Out of a tee shirt and into the Essential Blouse

I'm hanging up the apron for this and there are no inky finger tips on this post. Letterpress and paper aside, I'm so flattered and honored to be a part of this special collaboration. Jessica Comingore is launching the start of her new shop called The Essentials with this lovely blouse made in collaboration with LA fashion designer Jill Yee. I've seen tidbits of the creative process that went into creating this blouse and have even tried on an early prototypes; I can say it's tough creating a beautiful garment. The cut, the flow and feel of the fabric, the finish of the seams and ends have all been refined by Jill and Jessica together to create this essential blouse.

Big thanks for transforming me into a sophisticated and chic woman for an afternoon. xo

Here's a video of their collaboration by John Liwag.

fun stuff, personal, inspirationskristineNovember 17, 2014Presshaus LA, Jessica Comingore, Jill yee, Essential blouse, blouse, Kristine Arellano, John Liwag, Los AngelesComment

The haus in Anthology magazine!

It's been a long time coming....

We're featured in the current Fall issue of Anthology magazine focusing on design! I'm so excited to share this since it feels like a huge exclamation mark to our journey to building our home. This is the long awaited light at the end of the tunnel is here.

I couldn't have wished for a better dream team to make it look so good! Jessica Comingore shot these amazing photographs while Dabito styled our home beyond our dreams. I couldn't believe that's what our place looked like in their eyes. Carren Jao helped tell our story.

The evolution of our home has been a sustained figure in my life as well as my husband, Richard. We began the process as almost strangers (just dating), became engaged during the first phase of constructing the lower level which now where my studio is, married during framing of the main house, adopted our dog Bagel during the finished and now we live in it happily ever after. It's a dream come true now and building our home made us grow strong and fast. We learned so much about each other - the amazing, good, bad and the really ugly.

Bagel living the good life / photo by Jessica Comingore — Bagel living the good life / photo by Jessica Comingore

Along with photos of our home completed, I wanted to share some process photos of our 5-year journey. It was really 4 years which is still a really long time, but the 5 years include the year we took a break to live in Germany. In Munich, Richard worked on the BMW electric cars and I learned the craft of letterpress printing at Fliegenkopf.

The rest is history. For now.

To see more photos and outtakes, hop on over to Jessica Comingore's blog.

Head over to newstands to grab this issue. It's a pretty good one with write ups on Barbara Bestor, Jessica Hische, Silvia Song and more.