southbound

Last Thursday, I flew down to Louisville for my first Kentucky Derby. I was invited by Bacardi to come watch the races and spend the weekend celebrating at their House Party. I'm so happy that I made the decision to go. I met so many incredible influencers and loved everyone from the Bacardi brand. I'm usually pretty uncomfortable meeting new people, but I'm glad I pushed myself and ventured south alone. It was so rewarding to get to know new people. 

The Derby was crazy, with so many people all decked out in wild hats. Regardless, I enjoyed my time people watching and laughing with the other influencers. One of the highlights was dancing and hanging in the dj booth during Mick's set. Everyone was going crazy and the crowd kept lifting people up in the air. 

Aside from the House Party, the mornings in Kentucky were my favorite. Friday morning, I woke at 7:30 and did a 7 mile run over an incredible old railroad bridge about a mile from my hotel. There is something so peaceful about moving as the sun is rising. Saturday morning, I woke again at 7:30 and walked about half a mile down East Market Street to the most beautiful little coffee shop that warmed my heart. I sat outside in the sun and wrote in my notebook. I felt very close to God in the silence and the morning, I could hear the bird chirping and it brought me so much comfort. Living in New York, my morning walk to get coffee isn't very silent. It's amazing when we can bring ourselves to be comfortable in the silence. 

Here's a little something I wrote that morning,

"I can't explain the calmness I felt as I woke, and walked down the street in search of good coffee this morning. The sun crept in through the window of my hotel room on East Market Street and flooded my bed in golden light. The sheets so soft and myself so deep in dreams, I hardly wanted to wake. 

But curiosity pulled me from the sheets, and I was soon on my way down the street in search of coffee. In New York, I usually put head phones on when I walk. Here, I decided to do away with that habit and listen. I could hear the birds chirping, the wind blowing, but what struck me most was the silence that pervaded the street. The beautiful calm at 8am, something I don't experience often. About half a mile from my hotel was a beautiful little white coffee shop called, "Please & Thank You" filled with amazing house-made chocolate chip cookies and cold brews. I grabbed a pumpkin chocolate chip load and iced coffee." 

It's beautiful when an experience is different, and it sticks with us forever. I am so grateful to the Bacardi team for an incredible weekend of new people, sun, music and good vibes. Hope you guys enjoyed my instagrams and snapchats, I always want you to feel like you're on an adventure with me. 

xx

altered states

      Altered states. I am nothing without the inspiration that drips from your seasons. But with a new space comes and new me, and so it goes. I’ve decided to throw out the person I’ve been for the last two years and start new.

            Shaking all the experiences from my hair, and taking a 5pm bath. I stopped taking showers three weeks ago, doesn’t seem like something the new me would do. You know what I mean?  

            I started taking photographs and wearing white cowboy boots. I also wear a watch now. Although, it doesn’t display the correct time. Setting a watch doesn’t seem like something I would ever take the time to do.

            I’m listening to Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, sitting in the kitchen of my new home. Sipping iced coffee with soy milk, I remember having the CD of this album as a youth. I’m craving champagne and conversation, but always seem to subject myself to the isolation it takes to get things done. I’m no good around other people’s energy, way too sensitive and perceptive.

            I enter a new state and hope to never slide back into that old reality. The one in which I am so terribly aware of my shortcomings. Mind filled with the anxieties of the previous and forthcoming day. No, I’d rather be right here. Present and completely aware that now is all I have.

velvet robe by NLF

red bodysuit by Yandy

photos by Svetlana

superlungs my supergirl

You find this kind of girl in every town, wherever there’s a scene, she’s always hanging around. The best and worst kind of muse. 

She begins her days in the spare bedroom, which she’s converted into her creative den. Golden painting easel in the corner, and a vintage green desk against the wall. Soho escape. 

A place where she can lose her mind. A space in which it’s safe to let go. Singing “Quelqu' un m'a dit" with the windows open. She contemplates writing a book, what she would say, and who she would say it to. Sometimes creating visually felt so limiting, she wished she could put the images from her head into sound. She even took to learning a new language, because in the one in which she was versed, she had run out of words. 

She never got involved with blowing her cool, she was too busy getting high on novels and cheap champange. She’s learned to ride the wave. Every possibility existed in a field around her, cosmic awareness. 

“I think you need a little more magic in your life,” she would say. “A little more sound, a little more heart.” 

Bigger than the sound, baby’s moved downtown. Alternative world. A world she gets to build over and over again. She believed the best thing you can do in life is create yourself. She sensed it was important to have a mind that was, "open to everything and attached to nothing."

She was a mixture of beauty and self-loathing, too cool but also deeply aware of her frailty. But she got her confidence from books. It was Thoreau that made her a rebel, who encouraged her to live free and uncommitted for as long as possible. He taught her that man could elevate his life through conscious endeavor. 

"It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and to make a few objects beautiful, but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts." 

x x

clothing by Yandy

shoes by Jeremy Scott X Melissa Shoes

make-up by Lisa Thai

photos by Jen Senn

please be with me

It's no secret that is my absolute favorite set I've owned in forever. I adore Lenni the Label and their 70s bohemian rock vibe. I want just about everything from their shop. Although my ideal way to wear this two-piece would be without a tee-shirt, but hey that's probably only acceptable in the desert and nyc rooftops after dark. 

It's a rainy Sunday morning here in NYC, I ran 8.5 miles in the park this morning. I'm so in love with this city, everything about it. Now I'm sitting here, sipping iced coffee and listening to Eric Clapton, hence the blog title. I've got a lot of big things coming up, tomorrow I'll be heading to Patrica Field's home to do some styling for my upcoming collaboration with her, and I just finished shooting some new Jeremy Scott shoes. I'm also going to be going to the Kentucky Derby this week. It's my first time ever! If anyone has any advice on that, it would be much appreciated! 

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, and are ready for next week.

All my love, 

Rachel

xx 

NYVES jacket by Lenni the Label

Jimi pants by Lenni the Label

watch by Daniel Wellington

photos by Kara Nixon

footprints on my ceiling

New look entirely from H&M -- bellbottoms, tee-shirt, vest and all. I decided to collaborate with H&M for their stylish spring break separates product launch, but kind of just had to go with this all black, 70's rock n roll look. I've been in a dark bellbottom phase, who knows if it will end anytime soon. 

Hope you guys are inspired as I am to play dress up this spring. Happy Saturday! I'm off to an upstate adventure! 

xo 

look by H&M

photos by Kara Nixon

over the hills and far away

Here's another version of one of my favorite go-to looks. Easy black blazer over white denim. So perfect for spring! I've got like one belt, and this slayer shirt is my absolute favorite. I think I got it in college. 

I hope you're all having a beautiful Monday morning! I'm excited this week for some events, photoshoots, and getting ready to move into my new apartment. So many wonderful things happening <3 

love

x

black blazer + white denim + bag from Just Fab

sunglasses by Zero UV

photos by Bri Elledge

yankee hotel foxtrot

It is in our willingness to contemplate what we want that we get what we desire. You must be willing to contemplate what you want from the universe. 

Buddha said that all suffering arises from attachment. I can try to deliberately detach myself from it, but why would one want to, when the things we're attached to make us feel so alive. It seem as though we must love things from a distance, not possessing them. It is in our need to posses them that suffering arises. 

How then can I just admire the things I love? Sit back and enjoy them for just being the universe. 

Nothing is so polar as love. The seemingly effortles pursuit that requires all effort. 

I guess we're all looking for this replica of the ideal, our own version of the perceived paragon. But in our pursuit of that ideal, I fear we will destroy everything worth having. The self-sabatoge that derives from an assumed state of lack.

If we only knew that we lacked nothing, and everything we need to be happy has already been given to us.

Ahh, what then. 

rose gold hendrix jacket by Liberated Heart

hendrix bellbottoms by Liberated Heart

naves jacket by Lenni the Label

jimi pants by Lenni the Label

photos by Maine Focus

sticks + stones

Here's a casual look I've been going to with a little twist. I usually love the black blazer + black skinny jean look with a band tee for days spent in meetings and the coffee shop, but here I decided to add a little color. 

Since it's spring I decided to give white jeans + a pink blazer combo a try. I'm pretty happy the way the white jeans look paired with a light color blazer, I was a bit worried it would be too much. But paired with a dark hat, bag and boots, I think it still works. 

This bag is one of my favorite, I've been bringing it around everywhere. It's by Sticks + Stones and you can get it here. 

I'm off to a shoot in Soho and then a busy day of meetings, I hope you all have a wonderful day.

xo

pink blazer by just fab

white denim by just fab

stud backpack by sticks + stones

photos by Bri Elledge

barely legal

I never show up on weekdays. Always down to be on my own, the silence of reading words on a page. I have found that everything comes in dichotomies except for silence. The polarity of leaving your side in the morning. 

I don't feel better when I'm fucking around. I'm in perpetual motion, and I fail at aligning myself with any one person. 

Sleeping in your apartment. Salad days. Little slice of heaven under cold white sheets. I am as aimless as I desire to be. Smoking on your fire escape. I always dreamed of meeting someone I could say nothing to. 

Henry Miller said, "Play with your thoughts rather than putting them to some useful occupation. It's just as important to empty the mind as it is to fill it." 

 Shake, shake. Minds in abiding meditation. I like emptying my head around you. Both real and detached. 

I don't expect myself to be wonderful, and I'd never ask that of you. 

heaven in lace thong teddy by Yandy

white feather robe by Yandy

sheer eyelash robe by Yandy

stretch lace sleepwear bra + bottoms by Yandy

black floral lace and fishnet teddy by Yandy

photos by Raymond Croft

houses of the holy

Here's the second look from my Nasty Gal "Wild Wild Fest" campaign. I shot this last week in beautiful Central Park just two short blocks away from my house. Now that the weather is so good here, it's hard not to be outside all the time. I've been running 3x a week in the park, training for the New York City marathon this fall. 

But anyways, this looks is probably one of my favorite I've shot recently. Especially the embroidered tail coat. I can't wait to style it a million more ways, with leather pants, leather shorts, white denim, and vintage band tees. I can't get enough of good blazers and things of the sort lately, (could I finally be moving on from furs?) 

The links to shop my look are below, I hope you all have an awesome Monday. It's so beautiful outside!! 

xoxo

outlaw embroidered tail coat by Nasty Gal

ring me up bodysuit by Nasty Gal

denim hot shorts by Nasty Gal

moto backpack by Sticks n Stones

photos by Lexy Monaco