This month we had the joy of collaborating with CHAPLAINE; a collaborative, creative space from husband and wife duo Joel and Megan. Known for their beautifully styled and recorded mini sessions and musings shared on Instagram. It was a joy to see our hand embroidered bag strap featured in their latest share.
We are continually inspired by their music, styling and creative captures, so it was a real privilege to catch up with Megan to chat all about creativity, inspiration and how it all began.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Megan! Tell us more about CHAPLAINE?
So my name is Megan and really CHAPLAINE is both myself and my husband Joel. We use it as a space to create together and find other friends who are looking to share vision and create with us for timely projects. We've particularly enjoyed working with Mary Imhogemie (@mantle_mantle) and Chinyere Anosike (@chinyerano) on shoots and making music with @jackwintermeyer
We love following you on Instagram and hearing your beautifully recorded mini sessions. What made you fall in love with music/song writing?
I think for both of us we have always had a creative streak - for myself what made me love it was my Grandad Jack who would always be singing and got me into Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra but the decision to get into songwriting instead of going to get a physics/engineering/astrophysics type degree came with a little pressure to make it work to maybe prove to myself that it was worth the risk which sadly had an affect on what made me love it in the first place.. I'd like to think I'm back in that healthy space of enjoying it the way my Grandad taught me. Joel comes from a different background with art and music and with a more of a poetic side of things so we complement each other in the sessions nicely.
Where does your creative inspiration come from?
Inspiration can come from all sorts - I think recently revisiting our guilty love for country has been interesting to explore.. Like proper country story telling and quite folky. But really it comes down to beauty and earnest story telling that we love and always come away with a little burst of energy to put into our own world and practice. Even down to what I wear; I think that's why I never really gel well when I'm buying direct from stores. It seems like 90% of the time I'm having to go back and I end up finding something perfect in a charity shop instead. It's like adding another dimension to what you wear instead of feeling flat. I know for Joel when he was making paintings he'd always repurpose found materials because of their depth in history known or unknown.
Finally, what's your favourite JOYN piece?
Fave JOYN - I like the Halfmoon Camel Backpack!
Watch CHAPLAINE's session featuring our bag strap here.
Follow CHAPLAINE here: @soundofchapaine
Creative direction: @joelmichaelnicholas
CHAPLAINE images shared in this post by: @chineyereano
Megan's increbible dress as worn in the CHAPLAINE images: @mantle_mantle