On a crisp and slightly windy afternoon in Stoke Newington, I had the pleasure of collaborating with my good friend Jannine Newman on a short series of photos shooting the fabulous Pennie Fairbairn. With a capsule from the collection in hand, we went from my sitting room to door stoops, windy walks through the park and on to local cafe 'The Acoustic'. Jannine, photographer, founder of Under the Cloth and orchestrator of the Assembly Market, introduces us to Pennie...
"Pennie Fairbairn is a remarkable woman with a fabulous career behind her, hitting her sixties with incredible style and glamour.
A Stoke Newington local with a lifelong passion for style and creative dressing, she often gets stopped in the street and asked to model, which is exactly how I met her. I followed her out of a charity shop on Stoke Newington Church Street and asked if she'd do some photos with me."
"She started off in the 70’s buying and selling vintage at Camden market, going on to develop careers with people in nursing, the performing arts, lecturing and psychology. She's a woman of many talents but her love of fashion is still evident, and now in her mid 60’s her passion for interesting and creative style is finely tuned, utterly contemporary and individual. As an older woman she's now being asked to model for some interesting Japanese brands, amongst others. I love the fact that young brands are using older models because fashion should have no age limits."
"Justine and I discussed working together with Pennie and Justine's clothes at the last Assembly Market, and I'm so glad we followed it up because it was a really lovely afternoon and collaboration.
It was joyous to see Pennie in Justine Tabak's beautiful clothes and it was a surprise to Pennie who doesn't wear floral or long dresses, to see that she looked absolutely amazing; in the Tartan trousers and jumpers too. In fact, when we were shooting in Newington Green, people were stopping in the street to comment on how incredible she looked in 'that' red Primrose Hill dress. She made it look incredibly wearable, cool yet utterly elegant."
A massive thank you to both Jannine and Pennie for taking the time to collaborate here, it was a pleasure and I hope you enjoyed the afternoon as much as I did.
All pieces Pennie wears can be bought online, with the unfortunate exception of the silk Primrose Hill dress in the longer length. However, we do have more available in the shorter length, sitting just below the knee (see below), perfect for dancing! We also have a select few in alternative colours in the longer length which we couldn't put on the website, so please do get in touch if interested.
If you'd like to see more of Jannine's beautiful photography visit her blog at https://janninenewman.com/ where she also shares her collection of 'preloved to reloved' fashion and homeware ...
Justine x
