Now that the holidays are well underway and gatherings happen more frequently than the rest of the year, we often get asked by family and friends all sorts of questions relating to the blog when we're sitting at the dinner table or hanging out at the bar during happy hour. Some of the most popular include how we coordinate our outfits, our process for selecting a backdrop, the thought that goes into the props we use, and of course, who is the one taking the photos?? It's funny because at this point, we almost have a bit of a scripted answer since we are asked questions so often, but I think one of the most difficult thing to explain is how to actually manage to balance our own busy, and separate lives and our joint project of P & D.
Shooting for Penny & Dash has always been such a big priority for us and a labor of love, and we often dedicate large parts of our weekend and a lot of the week dreaming up our next lookbook and sending each other inspiration throughout the week on Facebook and Instagram. We're also always constantly wanderlusting, and 2017 has been such a crazy year of travel, especially with our joint trips to Japan and Portugal within a 6 month time frame. Despite how easy it may seem upon looking on our blog and Instagram, it actually has been really difficult to coordinate our time to dedicate to the blog, especially since work days are getting longer and stress has started kicking in more after the first year into our careers. Between all of the different things we have going on the weekends and our limited availability during the work week, we really go out of our way to make sure we are available to make a shoot happen.
A little backstory to this lookbook itself (by Jess)
We had actually planned to skip a week of shooting last weekend since I had an operation on Friday on my face (nothing serious!) that would've have been the best for photography. I happened to be staying close by on Saturday night in East Village, and early on Sunday morning we made a judgement call and met up at the iconic intersection on E 10th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. We definitely came unprepared without a photographer and tripod, but managed to pull off a Fall lookbook by taking each others' individual shots and asking a few passerbys to take our doubles. It's always interesting for us to scout out strangers to take a photo or two of us, and we often prefer a tripod instead of bothering others. However, over the last year and a half, we've learned that it never hurts to ask others and 9/10 times, they're pretty nice about it too!
Outfit Details
Jess: Flare Sleeve Top - Zara (similar), Jeans - Zara, Boots - Aldo, Hat - Forever 21
Mel: Top - Zara, jacket - Nordstrom (similar, similar), Jeans - Zara, Booties - Aldo, Hat - Forever 21 (similar - Urban Outfitters)
