BENAH LOVES | Limits Cuffs

Everyone is very excited about the Limits Cuffs from AW12 - and they're finally here! They come in six colours; Gold, Brushed Gold, Silver, Brushed Silver, Gunmetal and Rose Gold. We've been wearing a matching pair - gunmetal or brushed gold - and because we're kind of like magpies we love how blinging and shiny they are. What is your favourite colour?

Email info@thebenah.com for more information, prices and stockists.

View Post

BENAH LOVES | Cafe Dov

photos: Benah

We love to eat out and we love to find new places to try, and so it was a happy day when we discovered Cafe Dov in Potts Point. We were actually just trying to get back to our car and make sure we didn't have any tickets - as per our New Year resolutions - when we noticed a cloud of greenery shrouding over a few tables in a garage on a quiet side street. It was one of those perfect Potts Point days, sunny and hot, the kind that make you want to give it all up to drink coffee all day and live in one of those massive four-storey terrace houses that line Victoria Street. We loved the fairy lights that were strung around the walls and the leafy, lush green surrounds - we spied herbs and budding strawberries, just waiting to be ripe. There was something very nice about not only eating outside, but eating amidst all that green. Outdoor eating as nature intended it, a picnic but at a table, the definition of the phrase "al fresco". We had a delicious sweet potato and chicken salad and a chicken, aioli and rocket turkish sandwich washed down with a host of different ginger drinks (ginger fizz or apple, carrot and ginger juice). We can't wait to go back again! 

What are your favourite hidden restaurants and cafes?

View Post

BENAH LOVES | Magic Surrounds

Susannah Blaxill via Magic Surrounds

One of our favourite people in the whole world, Natalie, incredible writer and intrepid traveller and kind heart, has started a new blog and and it's lovely. It's called Magic Surrounds and it's like a daily inspiration diary, filled with the cutest notes on fashion and music and culture and lifestyle, all written in that direct, honest, no-nonsense prose that Natalie is famous for. We could spend hours reading all her entries and coo-ing over Dress Up dresses and Thursday Sunday sweaters and how great it is to wear lingerie with a cashmere cardigan. We love this new site and can't wait to see more.

Check it out here!

View Post

THINGS WE LOVE IN | January

This month Jessie from We The People, an incredible fashion photography, commentary and street style blog, is sharing her top 10 things with us. We love her so much and think she is the most talented photographer - equally as gifted with profiles and street style (hello Brenda, our Creative Director!) as she is with still life and portraits. She's also a bit of a babe, running around town in leather skirts and crisp white tees and sandals, searching for the best new sydney fashion. With her blonde-as-anything hair and sunny outlook we knew she would be perfect for a warm weather month. So, without further ado, here are Jessie's favourite things for January. 

1. Beautiful candles and dainty rings

I've been obsessed with adorning myself in dainty rings for a while now. Heart rings, knot rings, delicate knuckle rings - I have them all. I pile on the exact same combo every day and I love it. And I've been obsessed with beautiful candles for even longer, although I don't indulge in this vice as often because it seems so hard to justify something that you just burn away. Nevertheless I have candles in every room, and this Curio Noir handcrafted candle is next on my list.

2. The Beginners

It's nothing I'm proud of - but I've developed a short attention span when it comes it films. I think it's the combination of too much half hour entertainment (Seinfeld etc) and the number of crappy films which are churned out every year. So when a real gem comes along I get pretty excited. Directed by Mike Mills, it's a story about love, happiness and death without being the least bit predictable.



3. New diaries

One of the best things about the start of a new year. I love purchasing stationary, and choosing which diary will organise my year ahead is the most fun of all. Leather bound, filled with crisp pages so clean and unmarked. This year I have three - a weekly diary, one with blank pages for inspiration and a small one which I carry with me everywhere.



4. Supreme Hats

Maybe it's the 90's resurgence, maybe it's my love of hip hop. Either way, I'm all about Supreme hats right now. My lovely boyfriend brought me a navy wool cap for Christmas, and I'd wear it every day if I could. Plus it's the perfect source of shade for my fair head at the beach.



5. Low key holiday destinations

My friends and I went to Culburra for New Years - a sleepy beach town three hours south of Sydney and it was idyllic. We slept in, lay on the beach all day, cooked barbeques in the evening, and drank on the deck well into the night. It was so good to just do nothing with good friends; easily the best holiday in a long time.



6. Leather separates

I incorporate leather into my daily outfits more often that not, and yet it never feels repetitive. It's just so functional, chic and versatile. Australian brand Kahlo creates the most beautiful leather pieces and I can't wait to get my hands on their black shift dress come winter.



7. Evening bike rides with friends

The nights are still balmy, and Sydney is such a beautiful city that I've only half explored. If I didn't have to get up in the morning, I'd bike around 'til the wee hours taking photos of the city lights and stopping for picnics by the water. This week I'm hoping to trade in my bicycle this week for a new (second hand) one which actually fits my frame, I'm pretty excited.



8. Buying Self Service for the first time

I've always read Self Service thanks to generous friends and scans on the internet, but for the first time I actually brought an issue. It's one hearty magazine, and you would hope so for $49.95. But the french biannual does not disappoint. As a photographer, I can't help but imagine what it would be like to create such dreamy imagery, not to mention work with such incredible creative teams.



9. Leopard print

Leopard print can be so wrong, or so right. And these Dieppa Restrepo loafers from My Chameleon are everything that is right about leopard print - so understated and the perfect antidote to my monochrome wardrobe.

10. Vietnamese food

Asian food is my all time favourite, and Vietnamese goes straight to the top of the list. We have two really great Vietnamese restaurants literally just around the corner from our place, and I would go there every night if I could. My standard order? A traditional Hoi-An pancake, prawn rice paper rolls topped off with Vietnamese fish dumpling soup.

Check out our previous things we love series from December, November, October and September.

View Post

BENAH LOVES | Brogues

photos: Benah

One of the pieces that we are most excited for from our new Autumn/Winter collection Limits are the brogues. The Limits Brogues, actually. We had our first foray into footwear last season with the popular Ryder sandals, and we couldn't wait to test the waters with a proper, full-blown shoe. The result was this brogue, a combination of suede and leather, part dapper, part desert boot, and in delicious winter-y shades of oatmeal, burgundy, navy blue and blush. Imagine how great these will be on a blustery, overcast day, with some pleat-front trousers and baggy sweater? We can't even decide which colour is our favourite because we love them all! Neutral caramel versus trendy burgundy... It's a difficult choice. Which colour is your favourite?

If you are interested in the Limits Brogue let us know at info@thebenah.com and we can put you down for a pair. We hope you're as excited as we are for this winter shoe!

View Post

BENAH LOVES | Limits Cuffs

The new Limits cuffs have just arrived in our studio along with the much anticipated second issue of The Travel Almanac. We're dreaming of wearing ours in picturesque Montana, U.S.A bundled up in our favourite coats and scarves, riding horses across endless plains.

The Travel Almanac is a favourite of ours (you know how much we love to talk about travel) and you can now buy it from one of our favourite online stores and Benah stockist, Mychameleon.

Limits cuffs will be arriving in Februaury, contact info@thebenah.com for pre-orders and stockist enquiries.

View Post

BENAH LOVES | New Year

 

photo:  Vanessa Jackman

Do people still make New Year's resolutions? We do, and we try to keep them, as they put everything in perspective and set the tone for the year to come. And we just like making lists, too. Here are our Creative Director Brenda's new year's resolutions for 2012.

1. Eat absolutely no Dairy – I am allergic and also intolerant. The double whammy. The problem being is that this is a somewhat recent occurrence, maybe in the last 7 years. So I know what cheese taste like, I know what ice cream taste like, I know how good those creamy pasta sauces are. So every now and then I am tempted and make the mistake of thinking it just wont matter if I have that little bit of whatever. Wrong, so so wrong. I pay for it, and I pay for it for a week after and its not pretty. So this would have to top my list of new years resolutions.

2. No parking tickets – enough said

 

3. drink more water – I am not a water drinker. Tea yes, soft drinks no, and water not really. I just cant get it into my routine, but this year I am going to try hard, really hard to make it a habit. So along with cutting dairy completely out, my skin and life should hopefully feel and look so much clearer.

4. get out more – I am a hermit, somewhat of a recluse. I love my own company and enjoy just hanging out with me, myself and I. Don’t get me wrong I do like to party and have done my fair share in years gone by. But with a business, a baby and the best husband to be I don’t feel the pull to go out and dance on the table tops quite as much these days. I love my little family and could just spend all my days just hanging out with them. This is a great thing, but can also have its downfalls. Like not being put into the situations to meet new and interesting people. So interesting people, I’m taking invitations. Just maybe not to dance on tables anytime soon...

What are your New Year's resolutions for 2012?

View Post

BENAH LOVES | Tom Ford

We like to group Tom Ford in that same "too good to be true" category as Karl Lagerfeld. You know, those designers that consistently manage to blow you away with their creativity and talent, whether in their ability to pull of so many damn collections (Kaiser Karl designs not only the ready to wear and pre-collections for Chanel and Fendi, he also curates Haute Couture for Chanel and designs for his own label Karl Lagerfeld. Does the man ever sleep?) or perhaps in their ability to sidestep fashion and bring their own particular brand of glamour, luxury and creativity to avenues outside of the sartorial realm, be it film, magazines or, um, road safety advertisements.

That's why we love this documentary, "Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind" that provides a rare window into the much-media-managed studio of Tom Ford. "I just like to make things," he says, in that laconic western drawl, and it's so true. His creative force drives all aspects of his life, from the way he attacks a garment on the fit model, ripping off cuffs and shortening hems on the go, to his desire to create beautiful photographs and films in the same manner he creates beautiful clothes. One of the best things about this video is the backstage footage of his intensely private, editors-only return to fashion during spring/summer 2011. Seeing Julianne Moore gabbing with Natalia Vodianova, Karen Elson and Lauren Hutton backstage during rehearsals is a fusion of fashion and celebrity that only he could provide. "Fashion creates a bit of a dream... it's an enhanced version of who you are," he says, and we find ourselves nodding along as we watch. His extravagant, intense perspective is, well, visionary, and it is as effective today as it was in the 1990s when all he wanted to talk about was sex. At the heart of what he creates is exuberance and joy, and why not? "If it's not fun, I'm not going to do it," he says. Now, that is a good New Year's resolution.

We also love the glimpses into Tom Ford's relationship with famed ex-Paris Vogue Editor Carine Roitfeld that you can see in her book Irreverent. What would a retrospective of her career be without an acknowledgement of her close friendship with her former colleague at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent? Featured in this incredible tome - a must buy and, we have to say, the perfect christmas present! - are copies of handwritten notes from Ford, thanking and sharing and acknowledging and informing and giving along with photos of the close friends together.

"Carine, I couldn't do it without you, lots of love, Tom"

View Post