Miss Amy Keller

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With her porcelain skin and manicured lip, Miss Amy Keller is such a lady to me. One of my favorite secrets about Amy is that she doesn’t have Internet service at her apartment, opting to actually disconnect from work and the world when she goes home at night, choosing instead to read books of poetry. How lovely is that?!

When prepping for this shoot, I began by referencing paintings from the Edwardian era with its nods to society, social standings, fashion and luxury, taking inspiration from works like Giovanni Boldini’s “Portrait of Princess Marthe Bibesco” and John Singer Sargent’s “Lady Agnew of Lochnaw“. Amy reminds me of King Edward VII, a leader of the fashionable elite and style-setter across Europe – as director of digital strategy at Linda Gaunt Communications in fashion public relations, she has her hand in creating the image and vibes of fashion brands like Hunter, LL BEAN, Trina Turk, Talbot Runhof, & Stila Cosmetics. She’s often emailing with ManRepeller or Into the Gloss, pitching story ideas or helping them with product information. Amy has dressed me for unforgettable events and took us up to Maine to learn about the iconic American brand L.L. Bean Signature. Aside from fashion and beauty, she even influences language trends – I learn all of my “fashion girl lingo” from her… “Totes”, “That’s my jam”, “Break it down”, and “Obvi” to name a few.

So here is my portrait of a lady, floating on a painter’s canvas, poised and beautiful, lovely as ever, just the way I imagine her in those Madison Avenue power meetings.

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Perfect day in New York?
Open the curtains, matcha, run through Prospect Park, head to my City + walk North, bump into friends I love, take pictures of things I’ll post nowhere and window shop everything!

Favorite trait of New Yorkers?
Resilience.

Favorite NYC secret?
Does this city still have secrets?

*above Amy wears Lela Rose // below in Talbot Runhof*

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Fashion is…
Costumes.

Women are…
beautiful works of art.

Favorite poem?
“He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.”
– William Blake

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Tia Cibani’s Designs Dance

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Movement. When I was interviewing designer Tia Cibani at her studio, one of the references of inspiration for her fall collection was just that, movement. The full dancer skirts, gathered backs, swinging dresses, and loose silhouettes all flow in graceful motions. Even in the fabric design, the blurred lines of the rose print look as if the fabric has flown by you, leaving behind only the scent of roses. The clothes hanging there in the showroom were screaming at me to be whirled around, caught in the wind, and flicked off a finger.

I asked Amy, a recent New Orleans transplant and a trained dancer (in ballet, jazz, AND tap) to come in and be our movement, our graceful, elegant motions. We started talking about dance, about her motivation to dance, and she said, “I love when you find that vulnerability of not caring and letting your body completely take over. It’s very invigorating.” And it was indeed, an exhilarating live performance piece in the middle of our studio; garments singing in ripples of red satin, billows of draped tweed, twirls of shining pleats!

After the shoot I asked Amy what it felt like to dance in these clothes, and she replied, “I felt like a goddess, like a queen. It was so beautiful, it moved with me like an extension of my body.” Now that sounds like an outfit I could dance my way through Manhattan in, too…

 

 

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