heavy knits make the black leather stand out more. I like to add a splash of color with  some cool pointy mary janes or flats, and now with the insane variety you can get anywhere (they don’t have to be miu miu, Urban Outfitters has an overwhelming amount of options for flats for well under $30 and they’ll last you longer than you think).  This one is a hopeless romantic and I imagine her to read Zelda Fitzgerald (who never gets enough credit for the beauty of her writing, in my honest opinion)

#3 is Eccentric, dramatic and artsy with the insane gold and black striped fishtail skirt, saucy lingerie and faithful leather jacket.. delicious shoes, giant sunglasses and knows about every art show ever. Like Catherine Baba riding her peugot bicycle in 7 inch prada heels and looking straight ahead of her, this is all… natural.

Like I said, you can let your clothes define you, or YOU can define yourself with the way you carry yourself. It’s all fun.

Thoughts?

http://www.fauveandhunter.com

Old and New

 

My most recent shoot in collaboration with Dolly Pratt! We recently met the amazing and sweet photographer, Jose Leon and got together to create some dreamy fall looks! We want to showcase how to really mix vintage and new clothes and how versatile the results can be.

Vintage fur hat and 30’s lace gown with modern heels and a modern coat

I love mixing textures like this floaty chiffon and the structured military cut of this wool and leather coat, I think it’s ultra feminine, both soft and tough..

I love this soft rose colored 1920’s dressing gown with layers of chains, you could also add strappy lingerie or even wear it over a bathing suit, but lately I’m into freeing the nips 😉

We paired this rose chiffon robe with

Oxblood cropped leather pants from The Gap and strappy stilettos

Again, mixing soft and tough textures…

Since it is almost back to school we played with a preppier look, mixing a vintage pumpkin toned pleated skirt with a nude silk slip, a beautiful tweed Paul Smith blazer and cute wooly patterned socks (thanks FreePeople) I thought of a modern day Franny Glass, sitting in the Yale club with Zooey talking about lame boyfriends and beautiful books.

We loved pairing 60’s style preppy sweaters with neoprene leggings and lucite heels, and a vintage camel blazer to cozy the whole thing up.

This would look really cute with a letterman jacket too!

And for the final one we went for a more rock and roll vibe, putting a vintage leather skirt with a vintage silk chiffon polka dot blouse and a Nasty Gal corset bustier and black chiffon pussy-bow! This is definitely one of my favorites, between a sultry secretary and lower east side songstress..

Which look is your favorite?

Photographed by Jose Leon at Siren Studios

Models, Chy F & Mersadeez R at LA Models

Wardrobe by Elza Burkart & Dolly Pratt

MUA Bria Dorsen

Hair by Abraham Esparza

 

 

 

 

Fun with a new flash…. and leather.

(leather halter by Novella Royale)

I’ve been reading Troubled Sleep (sartre) which is the third installment of Sartre’s trilogy, The Roads To Freedom. It follows a cast of characters, none of which are extremely likable, yet they are ll written with a really succinct voice. One character in particular, Daniel, who is (in my opinion) the least likable, in terms of personality and attributes, is written so feverishly, with the most beautiful sentence structure and crystalline words, that I wonder if he is the most Sartre-like, or if he’s a sort of romantic evil for him. The other chapters pale in comparison to the Daniel chapters.

In reading the dialogue of the french soldiers, the wordings seemed really southern to me (not southern french, but really American), when I researched the translator it turns out he was a professor at UT Texas. It seems weird to bend another’s writing to your own blood.

Thoughts?

“Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.”

Art is…

Everywhere

I love this NY Times site that makes haikus from it’s articles. 

These are my favorites.

 

Disembodied and 

intermingling heads, hands and 

eyes proliferate.

-me,myself&I: exploring identity through self portrait

The body is a

mistress that can be ignored

for only so long.

-rucker park stars set their N.B.A. dreams aside & head abroad

 

We revel in the

New until we take a good

Look in the mirror.

-the face of unfortunate fashion

 

They will break away

From a real female to have

Sex with a flower.

-fine perfumes of the animal world

Visit http://haiku.nytimes.com and see them all! 

memories

 

 

 

 

 It’s been a little over a year since the shop opened so I went into my archives and tried to compile every little Fauve&Hunter event! The Limo, the first pieces, the first shoots.. like a little yearbook! I will say I really miss that limo…

 

 

In San Rafael in a 60’s velvet caftan wielding an antique OTO sword

 

In ABQ Nez Mexico with Miss Priss, our Limo. RIP

 

Ultra Lazy in Austin TX in beaded dresses

 

1940’s bolero crop top found in Seattle on tour with TSJS.. I really wish I had made a pattern of that top because it was super cute!!

 

 Film noir vibes with peplum dresses, I’d love to do a film noir collection and shoot everything in a classic way..

 

 

 

Fall Romance with Charlotte in silk trench coats and silk flower crowns.. Charlotte came to visit from France and was the first girl I photographed for the shop!

 

 Dramatic art deco beaded gowns ❤ I live for beaded dresses, this one has chrysanthemums beaded all over it and if I recall correctly now belongs to a really beautiful tiny mermaid looking babe in NY…

The American Flag vest is the VERY first purchase for Fauve and Hunter, found in Yuma AZ by Brandon. The start of the adventure! 

 

Fauve= Wild Creatures

The first shoot in Los Angeles with Alexandra Montague in my incarnation of THE free spirited wild woman.

 

Emma Hefti as our Roller Dream Babe in Austin TX for our 1st themed collection, which was.. Im sure you can guess.

 

 

Gloria Dyer in the Constance Dress at AX+APPLE studio

Fauve&Hunter’s first lifestyle shoot with Gloria, boots, dresses and literature. 

 

 

Gloria in the beautiful Ax+Apple Studio wearing Fauve&Hunter

 

The amazing mosaic fur coat making this winter look perfect..

Alexis and Chicken for Ax+Apple Holiday

 

 

The amazing Sarah Winters in our Stella velvet dress

 

Sina at the Santa Monica Library by M. Bokorwski

 

Dora Burge in the 40’s emerald velvet gown. 

 

Looking over all of this makes me feel… really proud, and hungry to do more, to collaborate more and create all the time. I can’t wait to do another one of these in a year and see what other adventures happen! I think of all the people in my life today since F&H started and I really consider myself blessed.