All things Divine and Feminine @ The Madonna Inn Hotel
The Divine Feminine is the complementary balance to Masculine energy, a Yin to the Yang. Within a Patriarchal system, the Divine Feminine seeks to include the voices of women in order to bring harmony and balance.
I spent the past few months making this new collection, escaping to a world of all things feminine by exploring its symbolism and energetics. The Divine Feminine Collection is a celebration of feminine energy, and an ode to the magical qualities of the women that inspire me.
To photograph and celebrate the Divine Feminine Collection, I could think of nowhere more playful and kitsch than the pink fantasy-land that is the Madonna Inn hotel in San Luis Obispo, California. This family-run hotel is like a flowery time capsule, served up on a fabulously ornate platter. Imagine Elvis and Dolly Parton had a baby, this would be it!
We booked 2 rooms; The Old Fashioned Honeymoon Suite and The Love Nest. The Old Fashioned Honeymoon has the most beautiful floral painted tiles, sinks and matching clawfoot tub. The bathroom was the whole reason I selected this room, and it is even prettier in person. The living room is separated from the upper bedroom by white hand carved wooden arches that look like antique lace, very Sharon Tate.
The Love Nest suite is such a vibe. The walls are covered with soft pink floral wallpaper, the carpet is purple and the wooden ceilings are painted scarlet red. There’s a spiral staircase in the center of the room leading up to a stained glass looking tower and it has the most darling details like lovebird chandeliers, painted hearts and french furniture. It really is a dream romantic honeymoon suite.
We went to the store and bought ALL the flowers to make mandalas and to decorate the rooms. You can never have too many flowers.
I put together an epic Divine Feminine Spotify playlist, with about 30 hours of music from some of the greatest female vocalists of all time, across all genres. It has so many of my favorites and some not so guilty pleasures and throwbacks! It kept us singing all night.
The aesthetic and styling inspirations were Renaissance meets The Love Witch meets vintage Playboy. A bewitching parade of femininity that was playful, incorporating fire and water rituals and Tarot readings, always Tarot readings.
I love to experiment with textures within color palettes, so for this one the colors were mostly pinks and peaches, and we used lots of liquid satin, vintage slip dresses, boudoir robes, chiffon, velvet and lace, marabou pumps, topped off with pearly eyes, lashes galore, and layers of Divine Feminine jewelry pieces. Playing dress-up never gets old.
