Meet Emily Theobald

“Born and raised in a town on Long Island called Ronkonkoma, Emily moved to Brooklyn 4 years ago after having studying at FIT. She’s a jack of all trades and works a menagerie of jobs, but mostly she is a stylist/model/photographer, sometimes doing all three at once. She likes to work with vintage clothing whenever possible, and tries to highlight independent designers on styling jobs. She also shoots 35mm film for her own personal art mostly.”

♫ LISTEN TO Emily'S PLAYLIST

ON HER MORNING ROUTINE

I wake up with the sun every morning wether I like it or not! I always make my bed as soon as I am out of it. A habit I got into after I moved to Brooklyn. If the rest of my room is a mess, my bed being made makes it look a whole lot better! I’ll make myself some breakfast, answer some emails, then get on my bike and head to work.

ON HER AESTHETIC

My aesthetic is always based in vintage. I tend to jump around a bit and get inspired by different things and can look very different from one week to the next. But I definitely always fall back into a 70’s vibe. I really appreciate someone with a real defined minimalist style, but that is not me at all.

ON GETTING INTO FASHION

I got into styling while in my last semester studying fashion design at FIT. I was getting the feeling I didn’t totally want to design anymore, but wanted to work with clothing in some way. At the time I read a lot of fashion magazines and I realized that styling was a job and started to move in that direction. I started a personal style blog after that where I found this really awesome community of this sort of DIY underground fashion world. Everyone was super supportive an creative and different in all these ways. Today it is not so underground, many of these women have made careers for themselves from it, but it meant I didn’t have to buy into that fashion hierarchy of consumerism in order to have a job in it.

“I am a collector and I don’t think I’ll ever stop changing and morphing as time goes on.”

— on collecting

ON PHOTOGRAPHY

I’ve always loved film photography. I am a very nostalgic person, and I mostly like to capture candid moments that will bring me back to that moment in time and inspire a feeling inside. I also shoot a lot of self portraits, I like to have these little visual physical memories of myself through time. It’s kind of like keeping a journal.

I only shoot film because I love the quality so much more, and the limits that it sets on you to sort of hone your skill more and be more selective. And you never quite know what you are going to get. It strikes me as magical. My favorite cameras to shoot with are my Minolta SR 505, Canon Sureshot, and an Olympus Epic Stylus.

ON HER STYLE

I am not entirely sure how I gained such a passion for clothing, but I think some of it came from the fact that I grew up shopping at thrift stores. My mom would take me to these little church thrift shops run by kind old ladies. And I would go off into the racks, wide eyed and excited. And then that great feeling of finding that one thing that was exactly your size and your style, and there was not another one in sight. It was the only one and it was yours, and it was only $1!

ON HER FAVORITE BOOK

The Madonna SEX book is a real treasure of mine. I used to work at Beacon’s Closet and it came into the store in someone's buy. We don’t buy things like this for the store, but I bought it in for myself because I had always wanted it! I love how raw and in your face about sexuality it is. It plays up a lot of fetishes and sort of removes the taboo of sexuality. At least that’s what I feel Madonna was trying to do. It’s so silly to be afraid of your body and your own sexuality, we all have desires and we should not be afraid to confront that. And also Madonna looks hot as hell in these pages!

ON SELF-DISCOVERY

I grew up with folks who are artists, so it was always very encouraged to create, it was like second nature really. However, I took a really long break from creating anything with my hands like how I do now. I would say I stopped truly drawing for nearly 10 years! And then this past winter my friend took me to a life drawing class and I became so inspired. I had this feeling I would have lost all my talent over that time, so I went in with no expectations and it was quite freeing. I started drawing in a way and using color pastels in a way I never had before. I never really considered myself an artist before even though it was always around me, but after this new experience I feel like I have found me path.

ON HER beauty routine

My beauty routine is very simple. I virtually stopped wearing makeup about three years ago and it’s nice to know I can just get up and go. But if I do put any on, I’ll maybe put on a little BB cream and fill in my brows. I think a strong brow looks so great and just having that alone feels like enough to me. A little Benetint on the cheeks for some color, and lip gloss. And if the outfit calls for it, I’ll throw on a shade of lipstick. Usually something coral, or deep red. For the rest of my body, I love putting on this body oil straight out of the shower. It's the best feeling and smells so good! Malaya Woods body oil is my favorite! And my fragrance of choice is Santal 33 by Le Labo, it’s the most intoxicating scent!

“The Mr. Twin Sister album is very special to me. That group has been friends of mine for a long time. We all come from Long Island, I did not grow up with them, but met the whole group about 6 year ago shortly after discovering their music. I feel like there are some secret LI stuff on this record, and even previous ones, that you would only know the reference if you were from there. For this album in particular, I got to do some backup vocals on a few tracks! Just some dreamy oooh and aahhhs, stuff like that. But it’s really nice to be a part of it.”

— on her favorite record