DUO by chollada schmidt

Photography by Bea Deza

TWO

LOST

SOULS „Two Lost Souls“ is a Brand that was recently created by fashion designers Esperanza de la Fuente, 24, and Cynarra Ferguson, 22. *http://twolost-souls.blogspot.com

A friendship which started over the common interest of travelling and fashion led two girls to create their own label. Esperanza de la Fuente, 24, and Cynarra Ferguson, 22, are fashion graduates, whose love for all things fashion brought them together to create a brand focusing on accessories - for the time being. Their first product, a„rosecrown“, which can be bought in different colours on their blog, may be their only object sofar, but the spanish and new zealand natives have plans to go much further and hopefully expand into clothing design one day. A friendship which started over the common interest of travelling and fashion led two girls to create their own label. Esperanza de la Fuente, 24, and Cynarra Ferguson, 22, are fashion graduates, whose love for all things fashion brought them together to create a brand focusing on accessories for the time being.

Their first product, a “rosecrown“, which can be bought in different colours on their blog*, may be their only object sofar, but the spanish and new zealand natives have plans to go much further and hopefully expand into clothing design one day. A friendship which started over the common interest of travelling and fashion led two girls to create their own label. Esperanza de la Fuente, 24, and Cynarra Ferguson, 22, are fashion graduates, whose love for all things fashion brought them together to create a brand focusing on accessories for the time being. Their first product, a„rosecrown“, which can be bought in different colours on their blog, may be their only object sofar, but the spanish and new zealand natives have plans to go much further and hopefully expand into clothing design one day.

DUO Magazine

Photography by Cynarra Ferguson

“...OUR HEADS ARE TOO FAR UP IN THE CLOUDS. WE LIKE TO MAKE BEAUTIFUL THINGS FOR BEAUTIFUL SOULS. COME GET LOST WITH US...”

DUO met with Esperanza de la Fuente of “TWO LOST SOULS” to talk about inspirations, how collaborating with Cynarra Ferguson has been and future plans for the brand. When was “Two Lost Souls” created and what was your inspiration? Its funny how this started... we used to talk a lot about travelling and places we wanted to visit.. but obviously we couldnt afford to go because we dont get that much money in our jobs.. so then we started to think about creating something or some kind of brand, something special and different to sell beautiful things and get money to go and travel like gypsies ! Cynarra loves jewelry so she wanted to make jewelry but is taking longer cause we need some help for the materials.... the headbands were my idea, I have been dreaming about floral headbands since I saw a picture of jane birking wearing one on her wedding day so i imagined myself wearing one in summer haha so thats why we decided to make things that we like, for the rest of the people! Our inspiration is from everywere... things that inspire us: Patti smith, flowers, sunset, California, travelling in a van, nice landscapes, summer, sheer dresses.

How did you meet and why did you decide to collaborate together? We met at work. We work together in American Apparel, and we were a bit lost about “what to do with our lives” but we knew that we just loooove to travel so we decided to start together and do what we love to do.

And what was your route into it? Well, we both studied fashion design so somehow we love fashion and design. The accesories are just the beginning. We would love to start making clothes as well.

How is collaborating and who does what? Its cool to work together ‘cause we have different responsabilities, and we support each other. When one of us is tired or busy the other one has the drive to do the stuff. Cynarra is better with computers, so she is creating the blog and online shop and I am basically doing all the design and creative stuff, although we share all those tasks. ´Cause sometimes I work in the blog and cynarra makes headbands... we dont have any problem in jumping into one thing or another.

How do you see your future? To be honest We don´t know! We are so happy and excited with this project and we would love to carry on and do more and more...and who knows! maybe in the future two lost souls is famous worldwide ! hahahaha (kidding)

Thanks! Visit http://twolost-souls.blogspot.com* to look at or purchase any two lost soul items!

Text by Schmidt; Interview by Meyer &

ANGUS

JULIA STONE Angus and Julia are brother and sister issued of a family of musicians from Newport, Australia. Their third Album “Memories of an Old Friend” is released this March.

After two years living in London and another on tour with no fixed address, Angus and Julia Stone are finally home. It’s a beautiful summer morning in January and the siblings are sitting in the kitchen of their dad’s place in Newport on Sydney’s northern beaches, drinking tea and discussing their return. And best of all, on their insistence, they’re cooking me lunch. “Getting home was the most amazing feeling,” recalls Julia as she whips up a vege curry on the stove. “At first I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to come home but when I was flying in, the sun had just started rising and I just had this feeling of this is where I’m meant to be.” It’s here in this house hidden amid the trees that Angus and Julia Stone the musical act was born. What began as a casual duo playing homespun folk at open mic nights and busking comps in 2005 quickly became a potent partnership that saw them relocate to London a year later. In 2007, they released their debut album A Book Like This, which sold over 80,000 copies worldwide and earned them six ARIA Award nominations (sadly they lost out to the Gabriella 86

Cilmi goldrush of 2008). Their new album Down The Way hits shelves on March 12, but until then these frequent flyers have been happily grounded, just chilling, surfing, sailing and writing new songs at home. Well, Julia’s home at least – Angus has been officially banned from staying here since he was 19. His crime? “Having chickens in the house,” he says with a cheeky grin. Sorry? “I’m joking, I got caught smoking inside.” Probe a little deeper and there’s also the small matter of the greenhouse he built on the roof to “grow tomatoes.” “Six months later, Dad had a look and pulled down all my mull plants,” he smiles. “He left them there on the deck just so I knew he’d seen them, but then I just hid them down the back and replanted them.” It’s not like he’s really needed a roing arrived back in Australia last May just a month after. >>

Photographs by Mitch Williams

DUO Magazine

they spent most of the year on the road, slowly making his way up to Byron Bay and the hippie haven of Nimbin in his old 1966 Valiant “I’ve just been nowhere really,” he says as he rolls a cigarette out on the back deck. “Just living on my lonesome and regathering my thoughts, experiencing things for the first time again. I’d just drive to a beach, surf and camp in the car.” For someone with a reputation for being criminally quiet, today Angus, 23, is surprisingly chatty, even more so when he’s not dissecting about his music. He arrived back in Sydney just before Christmas but his ragged Man vs Wild look remains (“I’ve been growing this beard for almost a year now,” he says proudly). Dressed in a grey shirt, shorts that look suspiciously like boxers and Ray-Bans, he’s a dead ringer for Joaquin Phoenix’s hip hop character. In contrast, with her doe eyes and disarming smile, Julia, 25, is a cherub in a country dress, charming, thoughtful and ever-chatty. When she finally flew back in mid-Novem-

ber after six months in New York, she brought with her some special souvenirs – the final tracks needed to complete Down The Way. It’s a lovingly crafted, slow-burning follow-up to A Book Like This, rich with sun-swept alt-folk and effortless instrumentation. It’s also a far more sombre record – less dancing at a picnic and more wistfully staring out of the window of a cross-country train. Written and recorded entirely on the road, the album reads like a collection of postcards that resonate deeply with the mixed emotions travel often invokes – wanderlust and melancholy, exhilaration and introspection. I love the word ‘wanderlust’. Literally the lust to wander and that’s how I feel a lot,” beams Julia. “I get really excited by that feeling of not knowing and inside that is such a range of feelings from beauty to fear and nostalgia and loneliness.” >>

The shadow of heartbreak also looms large over Down The Way as Angus and Julia both wrestled with the break up of long term relationships along the way. Her boyfriend since the age of 16. You can feel it on songs like ‘Hold On’ and ‘I’m Not Yours’, but it’s on the aching open letter of ‘For You’ that she lays it most bare (“If you love me / I’ll make you a star in my universe” she implores). “We were playing the West Coast Blues Festival and there was so much action and fun around but I couldn’t leave my hotel room,” she recalls softly. “So I wrote the song to ask ‘what are you doing?’ and sent it to him and waited to see what he thought. He sent one back but it didn’t have much to do with love.”

In the same year, Angus broke up with his Sydney-based girlfriend. He wrote ‘Big Jet Plane’, a beautiful, spirited ballad about reuniting, before the split and the defiant ‘Draw Your Swords’ (“C’mon love, draw your swords / shoot me to the ground”) after. “It’s telling her she’s the only one even when I’m away but eventually the road will be the demise of that love.” But he’s also quick to point out it’s not all doom and gloom. For their first recording sessions back in October 2008, they escaped London and spent three weeks at the Sawmills, a studio on the river down in Cornwall.

Text by The Rollingstone Magazine

Photographs by Mitch Williams

Photography by Mitch Williams

“I LOVE THE WORD ‘WANDERLUST’. LITERALLY THE LUST TO WANDER AND THAT’S HOW I FEEL A LOT.”