Or a set, at least. I say it all the time, but I really love anything theatrical. I love dance, I love drama, I love comedy, I die for a good musical, I love GLEE (this week’s episode?? Um… Best. Episode. Ever. Madonna? The Like A Virgin number?? Loves it!)

And to bring it back to fashion, LOVE this ed from the latest Numéro, #112. Plateau 7 by Luciana Val and Franco Musso, featuring model Rasa Zukauskaite…

The prop styling and art direction seriously blows my mind. Like, whoa. And the filters and the framing. Just genius all around, start to finish, head to toe. One of the few times recently that I have picked up a magazine and something actually spoke to me. Thank you, Numéro.

images via Fashion Copious

Funny, but the word “fresh” has been taunting (and haunting) me a little for the past few months. So I find it ironic that it seems to me to be the perfect title for this post.

On Monday, Arlene and I shot our cover story for May with the fantastic Karl Rothenberger and an adorable model from Factor, Rose. 

the lovely Rose, wearing Rachel Comey skort and blouse and N.D.C. boots

Rose’s mother told us that Rose wants to straighten her hair. Can you imagine???? You should of seen — and heard — the reaction in the room when that came out! Apart from her disappointment with her curly lot in life, this young model (she’s a mere 14 years old) takes her modeling very seriously. We asked her who her favorite model is and she said Karlie Kloss. Which is even more ironic because Karl just showed us this Karlie Kloss story from Vogue UK, shot by Alasdair McLellan, as inspiration for an upcoming summer cover story (to be shot in NYC, stay tuned!)…

{I swear I sat on a floor just like that in a room just like that and watched Richard Nixon’s resignation speech on a TV set just like that. Classic Americana.}

Born in the USA images via Fashion Gone Rogue.

I’ve been loving Emma Watson lately. She’s been popping up all over the place for the last few years and is proving to be a fashion force to be reckoned with. She’s been shot by the likes of Mario Testino, Ellen von Unwerth, and Karl Lagerfeld, is the beautiful and fresh face of Burberry, and has graced the pages of fashion tomes from Vogue and Bazaar to Crash and Vs. Pretty impressive resumé for a 19 year old. 

Burberry campaign, shot by Mario Testino (she's no Kate Moss, but I do like her as the face of Burberry.)

from Crash, shot by Karl Lagerfeld (Doesn’t she kind of remind you of Tilda Swinton here?)

from Vs., shot by Ellen Von Unwerth…

                                                                                                                   Vogue Italia…

Italian Vogue, Mark Seliger

And just every day in the life of a 19 year old British girl…

Seriously, how cute is she? I can’t wait to see where she pops up next. 

images borrowed from: Fashion Gone Rogue (Burberry), Stylefrizz (Crash), La Couturiernyc (Vs.), and everythingfab (Italian Vogue). 

This Aneta Bartos editorial featuring Tiiu Kuik has been making the internet rounds lately after being posted on Fashion Gone Rogue. I had never seen it before and instantly fell in love with it. 

I just adore anything with a pin-up girl, film noir,  or old Hollywood feel so this really spoke to me. I was taken with the photography and also the model and came across a few more amazing shots that I just had to share.

These are from another editorial featuring Tiiu, this one from Numero 49, L’Ange Noir.

Love that hair and make-up. The drawn-on eyebrows and the black lipstick — so dramatic.

And a few more from Ms. Bartos…

I love the lighting and the treatment she uses. Just makes me, once again, realize that I was seriously born in the wrong decade.

images from fashiongonerogue, modelcouture, and Aneta Bartos Photography

Over in another part of our website, the shop, we carry a little line called Lemlem. Launched in 2007 by supermodel and philanthropist Liya Kebede, Lemlem is a line of women’s and children’s clothing hand-woven in Ethiopia using only natural cotton. Embracing her African heritage, with Lemlem Liya seeks to “add a sense of diversity to the fashion market while fueling prosperity in another.” A very noble cause. Arlene and I were very taken with her hand-woven scarves, wraps and cowls when we first saw them…

Being an online store, we were also very excited that Liya is the model in the Lemlem lookbook meaning that we would have a supermodel on the website. Little did we know that her scarves would sell SO fast that her picture would never even make it up!

Things just keep getting better for Lemlem and Liya, as evidenced by this spread in Italian Elle…

It’s so nice when people use their fame and success for good. Go, Liya. You’ll be seeing much more of Liya and Lemlem on twentythirtyforty.net, that’s for sure.

images from Lemlem Fall 09 lookbook and Italian Elle via Steven Alan showroom

+ great styling and hair and make-up = a really good shoot. I know I’ve seen some of these images before, but I just recently stumbled upon this editorial with Caroline Trentini shot by Miles Aldridge for Vogue Italia in March 08. 

She plays the part of the bored homemaker to perfection. Sooo bored.

This one is maybe my favorite…

Although, this one definitely resonates with me, too. Love her hair so dangerously close to the fire…

And I just adore his perspective. The little girl in the doorway — I can almost hear her tiny little voice calling, “Mommy??”

Love. Miles Aldridge, I think you may be my new boyfriend.

all images lovingly borrowed from milesaldridge.com

And as readers of this blog will know, one of those models is Michelle Hicks. Well, apparently, we’re not the only ones who love her…

Michelle has been spending a lot of time in NYC and she’s been busy. You can catch her in this month’s issue of Nylon Magazine. Here’s a sneak peek…

Arlene and I are like proud mothers over here. We worked with Michelle for the first time back in February of this year and she blew us away right from the start. She is a total professional who clearly studies her craft and does not take her success for granted. She works as hard as anybody I know and she is only 19 years old. We had her freezing her tuchas off at the beach a couple of weeks ago and she took it all in stride. When we went to get the first shot…

…we were fussing with her hair, tweaking things, etc. and then went to take off her coat. We took it off of her and she was clearly freezing and we said, “Are you okay?” And she promptly replied, in the loveliest of tones, “I’m fine. Now get out of my shot!” Arlene and I hustled to get our asses out of there lickety-split, and the minute we were out of the frame, that girl turned it on and got her shot.

We just absolutely adore working with her and love everything she brings to our site. Here are just a few of our faves from over the months.

La prisonnière photographed by Xevi Muntane, featuring model Angelika Kocheva and styled by Elisa Malan and Eleonora Panzetta.  Let’s just give kudos now to those due!  There are two editorials I have been obsessing over lately…this being one of the two.  The couture is captured perfectly with all the playful light details throughout and of course, look at that Margiela comb dress and ooooo The Chanel!!  love.

images lovingly borrowed from Crash

Our September Cover Story just went live on the site and Arlene and I cannot get over it! We wanted to shoot with our item shot model, Holly. You’ve heard us talk about her before. We absolutely adore her and think she is a fantastic model and have wanted to give her something meatier to do. Then Arlene found this shot in Crash…

…and an idea was born. We knew that we wanted to work in black and white and we also knew we had the opportunity to work with Karl Rothenberger again. The only problem is that all the clothes we had planned to use weren’t available! Such is the nature of trying to run this crazy website. As we have grown accustomed to doing, we rolled with it. We left the studio on Monday afternoon after a full day of shooting item shots with little to no idea what we were going to do the next day. Hair, make-up and Holly were scheduled to be here at 8am and Arlene and I were praying for creativity and inspiration. 

Somehow, it actually all came together and the result is even better than we ever could’ve imagined. The hair was a BEAST (over 400 bobby pins!!!), but turned out perfect. And the make-up was just exactly what we had envisioned. And Holly and Karl? Well, it was a match made in Heaven. The 2 of them just fed off of each other and worked together brilliantly. During the shoot, as Karl was thinking of how to mix things up, he said to us, “Do you guys happen to know any illustrators?” That’s all he had to say. Arlene immediately got online and emailed the lovely Joanna of Badaude and Joanna took our idea to a whole new level.

We love a good collaboration and this one was maybe the very best yet! Hope you all enjoy it as much as we do! To see the story in its entirety, click here.

A big THANK YOU to all involved!!! XOXOX! A and B.

Hard to believe…September already??  For us, Sept’s inspiration started months ago…with fabulous hair, our model Holly and 1960’s London captured in black & white.  Only our favorites for fall

images, Numero Magazine & Biba