Opium Dreams

The weekend before my birthday, my boyfriend and I went to one of the loveliest places on earth (aka: somewhere I've wanted to go since I was a small child). We drove up to the high desert, about a hour Northeast of Los Angeles, to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. I had heard that the poppies were blooming extra heavily this year, and that there's typically a very small window each April to see them before they close up, so we packed up our car and headed to Antelope Valley for the day. Though I knew we'd be hiking throughout the reserve, I decided to wear my new vintage Edwardian lace tea dress, only because I knew photos would be taken and because I've always wanted to emulate the lovely autochrome photo below:

Helen MacGowan Cooke picking California golden poppies in a field, by Arnold Genthe, 1911

I also had the ever-so-lovely poppy scene from Atonement in my mind while we waltzed through the endless fields. 

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Unfortunately, though the golden sunlight looked lovely on the poppies, the wind that day was atrocious. The wet set I had done on my hair was ruined almost the moment we stepped out of the car: all my curls fell down and only got worse as the day went on, hence the messy hair.

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All photo taken by my love, Alex.

I think, next year when we go back, I'll ditch the Edwardian dress and do a guerilla-style photo shoot much like the lovely one above! (an unknown pin-up from 1938).

Enjoy, lovelies! And look forward to my first video tutorial of how I do my 1940s inspired makeup, coming soon... xxx