Over the last few months I have had the utter pleasure of hanging out with this beautiful family and photographing all the stunningly exquisite ventures of Mama Raquel. Raquel has been growing the most magnificent flowers in order to dye fabric to make the most precious of clothing and not just any old clothing she sources local alpaca wool and the finest of linen and then gets every piece handmade by people with love and passion, she also hand sews and hand crotchets a lot of the pieces herself. Raquel and her partner Andrew run a mini farm and home school their children in the style of Waldorf, about 1/2 hour from Bellingen in a beautiful little place called Scotts Head. They are both passionate, inspired and understanding that the path they have chosen is not the easiest but one that is full of learning, patience, sweat and tears and they do it with so much beauty, grace and wonder. I feel so blessed every time I am asked to pop down the highway to their little piece of absolute delight to capture their lives in all of its simple beauty.
It is so much fun photographing Raquel dyeing her fabrics, watching and yes photographing Rosa and Margarite as they show me around the garden, occasionally posing in pretty hilarious poses and other times just running here and there. I love just letting everything go and just immersing myself in all these beautiful images that present themselves to me.
Raquel even has dreams of making clothing using everything within 100 miles (like the eat local food movement) of her home, truly local ware.
I have to admit that the prices do seem quite expensive in this world of quick fixes, poor wages and consumerism but this is clothing that has truly been created from the seed, the time that has been put into growing the flowers, diligently experimenting with each colour, the heartbreaking moments as temperamental batches are lost, the time spent in sourcing the finest fabric and then holey moley looking at each piece that is more clothing, it is art and are items that will most probably last forever (my heart skips a beat for adult sized linen overalls, sigh) you can see why they are priced so.
Raquel sells very limited pieces through Margarite and Rosa on etsy or you can just daydream and marvel at their lives on instagram. Enjoy.
