Style Sessions: Citizens Taking on the World
Meghan and Dom from Citizens of the World
Meet the original DWELLER
Show us your Space: home of Arran Russell Vanishing Elephant
The Last Resort
{STYLE SESSIONS WITH...} Citizens of the World
A little over a year ago I was lucky enough to meet the gorgeous duo that is Citizens of the World and have been following their fabulous lifestyle blog ever since. Like me and many bloggers I know, writer and blogger Meghan McTavish and partner Photographer Dominic Loneragan created Citizens of the World as a way of pooling their combined talents and exercising some creativity outside of their hectic 9 to 5 jobs.
"We like to focus on people, their creative spaces, a little of what they like to wear but predominantly focus on the interesting things they do".
I am also a big fan of their gorgeous new range of natural soy wax scented candles, each individually blended with premium essential oils and custom fragrances. I have spent many a late night writing by the light of my DWELLER candle! We are thrilled to have Meghan and Dom join us on the blog for this months Style Sessions and share a little of their story, favourite eat, read, loves and inspiration for other bloggers.
How did the Citizens of the World story begin. We’d talked about starting a blog for over a year but only dived in around April 2012. At first we were caught up in doing street-style (which scored us an award nomination in the Pedestian.tv 2012 Blogster Awards) but quickly figured out that we didn’t want to judge what people were wearing. It’s not our style at all. If you go back through the posts you’ll notice that we weren’t very fixated on the typical street style look anyway (eg: designer brands from head to toe). We were actually a lot more interested in talking to the people we were shooting, which sparked off the idea to focus more on interviews and interiors shoots. When you blog you have to be open to evolving. The beauty is that it’s so personal so readers are more open to watching it evolve with you. The candles (Dweller, Native Gardenia and the most recent Last Resort) came on a few months ago. They are the result of a lot of research and agony over design and scent. The response has been amazing though and they’ve quickly become a huge part of what we do. We event spotted our Native Gardenia on the pages of RUSSH Magazine recently and we didn’t even know it was going to be in there!
Describe your signature style? Down-to-earth and versatile. We both agree designer brands are great but we don’t live and die by them.
Designers that send you weak at the knees? Dom likes Australian brands like Mr Simple from Melbourne, who do amazing printed shirts. Assembly label from Sydney, who have a very clean cut energy. As well as Vanishing Elephant for basics. For me it’s less about designers and more about how it looks. I like my clothes to go the distance and mix and match with everything. I tend to spend a lot on shoes and bags and then sandwich basics in between to make it financially viable but my biggest splurges would be on Alexander Wang, Acne, Celine and fragrances (I love Joy by Joy Patou). Sometimes you’ve got to be creative to make it all work together.
What inspires you to get out of bed in the morning? Our cat. He’ll sit on our chests and stare intensely and then won’t leave us alone until he gets fed.
If you could travel anywhere tomorrow where would it be?
I’d say the beach at Tulum in Mexico, Dom would say The Rockies for skiing.
EATING: The beef broth from Pho Pasteur on George Street in Sydney. It’s so nourishing and you’ll see us there a lot as the weather cools down. READING: Just finished ‘Futurevision: Scenarios for the world in 2040’ by Watson Richard and Freeman Oliver. It draws up 4 possible futures for the world based on the economic and environmental challenges we’ll face. Put simply, it asks if the competition for limited resources will compel us to innovate and grow a bigger social conscious or drive us into some kind of depressing dystopia of ‘The Road’ meets ‘Mad Max’? Not your typical vampire romance but I wouldn’t suggest it if it wasn’t super engrossing. LOVING: The highlighter coloured printed cushions from Agnes Homestore (Available on www.hardtofind.com.au). They instantly brighten up a room. AND Homeland – it’s had us on the edge of our seats since episode 1.
Where to next for Citizens of the World...? More photo shoots and more candles. We love collaborating on shoots together (Dom shooting, me styling) but don’t get as much time as we’d like to do it. We’ll be prioritising those a bit more. We have also just released a new candle the Last Resort blending coconut, lime and vanilla to inspire a miraculous getaway or your personal Plan B.
Meghan's Tips for other bloggers: Don’t let the blogger competition out there daunt you. We firmly believe everybody can and should blog. The ones that end up resonating with people are always those that stay true to who they are and avoid following trends. Just bring the best that you can to the table and the rest will follow. I also got some great advice a few years ago: “You are what you share.” Which is especially true when it comes to the web. It’s the nature of the beast that the websites with the most content about interior design get promoted to the top of the search results. It’s also psychologically true; if you’re only talking to people about interior design people are going to naturally turn to you for your opinions on that topic. Think about what you individually do best and hone in on that.
Thank you to Meghan and Dom for taking part in our {Style Sessions With...} Watch this space because I know these guys are destined for big things to come. All photo credits to Citizens of the World. Oh and if you want to buy some of their gorgeous candles just click here