Fleur: Behind the Scenes

When: July 2022

Photographer: Armelle Habib, assisted by Sara Wilkosz and Maki Levine

Stylist (Play): Heather Nette King, assisted by David Retallack

Model: Hannah De Carolis (Giant Management)

Hair + Makeup: Melonie Santos

With special thanks to: the entire Sage x Clare team

Where: Poets Lodge, Daylesford, VIC.

Prop partners: House Of Orange, Nord Modern, The Cullin Design, Ubabub, Earth Darlings,The Family Love Tree and Vintage Posters Only.

As our collections continue to grow bigger… so do our photoshoots. And boy-oh-boyyy Fleur was a biggie! On an icy cold Sunday evening in July we rolled into our Daylesford location with a whole lotta props, people and pretty things.

We were so very excited to spend the next nine days bringing Fleur to life at Poet’s Lodge. It was the most perfect setting for Fleur, amongst the trees, with a blooming garden and oozing with nostalgia + old school charm. There are three locations at Poet’s Lodge - The Garden Loft, The Main House and Old Jack’s Cottage, we were lucky enough to have the entire property to ourselves. You can book any of these three locations here.

Our last five photoshoots (including Fête) have taken place in this charming town… anyone need a Daylesford tour guide? Yup we love it there. Months of planning goes into these shoots and with Covid still looming in the air, the nerves were pretty high. I was just over half way in my pregnancy with Poppy and quite frankly, was feeling oh so tired for most of the shoot. Thank GOODNESS for Cliffy’s brownies getting me through the 3pm slump most days.

Pictured here - The Main House, one of the oldest houses in Daylesford - originally built as a miners cottage in 1852. How special is that?

Our Marketing Manager Deb havin' a snooze amongst the cushions. Puffer jackets were worn at ALL times. It was freeeeezing. Shop the Play collection here.

My favourite room, the lounge room in The Main House. An entire wall full of books. My kinda heaven.

A Look back on: the most memorable moments

Shooting our new cotton bedding range

After getting requests on the daily for us to stock cotton bedding, we finally pulled through with the goods! We shot the Play cotton sleep range in The Garden Loft and this was such a proud moment for us. The patterns are eminently unique and seeing them styled on real life beds was so inspiring.

Featured: Mere + Romsey Cotton Bedding.Poster: Vintage Posters Only.

sage and clare Shop all Play cotton bedding here.

Thanks for the makeup + hair Mel... you're a wizard.

Go Erin, GO! Featured: Plymptom and Sandy cotton bedding, Seaford Pillowcase - vanilla. Shop here.

Featured: Play cotton pillowcases - shop here.

Featured: Uxbridge, Mere and Plymptom cotton bedding, Seaford Pillowcase - Cloud. Shop here.

The temptation to steal the props is real. Shop here.

Me contemplating staying in this robe for the remainder of the shoot.

Colour for daysss. Deb getting roped into some Insta stories by Bonnie (there's no escaping our Content Creator). Shop Play here.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and butterflies (in fact there was pretty much zilch sunshine). Day two we had a (major) hiccup *cue dramatic music*. Our wonderful stylist, Heather Nette King fell sick and had to head home to Melbourne. Thankfully our team of legends stepped in and saved the day! Special mention to Emma (our Textile Designer) and Erin (our General Manager) who swiftly put their styling hats on day two and carried out styling the rest of the Play shoot. And so for the next 7 days? The styling was up to us. Incredibly proud of our #dreamteam for pulling this off.

sage and clare A pretty mess... piles of rainbow coloured product everywhere. Shop cushions here.

Our glorious new resin range.

The (not so) effortless crumpled linen

Being the carefree goddess that Fleur is? She wouldn’t dream of ironing her bed linen! Hell no!

…………..So then it was decided.

For this shoot, we wanted to achieve the look of freshly-washed-crumpled-linen sheets. And the only way to actually achieve that folks? Was to do it. Ha ha ha…HALP! 13 linen patterns = a lot of washing. Our Wholesale Account Manager Nadia AKA: #TheWonderWoman (who’s the only person in the world I know that actually enjoys washing) put her hand up for this job. Nadia spent hourssss at the Daylesford laundromat perfecting the crumpled linen look. And perfect it she did. Once it had all dried, she carefully sprawled the sheets around the house so it wouldn’t lose its beauty. Nadia diligently guarded the linen so not a mere crinkle would be lost. A round of applause of this legend! Apologies to anyone that wanted to use the Daylesford laundromat that day. It was a bed linen emergency.

The precious post-washed crumpled linen... ain't it beautiful? Shop the sleep range here.

Our first model on a lifestyle shoot!

I couldn’t not mention the wonderful Hannah who played the role of sweet Fleur on this shoot. Being over the half way mark of my pregnancy… I was thanking my lucky stars for this gem stepping in. Geeee it was nice to sit back and observe instead of be in front of the camera for once. Y'know those people that are just calming to be around? That was Hannah. As soon as we met Hannah, it felt like we’d known her for years.

The fabulous Hannah and the makeup master Mel on the tools again!

Fleur, OOPS, I mean Hannah, soaking up some rare winter sun on the front porch. Featured: Ripley Long Sleeve Mini Dress.

Breakfast of champions! Shop the full dine range here.

Emma just killing the styling duties at her very first Sage x Clare shoot! Shop cushions here.

One of my fave scenes! Shop the bathe range here.

Food, food, food

Ok when I say the food on this shoot was *magnificent*. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING! We ate like kings. Our customer service guru Elliane (a former Chef) pulled some strings for us and got her friend to cater our lunches for the week. I didn’t know that kind of flavour and freshness was possible?! Curries, soups, lasagne, pasta, salads, breads and more. Mmmmm take me back.

And we were oh-so lucky to have Elliane on dinner catering. She also supplied fresh batches of homemade slices for dessert/snacks. You have not lived until you’ve tried her famous caramel slice. Bravo bravo Elliane… what did we ever do without you?

Explore our dine range here.

A visit from the fam-bam

Now it wouldn’t be a Sage x Clare shoot without a visit from the fam would it? Chris, Macca, Jem, Nelly, baby Sully, Heidi and Jude ventured down for a night to shoot the kids + baby range. I have to say, they’re really getting good at this whole modelling thing. In fact I think I could even go as far as saying they enjoyed it? There were collective “awwwwws” echoing throughout the room the entire day. Especially when little Sully made his debut!

Matching hair, matching tracksuits, the ca-utest Mother/Daughter moment right here... this photo is going straight to the pool room. Shop these sweats here. Bedhead: The Cullin Design.

Sully's first Sage x Clare photoshoot! My adorable nephew.

Heidi coming down from her sugar high. Bribery is always needed on these shoots (totally worth it though).

"Move over Armelle", Jude whispered to himself. Wearing the Mini Beccles Sweater.

The Daylesford Lights Show

Very grateful for Erin who organised tickets for this fabulous light show! After a long day of shooting we headed down to the lake and stood in awe as we watched the night sky flicker with colourful lights. It felt like a scene out of Stranger Things.

Being in the presence of the only and only, Armelle Habib

We’ve been shooting with Armelle for yearssss now and watching her in action *never* gets old. There’s so much detail that goes into every single shot and we are always in such admiration of how efficiently Armelle and her team work. If you sat a million photographs in front of me from various photographers around the world - I’d pick Armelle’s work in an instant every.time. There’s just something different and dreamy and magical about it. We’re beyond grateful to work alongside one of Australia’s most talented creatives for these photoshoots. Thank you for capturing Fleur so beautifully Armelle!

Meeting Matilda

On the final day of the shoot we got to meet Erin’s ADORABLE labrador retriever and naturally we begged Erin to feature her in the shoot. We were also lucky enough to meet Erin's Mum Wendy on this shoot who was visiting from America. Wendy, if you're reading this, WE LOVE YOU! Please come back to Aus soon. Watching Matilda jump through the colourful linen for that last scene was the perfect way to end a massive 9 days!

Saying goodbye to everyone on the last day of a shoot is always so sad because you become so attached to everyone, living in each others pockets for what feels like forever and then having to part ways. I drove home on a high, feeling incredibly grateful for my amazing team. I was excited to show Fleur to the world, she was everything I hoped she'd be... and then some more.

Bathroom of my dreams. Shop the bathe range here.

I wish you could be a fly on the wall at one of our shoots. Behind the camera, is a house full of overflowing Sage x Clare product - colour + joyful pattern everywhere, props galore and lotsa camera equipment. Basically, it’s chaos. But a very beautiful chaos if you ask me. There’s nothing quite like watching a collection come to life after spending months and months designing it. Our goal is always: to create an entirely new world with every collection and to spark JOY! Fleur’s world was nothing short of magical.

Shop Fleur here.

With a whole lotta love. Xxx

Currency