Garnet Hill/ Fall Catalog

Photography: Ryan Liebe, Styling: Studio Marcus Hay, Inc

Photography: Ryan Liebe, Styling: Studio Marcus Hay, Inc

Photography: Ryan Liebe, Styling: Studio Marcus Hay, Inc

Photography: Ryan Liebe, Styling: Studio Marcus Hay, Inc

Photography: Ryan Liebe, Styling: Studio Marcus Hay, Inc

Photography: Ryan Liebe, Styling: Studio Marcus Hay, Inc

For Fall this year, SMH, Inc travelled to New Hampshire to work on the latest catalog for The Garnet Hill Fall Catalog. It's always a pleasure to head north to work on these projects. This time we got to work with the very talented Photographer for the first time, Ryan Liebe which was a pleasure.

We have had a long history with the company and are very familiar with the product and customer. With a very edited approach and with the country of Italy as inspiration, we worked with beautiful stucco inspired sets and created warm and moody environments that co existed with the fashion element of the catalog that was actually shot in Italy (lucky them! ; )

We have since ventured up again where SMH, Inc actually art directed the next catalog due out next year for Spring, look out for that one soon!  

Garnet Hill/ Summer Cover

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Back in 2012, I shot a whole range of cover options for Catalog Company and regular client Garnet Hill with Photographer Maura McEvoy. We shot so many versions in one day and managed to get 4 covers that I am aware of which featured last year, what a great surprise when they decided to use another from that collection for this Summer, it was actually one of my favorites from the series, Hopefully maybe I might see some more see the light in the coming months

Hope you like cover 5 of the series. 

Garnet Hill/ Summer Covers

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

For Summer, 2012, I was asked by regular client Garnet Hill to style the covers planned for the season. Working with the both very talented Photographer Maura McEvoy  and Art Director, Amy Schroeder Prawitz we spent a day coming up with over 10 versions of possible covers. 


Shooting in Maura's New York Studio in Brooklyn, We collaborated together for the New Hampshire based company. Usually we come together in the studios in NH so in a way I felt kind of "off-site". The studio was full of possible vignettes set up and versions, We only really got to cover just a handful but working on the covers for Garnet Hill is a great experience as you get to do something simple and creative, They don't use a lot of type on the covers and they can be evocative and in the spirit of the season rather than over thought and produced. 


Hope you enjoy the 4 they decided to feature, These I believe may rotate on different drops of the Summer Catalog.    

Those leaves are turning, Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!/ Garnet Hill

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: David Prince

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: Maura McEvoy

Photography: David Prince

Grant Dowse and Pegge Kirschner in 1973 bought a flannel sheet back from an English trip back to New Hampshire and from there started Garnet Hill, inspired by this product they they decided to start a small mail order business. In 1976, working out of their small cottage (without plumbing) in the woods, they mailed their first catalog. It was a tiny die-cut brochure with flannel swatches. They named the company "Garnet Hill" after the rise of land behind their home. The catalogs back then were assembled, stamped and labeled on the kitchen table. 


Things have changed, When you look at the Garnet Hill covers these days the often abstract covers still have a home grown/ crafty feel, Although I have never worked on the covers, I have heard they are a very creative experience. This issue's cover was not styled by me.  


I did however work on a bulk of their Fall catalog out now, www.garnethill.com 


The direction for the catalog this time was 2/3 themes, "American Pie" A crafty homegrown feel that spoke to the designs more homespun with patch work quilts, "Equestrian" A section inspired by horse riding and it's lifestyle and then a section I called "Luxe", More boutique hotel inspired which related to some of the more exclusive high end products. With Garnet Hill we shoot the catalogs still In New Hampshire, This job was a 3 week trip.


I got to work with some great photographers, David Prince, www.davidprincephotography.com, Maura McEvoy, www.mauramcevoy.com and Addie Juel, www.juellphotography.com Often running from set to set working with them in conjunction, I definetley was running with the wind and some leaves caught in my hair ; ) 


Bring on Fall I say!

Country Strong, A Stylist meets Littleton

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

Photography: Marcus Hay

It’s funny how work will just deposit you in a place that otherwise you may never have visited in a lifetime. Littleton, New Hampshire feels like one of those places.

Littleton is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, USA, The population was 5,928 at the 2010 census. It is a town I have visited a few times in the last year as one of my client’s “Garnet Hill’s” headquarters and studio are nearby. I have to say being largely a “city boy”, the area feels remote. You could probably walk one end of the town to the other in about 20 minutes. I like to stay close to town because beyond it feels even more like a wilderness and you don’t know what’s out in them woods! : ) It’s very quiet and sleepy and to be honest coming from Manhattan, New York City, It could not be anymore different!

I like to try and find inspiration in every place I visit and I have to say even though the pace is slower there is plenty here. I do feel a bit of a stereotype wandering around with my I Phone and Hipstamatic application in hand snapping old weathered exteriors and abandoned trucks, dodging weird stares from locals and dogs barking if you get too close but I was determined this time to capture a part of it as I see it through my eyes.

The great things about old towns is there is old things, some would turn up their nose but things can also be in disrepair and yet I find beauty in that, You see surfaces and textures on walls that us city folks will pay $350 to rent for a photo shoot surface that is 4x4 feet and here you see it everywhere! As a Stylist from somewhere else who caters to many Americans whose everyday life this is, visiting towns like this does give you the insight you need to know how to approach certain shoots, how things work stylistically to everyday folks. I really respond to the rawness and the untouched qualities of the riverside especially some of the buildings whose purpose looks largely industrial, I like the muted colors of the buildings, the aged woods and rusty elements dotted with real life size Tonka trucks from my childhood.    

I like to eat at the Littleton Diner that has been there since 1930, It’s one of the only original train car diners left in the world apparently, It’s like Manhattan’s "Empire Diner" in Chelsea's country sister. It is “Deco meets the Country” with original bar stools, light fittings and wooden booths.

In the last 7 months, I have spent nearly 3 months here so even though I often bring inspirations from the city, here is a taste of something different and quite refreshing me thinks!