Audition for Barse Jewelry

Dear Jenny & The Barse Family,

I have been creating clothing, capturing photos, and editing images for about 4 years. I also grew my employer's Instagram account organically by 800% in the course of one year. I tend to have a way with words which gives me strength in social media marketing and am constantly finding new tools to assist me in the graphic design world.

Why I want to work with Barse Jewelry: Your website and social media accounts really convey a beautiful voice with distinct color palettes. The cacti and overall southwestern tone are complimented by the feminine jewelry, making the images visually edible. I want in.

How I would contribute: I would love to enhance your model pool, showcasing your jewels on a larger variety of women. We could juxtapose silver haired beauties with youthful nymphs, demonstrating that your jewelry can be worn and adored by grandmas and young women alike. I would continue using natural, outdoor backdrops as I feel that that suits your brand very well- "I'm dolled up and beautiful, but earthy and natural all at once." The goal would be to encourage more commentary by adding text overlays to every 6th or 7th post. This type of content, often featuring poignant messages, gets shared and re-shared often. I would let the jewelry speak for itself and use the captions to stimulate conversation within the channel, focusing on how the right jewelry can make a woman feel put together, powerful.

My equipment: I have a Samsung NX1000 as well as a GoPro Hero.

My work: This was shot it in a dry creek bed in Texas. I applied a filter to give it a nostalgic, 70's vibe:


This photo was shot in the same dry creek bed with natural lighting, no filters or editing:


This was shot in the woods with natural lighting to show the swimsuit & headpiece:


These were shot in my front yard and received a smoothing filter to accentuate shadows:
    

This was shot in natural lighting and received an enhancing filter that darkened the look. I created the font overlay to announce a sneak peak of my next collection:


Thank you for reading and taking a look at some of my photos! I'm always evolving so if there is any one area that I need to focus on, I will pursue with zest.

I look forward to your feedback and to possibly meeting with you to discuss further.

Cheers,
Megan Stoner

The Branding Struggle

     After failing to file my quarterly taxes at a whopping value of $0, I decided to release my label of Rubys & Olives this year. I realized that I no longer felt the passion or connection to this namesake like I once did (read my previous post on where these names came from and you'll see why). If I was truly inspired by my brand, I would be doing more. I would be proud to spell it out each time someone asked for the website, I would have labels and tags with R&O plastered everywhere. But the truth is, these names are meaningless to everyone but me. That might be true for a lot of iconic brands (Gucci, Pucci, Adidas...). But I want people to be able to easily pronounce my brand, spell it easily, say it one breath, one word, and have it be loaded with overt meaning that means the same thing to us all.

     So, I played around with Remnant61. Remnant, because a tiny piece of remaining fabric deemed fairly worthless is called a remnant. These "remnant" stores were popular in the 60s and 70s, so in homage to my freaking awesome mama, I chose '61 for her birth year. I bought the domain and there it sits, awkwardly existing in the virtual world of worthless sites because the majority of the population not only has no idea how to spell remnant, they don't know what it means. And here I am, back to first base explaining my own brand quite ineffectively to people, losing motivation, lacking inspiration.

     Then last week, I was awoken by a quadruple tooth ache that kept me up all night, thinking about fashion and branding. Suddenly, in the twilight hours it hit me like a bus: My mom's bday; same as Lincoln's Bday; Main street in my home town is Lincoln Ave. Could it be that I shall call my recycled clothing LINCOLN!? Yes! Yes, this is perfect! I loopily jotted down endless ideas all revolving around the idea of having a brand called Lincoln in my pained stooper.....until I looked for the available domain and WHAM. There are cars called Lincolns...and I'm an idiot.

     So here I am guys, desperate to name this journey, this creative path I've been travelling down for years making cute shit out of thrift store junk. What do I call this? So far, domains that I have pursued that are taken are as follows:
trashtrash.com
LandofLincoln.com
lixo.com (means trash in Portuguese-I speak a little)
lenkun.com (phonetically Lincoln)

And one that is available is:
thetrashyone.com

Do you have ideas? Are you a branding whiz? Are you domain savvy? Then please put an end to my procrastination/desperation and take me to a branding destination! (Yayee rhymes!)

Things to consider that might help:

• My name-Jade, Stoner, both cool words
• My mom
• hippies
• trash
• recycling
• vintage
• words in Brazilian Portuguese

All submissions can be emailed to me at meganjadedstoner@gmail.com

The winner/biggest inspiration will receive:

• Something awesome based on what they like valued at at least $100
• A feature on my blog advertised across all social platforms
• My endless gratitude
• A future role in my company if ever I'm the shit, meaning I will talk about you anytime the brand's development is questioned

Thank you babies and I can't wait to see what you little geniuses come up with!!!

Rubys & Olives Couture

           Rubys & Olives was founded in the summer of 2010 supported by nothing more than an idea and a set of tinkering fingers. I made things and I knew they needed to belong somehow. So, I carefully chose two names that were both nostalgic and uniquely feminine. Ruby was my great grandmother and she sewed e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Olive was my friend's (who'm I kidding, my Ex's) grandmother who had skin like a porcelain doll and a wardrobe to match: always pristine, always polished. Ruby on the other hand was a fabric stack away from being a hoarder. She kept every textile that had even a glimmer of quilt-a-bility. Between the two ladies, a partnership would have created a "perfectly unpolished" look hand sewn from head to toe.
          These are the aesthetic cornerstones of RO. Inspired by Ruby's do-it-yourself lifestyle and Olive's grace, ye shall be pleasantly unkempt always. RO will exhibit an endless gallery of unique clothing generated from rare materials like scraps, doomed textiles and thrifted garments. They will be "inherently unique"...

Thrifted tribal maxi-dress in a size 2XL reinvented with 4 hand-sewn stitches.

          All eyes on the environment and the beautiful hands that shall make these yummy garments, mine included,  RO shall honor a Made in America protocol following all codes and regulations, and well, common decency dammit. Additionally, 90% of materials used will be recycled, upcycled, reused, redreamed,and remade. Why? Because Americans throw away about 70 lbs each of clothing annually, new textiles require pesticides and harmful dyes, and outsourcing has created 21st century slavery. Hippies don't put up with that shit.

Join me. Come to dark side. The trashy, thrifty, savvy darrrrk siiiide;)
Yours truly,
Meg

Inner Child

           Has anyone else been nerding out on Netflix documentaries? I feel like Seaworld is the devil, fast food chickens look Ninja Turtles and Chipotle is amazing. After being enlightened to the terrors of animal cruelty common in multiple arenas, I can't enjoy anything from a scrambled egg to pepperoni pizza.Fearing that my chicken never saw the light of day and was genetically modified to grow to twice its normal weight in nearly half the time or that my pig was eating pig his whole life, things can get really weird at the dinner table.
           A person could become paralyzed by the plethora of options available when picking something to be passionate over. Human trafficking? Animal rights? Healthy eating? GMOs? The possibilities are endless. So therein existed my dilemma: what cause most calls me to action? Stuck at this crossroads of wanting to pursue fashion design full throttle but also maintain my integrity as the earthy mama that I claim to be, I stagnated. Then WHAM. The two concepts got together in my mind and made a beautiful baby we like to call Sustainable Fashion.

           Finding my niche in a realm of design and creation without turning my back on my inner-child has been like inhaling all the way to the bottom of my lungs for the very first time. Clarity and calmness shroud my every thought as I know I have the approval of destiny to harness this dream, once and for all. And I want to share it with you.....

Thrift Magic

Fellow Fassionistas,
It's time to hit the ground running. It's time to harness all of my ADHD and create a super focused strategy to spread the importance and empowering magic of thrifting. IT'S TIME. I felt that if I made that declaration to the world wide web via this highly neglected and therefore under-visited blog, I might actually feel the fire burning under my a** and get somethings accomplished. So, there you have it, my pledge to you is: to frequently post on this blog or re-route you to my website showing you how to be stylish and beautiful on a budget. The first official blog post of this new series will go live on Sunday, February 23rd. See you then!
Cheerios,
Meg