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Got a Girl Crush Outtakes: Studio Choo (The Lost Interview!)
Photos by Andrea Cheng, Words by Theresa Ralston

Going to let you guys in on a little secret. Originally, Got a Girl Crush Magazine was going to feature 12 girls. I stopped by Prairie Collective one afternoon to hang out and snap some photos of Jill Rizzo, one of two ladies who make up Studio Choo (the other being Alethea Harampolis). Knowing that my friend Theresa was a big fan of their shop AND a talented writer, I enlisted her to carry out the interview. However, I made the mistake of approaching Studio Choo during their busiest time of the year (wedding season!), and we ended up not being able to include it in time for production deadlines. So, we are extra excited to share this “lost” interview with everyone and round out our series of Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes!

Best Buds

Nestled on a bustling, foggy stretch of street in San Francisco, Studio Choo stands out like a patch of sunshine: warm and welcoming. The flower shop is part of a small shared space called the Prairie Collective, where best friends Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo share their love of dreamy arrangements. Favoring fresh seasonal flowers, like curl-edged ranunculus, papery peonies, blood-bloomed roses, their aesthetic is sweet and unexpected. The shop is scattered with their designs—intriguing mixes wrapped with sepia-toned ribbons, and perfectly imperfect single buds tucked into tiny glass vases.

Got a Girl Crush: How did you two meet?
Alethea Harampolis: Jill hired me at a flower shop in San Francisco called Rose and Radish. I had never worked in a flower shop before, but we immediately became great friends and I learned a ton in my 4 years there.

GAGC: You’re shop owners and floral designers. What are your backgrounds?
AH: I grew up in my mother’s garden in Marin and from a very early age had dreamed of becoming a florist. My grandfather in Australia used to grow flowers for the Melbourne flower market.
Jill Rizzo: I was basically raised in flower shops—my mom, aunt, and uncle all had shops back in Rhode Island. I went to art school in New York City, got an illustration degree, and thought I would definitely NOT be working with flowers when I “grew up”. After college I moved to San Francisco and go figure, got a job at the coolest and most beautiful flower shop I had ever seen (Rose and Radish).

GAGC: What’s the hardest part of working with your best friend? The best?
AH: The hardest part is probably just that it’s a relationship of sorts; always needing nurturing and compromise, love and understanding. The best is that I get to hang out with my best friend all day. We laugh at lots of stuff and since we’ve known each other for so long we get to be silly with lots of personal jokes that only we think are funny. Also, being around beautiful flowers and making our own schedules doesn’t hurt either.
JR: I think both the hardest and best things are that we know each other so well. Best because lots of things can be left unsaid and we just know, hardest because we can’t get away with anything.

GAGC: Your flowers are “a little bit wild”. Describe your personal style.
AH+JR: Our style has a “just picked from the garden” look. We like each arrangement to look like it’s a little patch of garden growing right out of the vase. Twisted wandering vines and that odd stem reaching for the sunlight are usually included.

GAGC: Where do you draw your inspiration?
AH: I find that we draw our inspiration from seeing flowers and plants growing in their natural environments. I love to come across an overgrown garden with tons of flowers in bloom, or that amazing patch of blooming honeysuckle on the side of the road.
JR: We do a fair amount of driving around Northern California so we definitely draw inspiration from all the landscapes around us, but we are also online a ton and love to see what creative people are up to all over the place. We are lucky to share a space with our friend Annabelle (Magpie & Rye) who is always doing something cool.

GAGC: What’s your favorite flower or plant for each season?
AH+JR: For the winter we love the tiniest posies of local sweet smelling violets, the spring brings amazing nosegays of lily of the valley, ranunculus, and anemones, the summer has lovely garden roses and locally grown wildflowers that are always plump and juicy. In the fall we use lots of leaves and berries, and giant dahlias from a secret grower.

GAGC: If you didn’t own Studio Choo, what would you be doing?
AH: I would be probably be working as an estate gardener which is my other favorite profession or at a local homestead/community garden.
JR: I’d be a printmaker and painter and photographer and maker of things and live in the woods with my husband and like twenty dogs.

GAGC: What would you eat on your last day on earth?
AH: A traditional British breakfast followed by the best grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup for lunch and at the end of the day dinner at my mum’s house.
JR: Spaghetti and meatballs with tons of parmesan, cheesy buttery garlic bread, wine, cream puffs and éclairs for dessert.

GAGC: What are 5 things you can’t live without?
AH: My dog, my best friends, really good hand lotion, a quiet peaceful place to come home to, music.
JR: It wouldn’t be as fun to live without pets, crazy future plans, my husband, candy, and cozy sweaters.

GAGC: What are some of your favorite places, restaurants, and shops in San Francisco?
AH: For dinner Chez Spencer, to shop Gravel and Gold, to visit the ocean.
JR: I like to eat at Park Chow and we love The Ramp on sunny days. I wish I could say I did more out and about in SF, but I usually like to spend most of my spare at home. If I feel like being around people walking around the Mission is fun, maybe get a burrito at Taqueria Cancun, peek into Paxton Gate and the shops on 16th Street.

GAGC: Who are your girl crushes?
AH+JR: Sarah Ryhanen, Nicolette Owen, Nile, Cassie, and Lisa at Gravel and Gold, Lena Corwin, and Alice Saunders.

« studiochoo.com »

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs
Photos by Natalie Snoyman

This outtakes post comes from our contributor and Carolyn’s former Finches bandmate, Natalie Snoyman: 

My visit with Carolyn in her Glassell Park studio in Los Angeles was completely relaxed and fun — in other words, totally fitting given my “subject.” She shares the space with a mystery writer who was absent during our little photo session. I really enjoyed seeing Carolyn’s newest work and, of course, the Kate Bush tracks that played throughout the entirety of my visit!

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Lola Camacho Micu
Photos by Erin Crist

This outtakes post comes from Erin Crist, our contributor and the proprietor of LA-based food truck, Deano’s Deli: 

I found Lola prepping for her evening shift in a commissary lot, comparable to a graveyard for food trucks in Los Angeles. These lots are not pretty, do not smell good and are filled with hundreds of people yelling about their days’ activities. Lola and I got into a great conversation about wieners, and then more importantly, her involvement with The Wien. 

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Frankie Rose
Photos by MEG WACHTER

We’ve had a crush on Frankie for awhile now, so of course we were stoked when she agreed to be in our first issue (page 40 if you’re interested)! 

I (Meg) met up with Frankie at her loft she shares with fellow artists in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And it is exactly what you’d hope a loft in Williamsburg to look like—but in the best least contrived kind of way. Tons of plants (which she acredits their health to a roommate), bikes, art, bric-a-brac…

If you haven’t treated your ears to Frankie’s dreamy pop yet, make haste below and get excited for her next album due out early 2012!

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Anne Marsen
Photos by MEG WACHTER

Anne is boundless in her talent and expression. And after seeing her in the seven-minute teaser to the epic (as in 71 minute) music video set to Girl Talk’s second mashup album, All Day—I wouldn’t expect anything less.

I met-up with team Girl Walk//All Day on the Williamsburg Bridge before they were shooting with a troupe of teenage b-boys and b-girls from New Jersey. Clad in harem pants straight from her recent trip to India and equipped with a razor scooter, photographing Anne was a breeze. Our interview was conducted over Skype so she could better articulate her thoughts out-loud rather than via email. She is well-spoken and speaks excitedly. She carries her laptop from room-to-room and treats me with impromptu dancing during our chat. At only 22-years-old you envy the opportunities that life has laid before her and he talents.

Check out the rest of Anne’s interview in the new issue of Got a Girl Crush Magazine!

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Michelle Tarantelli
Photos by MEG WACHTER

Michelle Tarantelli has tattooed me (Meg) several times (top left arm half-sleeve and left for-arm 3D Mom+Dad tat). I have since been tattooed numerous times over—but there is something inherently different about being tattooed as a woman by a woman. Given the amount of physical contact and duration so, the intimacy levels are high. And there’s something completely therapeutic and comforting in friendly girlchat for enduring those hours of torture dedication.

Michelle is awesome and I want everything in her apartment (she is a dedicated collector of vintage Odd Fellows memorabilia). It’s like living in the Smithsonian or the Mütter Musuem. She is also as talented as an artist as she is a tattooist (I highly recommend her!).

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Jenny Slate
Photos by MEG WACHTER

The first time I (hi, it’s Meg) saw Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, I was smitten. But once I learned who did the voice of the sassy one-eyed shell, affection was replaced with infatuation.

I knew Jenny lived in Brooklyn, but also that she was a rising star of her own right despite her short run on Saturday Night Live….so I tweeted her and hoped for the best. But, to my surprise and a lot of finagling, Jenny graciously allowed me to come over and hang out at her place. We drank copious amounts of coffee (and I ate some of the infamous muffins she makes), talked about boyfriends and about how underrated Jem and the Holograms was as a feminist tv show. The immediacy of how intelligent and brilliantly funny Jenny is disarming.

If you live in NYC, absolutely check out her weekly comedy show Big Terrific!! and those of you not on the east coast can be sated by her comedy videos Bestie x Bestie.

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Serena Mitnik-Miller
Photos by Andrea Cheng

One of my (that’s me, Andrea) favorite things to do on the weekends in San Francisco is to head to the Outer Sunset, put my name down on the list at Outerlands Cafe (because there’s always a wait), grab a cup of coffee at Trouble Coffee, and pop into Serena Mitnik-Miller’s shop General Store. So, when Meg & I were coming up with a wishlist of girls to feature in the magazine, Serena was an easy pick. Today’s outtakes are from an afternoon I spent with her and her dog Macie at her shop studio, and delightful seaside home.

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Got a Girl Crush Magazine Outtakes: Kristen Wentrcek
Photos by MEG WACHTER

Throughout the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing a few outtakes from each of our photoshoots with the ten featured ladies. Next up is Kristen Wentrcek.

I (Meg) have been longtime tumblr pals with Kristen that when we finally met-up for the first time for coffee, it only came natural that I asked her on-the-spot to be in our first issue (the whole internet to real life theme). Kristen’s drive to create is without end. She is constantly sourcing and searching for new things to create or recreate or repurpose. If you have not yet checked out her eponymous shop, WINTERCHECK FACTORY, to outfit your body, eyes, neck, and writing—then you are sorely in the miss.

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