Photos + Words: Xiaohan Shen

We’ve profiled Georgia’s career as a stylist and her involvement with The Girls and Boys Brigade of Surry Hills. When Nadia and I went to interview Georgia at her place, I fell in love with it so much, I asked if I could go again to photograph her house. There’s something incredibly warm about her place, the mismatch furniture, the record player gently tinkling, the half painted blue sun room, it was homely, gentle and eclectic, like Georgia.

Georgia bought her house in Marrickville after she settled back in Sydney, she’s slowly renovating the house herself, fixing it bit by bit, she’s not doing anything major, the house doesn’t need it anyway. What I love most about Georgia’s house are all the things she’s collected over the years, definitely not things you can just hire an interior decorator to buy, let alone from any one shop. For example, the American flag in the entrance hallway, Georgia picked it up in Miami for $1 for a styling job, then never parted ways with it, even though it’s a odd fit. That’s just the thing though, all the odd bits add up to so much personality and charm. Another great item in the house is a painting by indigenous artist, Daniel Boyd, who’s represented by Roslyn Oxley. The vibrant couch in the sun room is a bit of an eye catcher, the fabric is by Romance Was Born, Georgia bought the fabric off the designers and had the couch covered. All the beautiful vases of hydrangeas dotted around the house all come from the garden.

Georgia’s house is a comfortable oasis, the kind that leaves enough room for creativity to flow and breath.

Don’t forget to take a look at Georgia’s favourite local Marrickville spots at the bottom of the post!

Georgia’s favourite local spots

Breakfast spot: Black Star Bakery
Lunch spot: Runcible Spoon
Dinner spot: Old Thanh Huong
Cafe: Cornersmith
Coffee: Golden Cobra headquarters (coffee on the house when you buy a bag) or Alchemy Coffee (they don’t sell food just coffee)
Bar: Young Henry’s Newtown and Hartsyard Bar
Grocer: Banana Joe’s Foodworks (the best grocery ever!)
Butcher: Urban Food Market
Bottle shop: Camperdown Cellars
Florist: The Flower Room
Book store: Berkelouw Books and cafe
Clothing store: Salvo’s (on Princes Highway, it’s great for vintage finds!), Pretty Dog and Pigeon Ground Records and CLothing
Homeware store: Mitre 10 or Bunnings Alexandria

Photos + Words: Xiaohan Shen

Alex didn’t always think she’d be a jewellery designer. She studied fashion and textile at University of Technology Sydney, but it was during her studies, while she worked part time for a well established Australian fine jewellery brand, that her passion became apparent. I am glad it did. Alex’s label, Vera Xane draws influences from 1960’s and 70’s Rock n’ Roll, the pieces are unique and highly architectural and yet extremely wearable, a tough equilibrium to achieve.

I paid a visit to Alex’s shared Surry Hills creative office space to take a look around and chat about her personal style, Vera Xane and how to keep the studio’s creative energy flowing.

Scroll to the bottom for our Q&A.

Name: Alex Smyth-Kirk
Occupation: Jewellery Designer
Describe your style: Mostly it’s quite clean and structured, but the focus is always on accessories. I wear a lot of leather and 60’s style shift dresses then I layer the jewellery on pretty thick.
Favourite fashion designers and labels: I pretty much live in Helmut Lang and Rag & Bone (I go through a pair of Helmut Lang pencil pants every season). I’m also a very faithful YSL fan, even the new direction. From a design perspective I adore Dion Lee, he always gets it right and his use of lines and texture is perfection.
Favourite clothing stores: In Australia I love Scanlan & Theodore, Green With Envy, Fallow and Lands End. Off shore my favourites are always concept stores, Luisa Via Roma in Florence, Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, and Collette in Paris are top of my list.

Office sharing is becoming more and more popular, what are the advantages?
There’s quite a few advantages to sharing a space, for me it just made perfect sense as I simply don’t require the room of my own office. It’s also great to be surrounded by other, like-minded, creative individuals. I find that working with other designers is really motivating. It’s much more fun than working alone!

It’s really great, I definitely needed to separate my work and home life, so it’s been a very positive move.

You’ve worked out of your home for a while, how has it been since moving into a proper office?
It’s really great, I definitely needed to separate my work and home life, so it’s been a very positive move. Owning my own business, work tends to just trickle down into every part of my life and it’s easy to never switch off, so it was important to create a clear division so that I could go home and just relax.

What’s it like to work in Surry Hills?
I love it! Especially where I am. There’s so many amazing restaurants and cafes nearby, I’m becoming quite the lunch connoisseur.

How do you keep inspiration flowing in the office?
Lot’s of good coffee and music… Not that it’s too hard. The good thing about working along side other designers is that everyone is constantly working on something interesting. It’s great to watch everyone else’s projects evolve, it spurs me on with my own work.

What advice would you give to young creatives who are setting up their own office or studio spaces?
Sharing is definitely a good way to go. It’s difficult, especially when starting up, to budget for all the ongoing costs associated with having your own solo space. It’s also really helpful to work along side other people in similar fields, you find that you inspire each other, and more often than not if there’s something you need help with someone else in the office will have the answer.

Be sure to take a closer look at Alex’s amazing creations! www.veraxane.com

The inspiration for this month’s theme ‘Big City Bright Lights’ came from my recent trip to New York. One of, if not the biggest city in the world, Beyonce is right in singing it’s “where dreams are made of”. New York has been an inspiration for artists, musicians, writers and just about anyone with an ambition for decades. It was my second time in New York and it’s a city that never fails to wow and wonder, it’s a city I’d still love to live and work in one day. For now though, I’m content with re-living my 3 awesome weeks in the big city.

From fashion week highlights, to sight seeing and loads of food, I hope you enjoy this giant post as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.

Model Liu Wen



Apples and donuts outside the Edun show




Katz’s Deli, where Harry met Sally


Anna Dello Russo

Rumi Neely of Fashiontoast



Momofuku Milk Bar and cereal milk soft serve


Anna Wintour

Carine Roitfeld

Olde Brooklyn cherry soda, so good!

Pizza from Grimaldi’s, the best pizza I’ve ever had, ever.

Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist on his bike

Me with Georgia May Jagger at the Sunglass Hut launch party



Before

After







Coney Island was a beautiful day away from the crowds

New York I love you and I can’t wait to be back!

Have you been? Do you love New York too?