Journal

This elixir can be traced back to ancient times, from Egypt to Spain and Mexico, where it has gained a reputation as a “drink of the gods” and “liquid gold”. There are many incarnations of horchata: the Egyptians used tigernuts (chufa), which was passed onto the Spaniards, while in Latin America you’ll find it made with rice, sometimes adding nuts and seeds, then spiced and sweetened to taste. 

Our homemade version is spiked with cacao for a medicinal punch. Mounting research continues to back-up the benefits of (good quality) dark chocolate. Mineral-rich and packed with antioxidants, clinical trials show that daily consumption protects the heart and slows the ageing process.

Filled with crystals and quilts from her travels out west, earthy ceramics, and an abundance of happy, healthy plants, Love’s home is a sanctuary, with a clawfoot bathtub pride of place. Lotions and potions are a a big part of Love’s daily rituals—she even has an [apothecary] dedicated to them on her website. Before we left, she could’t help but frolic in that perfect snowy powder, just for a moment…

Imagery by Nastassia Bruckin

We eat a lot of Sriracha. And while we make and enjoy our favourite red condiment time and time again, we've also experimented and tweaked our recipe along the way. 
Now loaded with a super dose of antimicrobial garlic & capsaicin — a bio active compound that comes with a host of medicinal benefits, we consider this version worth sharing. 
Drizzle generously.

Australian stylist and photographer Stevie Dance is responsible for making the fashion industry fall in love with character. 
 
Avid readers of the first issues of RUSSH will remember it’s progressive aesthetic and politically minded voice: celebrating youth, sex, curiosity and authenticity. But what readers were actually enjoying is the vision and voice of Stevie Dance, who led the magazine in its beginning years. She is credited as a stylist, but her insight penetrates deeper than that. Now living and working in New York + Los Angeles, Stevie is sharing creative direction and written essays for some of the industry’s most prominent titles & fashion houses, plus driving her sustainably-minded personal project, The Feel Studio Inc. 
 
We visit Stevie at her LA home in her newest role as a mother to her beautiful son Harmony.

Bathing with a kind heart turned inward, we find transformation in the mundane sensing a connection between effort and pleasure...

With intentions on becoming a teacher, Los Angeles-based painter Maly Mann subsequently left university to pursue a freelance lifestyle as an artist. A pathway that was always calling, yet blurred with fear. We meet with Maly to speak about the moments that are pivotal in developing creative work — managing time & anxiety, and the courage to call one's own boundaries.

Kristin Dickson-Okuda has built her creative language from acknowledging an experience’s essence and then making it tangible. This process of design results in Kristin’s brand clothing line Rowena Sartin, and her husband Shin’s furniture project WAKA WAKA, both of which are housed in their Los Angeles-based concept space Iko Iko (Japanese for ‘let’s go!’). And as one would imagine, the energy of such sentiment is laden across all that they create.

For years we have admired Kristin’s approach to concept and construction, creating pieces for the body and home that encourage connection. Becoming a mother has further clarified this vision. Kristin's work is deliberate and bold, unveiled by ego and determined to gently answer some of life’s little questions. 

Claire Cottrell visited Kristin at the studio, capturing her in motion, somewhere between problem-solving and play.

Patience, self-reflection and time to slow down. Solstice is an invitation to tune into ourselves…
Images by Marta Rubio

We can reinvent the standard, take out the gluten, or switch up ingredients, but the best moments in the kitchen happen when our food truly connects us with others. This series of Sans Sustenance is focused on recipes that have been passed down through generations, perhaps tweaked a little along the way, but always soaked in family history and marinated in love.

We can reinvent the standard, take out the gluten, or switch up ingredients, but the best moments in the kitchen happen when our food truly connects us with others. This series of Sans Sustenance is focused on recipes that have been passed down through generations, perhaps tweaked a little along the way, but always soaked in family history and marinated in love.

We are drawn to women who are dedicated to long term projects that focus on the betterment of the future, those who spend today educating and shifting perspective on how action can be taken for tomorrow.  

A great example is Melbourne-based Sigrid McCarthy. Four years ago, Sigrid identified a gap in fashion media and launched Intent Journal, a sophisticated online magazine that lends her professional experience in social justice to the fashion industry. As Editor-in-Chief, Sigrid gently directs each feature to unpack ideas around ethical values, production and consumerism via open and transparent conversations with industry leaders. 

We visit Sigrid at her family’s farm, a place that gave birth to her respect for nature, and holds her family’s values and spirit, qualities that Sigrid is harnessing in her adult life. It is a full circle of sorts, a nod to the cyclic nature of living with the land — a concept that is echoed in her work, which continues to propose questions around purpose and lifecycle, encouraging us to live happier, with less. 

Images by Claire Summers.