This week, we continue our Sydney Special with award-winning artist Amanda Shadforth who is the face and talent behind Oracle Fox. She’s one of the fabulous personalities on Fashion Bloggers and here’s what she has to say about quirky blog names, inspirations and all things pretty.
What is it about Oracle Fox that inspires people –
I like to keep a really strong voice about what I like and you really need to be authentic and believe in what you’re doing. When you combine all those big elements, people can really feel that coming through, not just in the writing but in the images – you are trying to express yourself and being honest. I’m a Libran so I love really beautiful images that speak to people.
On filming Fashion Bloggers –
It’s been so interesting. Obviously you all will notice that I’ve never really been one to show my face. And the reason for that is that because I was an artist – I was used to my work speaking for me rather than me speaking about my work. I love being an artist so I think that becoming a part of the show and being able to do that on camera firstly was very daunting and intimidating and scary but once you get used to it it’s actually a really fun experience. I am quite a social person and to for the first years in my career I was painting behind an easel without talking to people and having that conversation. Working on a television show has pushed me and I love to be pushed. I read a quote by Karl Lagerfeld yesterday about how life can be very boring without challenges. And I felt as though it was time to do something really outside of my comfort zone and time to share with people who were always curious as to what really goes on behind Oracle Fox.
On her styling process and inspirations –
Before I had my website I was a visual artist. So I had been a painter and visual artist exhibiting for at least 10 years beforehand. At the beginning my inspiration came from a lot of visual artists that I was inspired by and one of those artists’ name was Hilo Chen. Hilo Chen is a photo realist, he paints these beautiful realistic oil paintings of girls on the beach. They’re quite beautiful because there’s infinite detail. You can see the water droplets upon their skin. His work was about finding beauty in every day and making sure that you emulate all of the infinite details, the details that make up the end result. These days I’m more into photography so the inspiration for not only the things that I like to post but the content I like to create comes from mostly photographers. Currently one of my favourite photographers is Camilla Åkrans and she’s a Scandinavian photographer and she works with Alena Blohm and Paris Roberts. There’s something really magical about her eye and the way she shoots because she seeks beauty in everything she does. Where I live I’m a bit isolated, I’m not even living with everyone else. To some degree that’s a big advantage because where I live nature is a really important part of the Sunshine Coast. It’s a tourist attraction because people come here for the rainforest and so that also plays a really big part in my inspiration.
Amanda’s favourite shopping cities –
In Sydney – I travel to Sydney so often and it’s not fair, I’m always down there for work. So if I get a chance I go shopping one of my favourite places to shop in Sydney is the Glenmore Road precinct that runs just off Oxford Street and it’s a beautiful street – it’s green and leafy and it’s a little bit more suburban. It’s not so much like the city. But that’s where Australia had some of our favourite designers’ flagship stores. So we have stores there like The Willows flagship store, Kym Ellery has her store there. There’s also some amazing boutiques and one of my favourite boutiques is a boutique called Parlour X and Eva Galambos the owner, is a long time key person in the Australian fashion industry. She’s been buying for the store for years and she has such a fine tune eye for not just Australian designers but international and she’s a very honest person and I think that shows in her buying. And that’s one of my favourite stores.
In Paris – Outside of Sydney, obviously I’ve just got back from Paris and one of my favourite stores in Paris is on Rue St. Honoré and that’s Colette. And the reason I love Colette is that it’s not just the clothing which is beautiful, the merchandising in Colette is just so magnificent. Colette has probably one of my favourite selection of fashion books in the world and it’s quite difficult for me to have the opportunity to browse through books. You know there’s something about books, it’s so nice to be able to flip through the pages before you buy them.
What the name Oracle Fox means to her and the importance of a blog name –
When I started my blog, the name to me was just a name that I threw out into the universe. Now it’s something that’s stuck with me and I could never change it even if I tried. Firstly when it comes to naming a blog, it’s really important and to some degree I’m really lucky I have the name Oracle Fox because when it comes to search engine optimisation, there’s no other site in the world that comes anywhere close to having those two words together so it’s very easy to find. It is important to have a URL with your blog title that’s unusual and interesting so that people are intrigued to visit it. But also be aware of the fact that you will have that name possibly for a really long time. The name itself I don’t really often talk about it with people because it was something I just created beforehand and I normally don’t share it. But I feel like I can share secrets with you guys. I think it’s so interesting probably from your point of view but I have a little Pomeranian and she looks like fox. She used to lie on the couch beside me while I was coming up with ideas for my blog and she would look very wise and half asleep with her eyes. I used to think she looked like a little oracle so the name Oracle Fox came from her. But I also knew I wanted to incorporate the word oracle because an oracle in dictionary terms is an entity and it’s about looking into the future and predicting things and having an insight into things no one else does. So oracle is an appropriate word for what I like to do on my site as far as looking into things and looking out for trends and looking for ways to inspire people. So I think it fitted in really well.
Her favourite fashion icons –
Recently I’ve been reading some literature on Coco Chanel and I know it sounds like a cliché to mention such an obvious incredibly talented woman in fashion but she was an appreciator of the arts. She collected art and she educated herself on artists and what inspired them, which in turn helped her when she was designing her collection. She had things like icons and monograms and things where everything has meaning to it. So in a sense, people like Coco Chanel inspire me with style based on that creative side of things. But when it comes to visually, obviously I’m probably a bit of a Jane Birkin girl. I’m a little bit edgier, and I’m a bit of a tomboy. I like my skinny jeans and my leather jacket and I don’t really wear a lot of makeup but if I do I wear a lot of black eyeliner. And that kind of low maintenance kind of girl really appeals to me. For modern times, I find that French women, often when I’m in Paris it doesn’t take much to look around and see that there are so many stylish women there without even trying. It’s integrated into the way that they live about being yourself but without trying too hard so it could just be throwing on a beautiful coat that’s tailored very well and that could be the finishing piece in an outfit. So it catches across a lot of different genres and different age groups.
Her favourite spot in Sydney for inspiration –
I’m a nature person and I love the outdoors, animals and flowers and I love clouds and I love the shape of things that grow in nature. I love the Botanical Gardens, because it’s very peaceful. When you’re in there you could be anywhere in the world because the Botanical Gardens is actually like a cactus garden. There’s topiary, there’s areas where wildflowers grow. That’s a really good place I like to draw and I’ve actually just started, I’ve never really found myself to be drawing as compared to painting. I was always an oil painter. Somewhere like the Botanical Gardens is a great place to settle down on the ground and people are really what I want to be drawing more of but you can learn a lot from drawing things like flowers and leaves because there’s symmetry in that. Even if you’re not a drawer, it’s just a lovely place to lie down and daydream and find inspiration I think.
R: Lucas’ Papaw Ointment (photo credit – net-a-porter.com)
Her must-have beauty item when she travels –
I’m not all that high maintenance so I always carry with me Lucas’ Papaw Ointment because it’s an Australian product you can buy it at any chemist, it’s not expensive and it’s great for lips because it’s quite a natural lip balm. It’s also good for cuts and bruises; the balm makes a great healing ointment for that. I would always take with me my Chanel eyeliner. I always have to have eyeliner no matter what I’m doing. Even when I go surfing, I find that I’ve still got eyeliner on from the night before or the day before. My mother always wore eyeliner and I think we learn certain things from our mothers and that was one her beauty tips to me that you can never wear too much black eyeliner. I have quite small eyes so I feel as though black eyeliner is an essential thing for myself when you’re feeling tired, it’s the best pick me up you can carry around.
On her choice of equipment –
I have two cameras. I have a Canon 5D mark iii. And I have a wide angled lens and then I also shoot with a 50mm and 80mm lens. I rotate those round whenever I need them depending on the occasion. I also have a big 400 lens that I use very rarely. Nearly all of my Instagram pictures, probably 70% of them I shoot on my iPhone and I use the app AfterLight. It’s all about the editing.
*Be sure to also check out our interview with Margaret Zhang and Kate Waterhouse!
Catch Fashion Bloggers on Wednesdays, 10pm (Malaysia) and 9pm (Singapore) on E! (Astro Channel 712) with repeats on Thursdays, 8pm (MAL)
