Honiara, Solomon Islands

From Wellington to Heritage Park Hotel, Honiara

Last week I had the pleasure to leave my office in Wellington, hop onto a plane and venture aboard to my first international project...in Honiara, the Solomon Islands of all places.
I am working on a private project which won't been seen here on the blog, however I am able to share the sights I saw over the few days I visited. I was lucky to be looked after by my clients and drive in an air conditioned car to my locations - Honiara has a tropical rain forest climate and it was 30 degrees each day I was there, a rather dramatic jump from 10 degrees that I left Wellington in!
Before my trip, my knowledge of Honiara was of political unrest and ethnic violence especially from the late 1990's onwards. While I was there,  you can sense some tension remains. Scars and debris from past conflicts and floods are also visible. However, there is promise to the town and I met some great people - expats and locals, who are passionate about the country and who made my stay a pleasurable one.

Lush tropical flowers - a riot of colour by this car park

The days were hazy and the supposed stunning view of the surrounding islands were not visible during my stay

A friendly hitchhiker on the car windscreen

I visited a local hardware store to see what was available - love the old school peg board display

Solomon Islands House of Parliament

Seaside dining - a breeze is always welcomed.

Debris and scars remain from the April 2014 floods - worse flooding in history for Solomon Islands

An amazing hanging shell sculpture

We finished each day with Solomon Islands' finest - perfect for the hot weather

A crazy shell wall light at the Hibiscus bar, King Solomon Hotel

The 'guards' at Heritage Park Hotel

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.

Dior and I

Last night I visited my local movie theatre to see 'Dior and I' and I remembered when I posted about the stunning flower rooms that was created for Raf Simons' first haute couture collection for Christian Dior in 2012. I was amazed by the beautiful set - and you can watch the video which showed how these rooms came together (in two days!) at my original post here.
The movie, 'Dior and I' was released earlier this year and is a privileged behind-the-scenes documentary of the newly appointed artistic director, Raf Simons and the dedicated Dior team who work together to bring about this collection. It is a great insight to the creative process and I was jealous of the wonderful team that Raf had at his fingers to create his visions - how lovely would that be! If you're interested in fashion, flowers, creativity, Paris, team work, stylish people, the design process, clever people, working under pressure - then this is a film worth seeing.



 

You can watch the movie trailer here:

Moments from a Photo Shoot

Thonet chairs on display - the cl

Today I was out of the office and being an interior stylist on a photo shoot. We were located at the Thonet showroom in Wellington - a great space to work with and surrounded by great furniture to admire in between photo takes. Nice.

The stunning Artek 901 Trolley designed by Alvar Aalto. One day...

An awesome photo shoot perk - taking home the gorgeous flowers.

Another perk - finding awesome objects while you source products. This time it was a Cardinal Bird Whistle - you know you want one.

Photographs by Charlotte Minty.